Decisions, decisions
I’m doing significant course development work in the fall on an entirely distance-learning course, and for this I’ve been offered a rather nice stipend that comes from a federal grant. That’s very nice, but I don’t really want that stipend. (I’m also not sure that I can take it, since I’m teaching an overload course […]
First paper on net-flow rates
My first paper on the net-flow rates, Indirect Estimation of Student Net Flows and Dropout Rates: Concepts and Examples, is now available (PDF version). I need to work on a few things—okay, more than a few things—but here’s the gist.
Interesting plagiarism discussion
The Syracuse University grad-student blog, Orange Philosophy, has an interesting discussion of reading student essays and catching plagiarism. I’m not sure I agree with the skeptical approach here—I tend to be a trusting reader unless something jabs me in the stomach, so to speak—but it’s a provocative exercise to read the catching-plagiarism-through-key-disparities approach.
Foolish and sensible consistencies in grading
The practical problem with reading more than 10 or 15 student exams or papers is that one has to balance the need for consistency with the need for sanity. Even with a good bit of experience and a grading scheme (or rubric, or what-have-you—a set of guidelines for grading), there is always the good chance that one’s standards will change from the beginning of a batch to the end. As a colleague tells me, sometimes the paper that you cracked down on for minor factual problems looks a lot better by the bottom of the pile. Conscientious teachers are aware of that and will reread some papers to make sure that the grading standards haven’t changed.
But the deeper grading problem is a simpler physical one: reading student work carefully is exhausting.
Functional data analysis
By Sherman Dorn on June 6, 2004
Every once in a while, I choose some form of “brain candy” to read for work—something that’s out of my field and that’s just fun in some sense, because there’s no pressure other than the challenge of reading something new. Because of something an editor suggested to me, I decided to see what functional data […]
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