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Re: [Phys-l] Cramster et al.



I have lived in the world caricatured by Walden University in the cartoon "Doonesbury". It is the world of the small college that can't afford to deny diplomas to any of its students, or, at least, its legacy students. It does not include the world of most state universities (although Purdue, when I taught there in the sixties, was borderline).
Illinois has a number of such institutions, catering to those who can't make it into the State U. for academic or other reasons.
Mebbe it is our reponsibility to be setting standards.
Regards,
Jack

"Trust me. I have a lot of experience at this."
General Custer's unremembered message to his men,
just before leading them into the Little Big Horn Valley




On Tue, 11 May 2010, Rauber, Joel wrote:

A few comments on several of the recent posts, which are sadly all too familiar.


Mike E. wrote in part:

Students literally laugh in my class (and roll their eyes, etc.) when I
tell
them they need to spend two hours out of class for every hour in class.
That means my 5-hour class (which includes lab) will require 10 hours
of
out-of-class work if they expect to pass it. I know why they laugh.


And probably the two hour rule of thumb is inadequate for many courses. I remember spending more like 3 hours and sometimes more for every hour of chemistry or physics lecture or math lecture. A bit less for my humanities classes, particularly if I don't count the literal time of reading the books/novels in those courses. College was a lot of work, but I expected to have to do that work to earn A's.

If I was willing to settle for C's, it wouldn't have required that much work.

Bob L. wrote in part:

"My lowest performing student on exams had a remarkably short log-on time for Mastering Physics - about
a half hour for a 90 minute assignment - yet his homework scores were average or above. He let me in on
how he managed it when he withdrew from the course. He would sit with an advanced student and follow all
the solutions that the better student submitted. Then he would log on and follow the correct methods for
solution with the new randomized numbers. Basically he copied the better student's work but redid the arithmetic"

Which is why I don't see the randomized numbers of the computerized homework systems has helping the problem that much. Better than nothing, but not much.

Jack U. wrote in part:

I don't understand wy ther is a question. Except, of course, the economic one: a school that is a diploma-mill cannot set its own standards.

Apparently Jack U. lives in a different world than I do. Are most state schools diploma mills? Maybe, there are political realities that exist which are powerful drivers to the contrary of setting high standards.

As an aside, where does everyone think all of this assessment, and defining outcomes for courses is coming from if not from a failure for grades to reflect a reasonable understanding of material?

Joel R.
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