Week 6

The week began with a whole lesson on discussing the questions that students had begun discussing in groups in the last lesson. It was clear that many students hadn’t done any further work on them and that whatever work they had done was superficial. Because this was a building task leading towards their essay, I know that the quality of the work they did on these questions will be reflected in the quality of their essays. The dynamics in each of the classes was strikingly different when discussing this assignment. For one class eliciting responses was like pulling teeth while for another, ideas were freely volunteered and students even elaborated on each others responses and challenged my perceptions.

The homework assigned after the first lesson was to make a list of characteristics/features/devices that can be employed by writers to make their argument more convincing. Students were expected to do this by trying to recall what they had learned in writing lessons in the past and then by consulting their course handbook. I myself did the task but confined my list to those I could find in the course handbook. I came up with a list of over 50 items which took me over an hour to compile. When I glanced at students work at the next lesson, I found considerably shorter lists and when I questioned how long it had taken I found that students were obviously a lot more efficient than me.

In the last lesson of the week I stressed that students should leave the classroom feeling confident that they know exactly what they are going to do in the writing of their essay. If there is anything they are unsure about they should book a tutorial. However, the week is now ended and no one has booked a tutorial. Am I to assume that everyone clearly understands what is expected of them and that I will be receiving high quality essays next week?

The beginning of the week was rather gratifying as although the deadline for podcasts was 5pm on Friday, the assignment began trickling in as early as Monday. This was good for me as I was able to use these podcasts to sort out some technical difficulties with hosting them on my website. At the end of the week when the deadline arrived and I tried transferring students files to my website, I found that I quickly ran out of disc space. I immediately contacted our CIT department but of course they had already left for the long weekend. And so we will have to wait a few more days to see/hear what each other has produced. Of the 44 students registed in my classes – only 32 of them submitted podcasts. Next week the first essay is due. Collectively these two assignments account for 35% of the overall grade. If these same 12 students neglect to submit an essay next week then judging by previous experience it is likely that these 12 students have already given up on the course.

This week I also got the opportunity to introduce students to “turnitin.com”. Some had heard of it before and were quite concerned. One particular student who had had to use it in high school commented that it made her feel that students were being judged guilty until proven innocent. There is certainly an element of truth in this but I am sure that students know as much about what goes on with regard to plagiarism as I do. Those students who value their education and wouldn’t ever consider plagiarizing know that others do it and that every time a student gets away with it, they are devaluing the work of those students who work really hard on their own assignments and possibly get lower grades than their classmates who are cheating.

The whole exercise of students registering with turnitin.com gives to me a clear indication of how well students are doing on the course. Those students who follow instructions and are on top of their work registered immediately without any difficulty. Many still haven’t registered. Some students have already fallen behind in their work although no grades have officially been allocated yet. There are a core group of students who come to class every day, bring their books, do their homework, fill in their blogs every week. These students will be sure to do well on the course. There are others who have missed the maximum (or more) number of classes before penalties will apply, the same ones have been neglecting to do their blogs and other homework. I fear that when the assignments are due next week ( the podcast and the first draft of the first essay) many will not submit them. So, within the next couple of weeks, students will submit assignments worth 35% of their overall grade. What will students who neglect to submit these assignments do then? Time will tell.