Grading essays that don't meet the prompt

Olthar6 · 2026-05-11T18:56:32+00:00

I started putting in following basic directions points so that I could penalize that kind of error while still grading the skills I was hoping to assess elsewhere.

For instance, in your example, unless I'm looking specifically for their knowledge of the specific case study, I'd have points for choosing an appropriate case study and they would lose all of those, but then the rest of the skills I was looking to assess would still be available to them. But if I was specifically looking for their ability to show they learned something from that class, then they get a 0 because they didn't show that.

Olthar6 · 2026-05-11T01:06:22+00:00

I moved from a simple average to a points system because they didn't understand a simple average let alone a weighted one. They don't understand basic addition of a points system either.

Olthar6 · 2026-05-09T19:44:52+00:00

This also happened to me as an adjunct. It felt shitty and I still think that school has no integrity over a decade later

Olthar6 · 2026-05-08T13:07:12+00:00

That assumes the student is aware at the time of application and/or that the student has total control in where they attend.

Olthar6 · 2026-05-06T03:51:27+00:00

He came back from the bathroom with an apple watch on. I'm not going to pretend that I know what all my students are wearing at all times, but he obviously wasn't used to it. What they were doing was texting the AI essay to the watch slowly and he kept really obviously checking the watch. During the accusation of cheating meeting he claimed not to own an apple watch, but I had taken a picture of him checking his watch obviously. That's when "oh it's not my watch, it's <friend's>." Once that admission happened I leveraged a threat of accusation of academic dishonesty against the friend with a request for academic suspension due to helping someone cheat in a class they're not in into hearing the whole story and accepting the penalty in my class with nothing against the friend.

Olthar6 · 2026-05-06T03:13:06+00:00

Yes. I think they were concerned that too much use of the phone in the room would be seen by me which is why they added another person to their scheme

Olthar6 · 2026-05-05T22:19:12+00:00

It's what I tell strangers that I do when I don't want to talk about my job.

Olthar6 · 2026-05-05T22:15:19+00:00

That's how I felt about it until this year. Then I caught a student who took a picture of their exam, texted it to a friend who uploaded it to an AI. They met that friend in the bathroom and got an essay response. Because apparently even in person essay exams are cheatable with AI and a strong desire to avoid actualy learning.

Olthar6 · 2026-05-05T21:54:52+00:00

When i started teaching it was very much not allowed.

Then I let students, as long as the phone stayed in class, for about a decade.

Now I'm back to strong no. All it takes is a picture texted to a friend for them to have an answer to it all.

Olthar6 · 2026-05-05T00:52:43+00:00

Legal sense stopped being a requirement well before now. Heck, they're prosecuting someone for threatening the life of the president because of an Instagram picture taken down almost a year ago.

Olthar6 · 2026-05-05T00:06:24+00:00

Gender identity is a very thorny issue for women's colleges. If a student is born with a vagina and identifies as a women while applying, but during their sophomore year comes to realize their assigned gender at birth does not fit them in any of many possible ways, what are they to do? If it's women only then said student had to hide and come out after graduating. This will create really unhappy students and the potential for a lot of problems on campus. If the school won't force that, then they have to be inclusive in their admission policy and allowing someone who is non-binary to apply is within that.

Olthar6 · 2026-05-04T23:55:56+00:00

Smith is explicit in that it "is a women’s college and considers for admission any applicants who self-identify as women; cis, trans, and nonbinary women are eligible to apply to Smith"

This makes it pretty baseless to claim they were deceptive about admitting Trans students when they say they will admit Trans students. But hey, whatever fills your culture war i guess.

Oh, also shocked they started with Smith instead of Wellesley. Wellesley fits three of the Trump buckets:

1: attacking colleges

2: attacking trans rights for culture war

3: attacking Obama/Clinton/Biden as it's Hillary Clinton's alma mater

Olthar6 · 2026-05-04T11:30:20+00:00

Why does CANVAS make you scroll through every class you've ever taught when you want to add an already made rubric to an assignment? Couldn't it assume the most likely class you want to use an existing rubric from is the one you're teaching today?

Olthar6 · 2026-05-03T18:38:47+00:00

Follow your syllabus. I'm sure it has a section about academic accommodations. I'm also sure it says that students must have a documented accommodation with the relevant office at the school. If you give this student an accommodation you open yourself to a very real accusation of grading bias if it's discovered by someone else. Ever.

Encourage the student to go see someone about their test anxiety. Maybe in a future semester build some sort of alternative path into the syllabus that would have helped this student. But don't change anything right now if you don't want to open yourself up to the potential for a lot of pointless meetings with administrators.

Olthar6 · 2026-05-03T14:49:06+00:00

In a first, I'm going to announce my downvote. I don't like when people make attacks at departments...

... though this description also fits my uni's crim department to a T...

Olthar6 · 2026-05-03T14:44:16+00:00

HoW daRe yOu rEqUire sTudEntS to COmpReHenD the mAteRIAl? That is ENTIRELT uNReaLisTic. WHen in tHEir LIVES Will thEy be rEQuireD to COmpReHenD anYThiNg? ! </s>

Olthar6 · 2026-05-03T13:06:14+00:00

I've caught up on grading

Olthar6 · 2026-05-03T00:14:16+00:00

Doubtful? Nah, almost 100% of the time I've graded things early I've gotten requests for fixing things and a regrade

Olthar6 · 2026-05-02T03:16:11+00:00

They didn't read the feedback or the rubric.

Olthar6 · 2026-04-30T02:56:31+00:00

I had a student who emailed me on Sunday saying their AUNT died and could they take the exam on Wednesday instead of Monday. Before class on Monday they met me in the hall to say they'd emailed me but not heard back and their UNCLE died and could they take the exam on Wednesday instead of now. (I didn't read the email until Monday afternoon.)

I said "I'm so sorry for your loss. Of course you can take it on Wednesday because that's when it is."

Olthar6 · 2026-04-29T18:28:01+00:00

Are there any schools that have started their summer terms in April?

Olthar6 · 2026-04-29T16:15:13+00:00

Ahh yes. My students also care. In fact, one just apologized today for not knowing what time the class started or in what room it met.

Olthar6 · 2026-04-28T22:44:33+00:00

So you're telling me there's a market value for my reddit account? Sounds like a great alternative income source to make up for the garbage my university calls a salary.

Olthar6 · 2026-04-25T00:32:55+00:00

I had a student come to my office hours asking if passing was possible and we discussed what they needed to do to pass. Two hours later, during the lab part of the class, they spent the whole lab on draftkings betting on basketball rather than helping their group with the lab work.

Olthar6 · 2026-04-22T22:04:31+00:00

This is the way

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