I turned in my grades. As always, the outcomes correlate rather randomly with class participation (even though I give some credit for it), or anything else I can think of. I haven't yet run the numbers to see if there's a correlation with what row people sat in, or how they did on an ungraded “following directions exam” I gave as an experiment.
I think I'm an easy grader. Even so, the grades came out very very bunched — so I curved them to create some more at the top. The bottom, by and large, kindly selected itself.
Now the essential next steps: 1) prepare the memo to the class about the questions and answers, including model student answers; 2) get out of Dodge.
I'm going to a conference in Boulder. The Digital Broadband Migration: Examining the Internet's Ecosystem. I gather that it's not 77 degrees there like it is here…
Can you say more about your following directions exam? It sounds like a very interesting idea.
in administrative law i took one of these “following directions” exams and the results were really interesting. only 2 or 3 people (including yours truly) out of 15 correctly followed the directions and the rest of the class “failed.”
the directions were provided in a series of sentences with the only important one hidden in the middle and reading “you are required to only answer questions 5, 10, 12, and 14.” nearly the entire class answered every question and an enlightened discussion about the virtues of reading and following directions ensued . . . but only after an argument about what should be the correct interpretation of “you are required to only answer.”