A noun is a person, place, or thing

[austin_dern]

What's better than grading? Having the same student drop in more than once to ask when the grading will be done. This is partly my fault. Over the term I returned every assignment the class after it was collected; my students haven't had to wait more than a week before. Still, I told them I'd put a note up on the web site when I was ready; I don't know why they don't trust me.

But it's (now) done, except for a few students in numerical PDEs who asked for extra time for an assignment not as difficult as they imagine. The challenge was essay grading, once I filtered out the disgusting number (to my eye, that's any number more than two) of students who turned in a web page. I learned to check every essay at least on Google my first term, when four students turned in the same essay; don't students realize their instructors are not idiots?

And a strange phenomenon noticed: I'm considerably more likely to give an even number for an assignment than an odd one. That can be attributed to a subconscious bias when I'm grading something freeform like an essay, but why does it turn up when I'm working with a theoretically objective grade key? Is it worth doing an ANOVA study on my grading schemes? No, sadly, it is not, but I'll think about most anything rather than grade.

For my money, reading periods and exams are the best time to be on campus. All the support facilities -- libraries, canteens, the bookstore -- are open regular or extended hours, the busses run at normal frequencies, but the crowds are smaller, the faculty have time to give and attend talks, and office hours are easier apart from students asking if the last assignment is graded yet.

Trivia: In the 1650s London paid approximately 40 percent of the national total excise duty on beer. Source: London: A History, Francis Sheppard.

Currently Reading: One Two Three ... Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science, George Gamow.

Comments

[xolo.livejournal.com]

> In the 1650s London paid approximately 40 percent of the national total excise duty on beer.

That's maybe less surprising than it might seem, as most Brits would have been drinking ale rather than beer in those days. Beer was a Dutch and German beverage, so while there would have been some demand for it in the seaports and bigger cities, it probably wasn't on the menu yet at the village pub.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't pick trivia just for the surprise value; I just pick for things that make me say ``huh'' in at least a curious tone of voice. But there are two other influences not precisely due to London being a big trading port -- first, the London vicinity was richer (and more heavily populated) than other parts of England and Wales; second, as government control was stronger around London, it was easier to get and keep watch over tax collectors there.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Still, I told them I'd put a note up on the web site when I was ready; I don't know why they don't trust me.

I wonder - would a mailing list (for such announcements by yourself only) work well in this context? Given the location, the recipient addresses could be SMS gatewayed, so they'd receive notification as a text message on their phone.

Or just use a Jedi mind trick.

The challenge was essay grading, once I filtered out the disgusting number (to my eye, that's any number more than two) of students who turned in a web page.

Egad. I recall Rob Goodman's tales over on afca on that subject, and was as amazed then as now. This is perhaps more surprising, as you're meant to be receiving good students - and I'd hope that, for all but a few exceptional cases, that proves to be the case. Still, I'm curious: if you've encountered this form of cheating before, is it the same people who try repeatedly, or is it more of a "oh hell, I've got to turn something in tomorrow and there's no time now what do I do" phenomenon? Not that I suppose the two motivating forces are mutually exclusive.

Oh, FWIW, I'm more used to "invigilators" too, probably explained by the cultural heritage of the region.

the busses run at normal frequencies

This makes me wonder about a bus which would only be accessible if your thoughts were operating on the same frequency - in phase, as it were, else it'd either be invisible, or indeed, not present as a protrusion into your physical three dimensions. Meditation as the key to catching a bus (or train)? Perhaps this holds the key to platform 9 3/4.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Given the location, the recipient addresses could be SMS gatewayed ...

In fact, that's an option. The online web page system set up here offers the chance to send out messages, e-mail and SMS. The trouble is the message is limited to something absurd like 100 characters, which isn't enough for me to get started talking.

Still, I'm curious: if you've encountered this form of cheating before, is it the same people who try repeatedly, or is it more of a "oh hell, I've got to turn something in tomorrow and there's no time now what do I do" phenomenon?

I don't know. This is the first time I've given two essay assignments in the same term, and I hadn't made clear my policy is to give a zero before collecting the second essay. One of the other instructors mentioned that students are trained here to compose essays by looking up several references and ``synthesizing'' them together. Done well that is reasonable research; done poorly it's plagiarism, but some of the essays were plainly that.

This makes me wonder about a bus which would only be accessible if your thoughts were operating on the same frequency - in phase, as it were, else it'd either be invisible, or indeed, not present as a protrusion into your physical three dimensions.

Oh, yes, that's good old anyons again, the one time in history that Next Generation's particle technobabble generator hit on real physics. It's a great thermodynamics problem, although figuring out how to work alternate-phase realities from it is ... difficult. Clifford Simak did it, though, and Greg Egan came kind of close.