Should have worked harder (SHWH)

Argh! Why is the standard answer to questions like "It's nearly a pass ... can't you do something?" not "Should have worked harder then!"?

We had our annual marks consideration meeting today where:

• we ensure that assessment has been done fairly for all modules (with the assistance of an external examiner or three),
• ensure that transcription errors have not crept in,
• process the outcome from another meeting that dealt with students' mitigating circumstances and
• decide on what form of reassessment people failing the module should be offered, including retake (more commonly known as a summer resit), repeat, ("come back next year") and fail (do not pass go...)

Now I happen to agree that it's important to consider "borderline" cases, especially in our system where the score (%) that a student achieves is translated into a "grade" (A, A^± etc) and, moreover, is eventually translated back into a numerical point value (please don't ask me why or I'll start to whimper...) The system means that the boundaries between grades are more significant to students' eventual degree results than a rounded 0.5% might suggest: For example a 1st class degree requires at least 110 points from 12 relevant modules, so what if the student has 0.51% less than a particular grade in one, which translates into 1 of these 110? (0.51%/12 is 20 times smaller than 1/110!)

In my book "borderline" is something close to the rounding error (i.e. less than or equal to 1% below a boundary.) It's not at all surprising that in the eyes of students (who have a vested interest) it's more like "within 5% of a boundary", which actually spans a whole grade, so we resist pressure from them to ratchet their marks upwards ... However it never ceases to amaze me when colleagues ask "Is there anything you can do? <nudge-nudge> <wink-wink>" for students who are usually more than 3% away from passing a module. My response is often "The student should have worked harder then!" (unless there clearly are circumstances beyond the student's control, such as a poor group performance strongly affected by one group member, but usually I'll already have taken that into consideration...) I object to the suggestion that standards are dropping everywhere...

By the way, if a student is good enough to get a grade greater than a pass but is lazy and deliberately aims for a pass to make her life easier and misses the mark by a few percent then, hey, it's her own fault and she SHWH!

Laugh of the day: When PDA means "Personal Dead Animal"

Laugh of the day: "There is only zuul..."

<dialog id="mydialog" xmlns="http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul" buttons="accept,cancel"> ...

Obviously the guys at Mozilla have a sense of humour! From Ghostbusters: There is no 'Dana' only Zuul.

Sin City movie thoughts

Saw Sin City last night courtesy of Orange Wednesdays (the Darth Vader ad. convinced me to switch to Orange!) and I really enjoyed it. Despite being just over 2 hours it didn't feel long. It was stylish, funny (taped-up mouth on Jackie Boy's head was a hoot), sexy, violent and disturbing. However if you really don't like excessive/stylised gore and/or torture don't go! We didn't know what to expect (the trailers and certificate 15 don't give it away) and the person I went with was at times upset, nauseated and annoyed ... even more-so as I was obviously enjoying it too much to want to walk out. Ho-hum.

Moral: More research next Wednesday...

Busy time of year

Sorry, been too busy to blog recently due to:

• Endless marking (coursework, exams, more coursework...)
• Applying for 2.4 new jobs ... one is a 2/5-time secondment ;-)
• Endless admin (meetings, meetings & merger.)
• Conference ... yay! @media2005 was fun.
• Research? Not much but it's ticking-over.
• Geekiness: Learning to use my new PDA and mobile phone ;-)

Now back to the grindstone...

Dealing with plagiarism in Norway

Jill has an interesting post about plagiarism in her department that I'd like to discuss a bit ... I completely agree that I think we need to be strict and very consistent about plagiarism. and (hope) that I (if not 100% of my colleagues) are being similarly strict and feel the same way: Imagine what we teach students if we allow them to plagiarise their work?.

I love this idea:

If the student is found to have plagiarised, the exam will be annulled and the student may be barred from taking exams at any university in Norway for one or two semesters, depending on the gravity of the plagiarism and how advanced the student is.

Barring them from other universities for major offences seems like a great idea. Perhaps we could manage something similar with a system of questions on a mandatory academic reference? Otherwise I imagine the problem would be too large to handle.

She also expresses how I felt when I first became aware of blatant copying in my modules, but says it more eloquently than I:

Most of all I've discovered my own fury when confronted with plagiarism, though. They think I'm stupid not to see through this? How dare they waste my time like this? Why on earth would I put effort into doing a good job as their teacher when this is all they think learning is worth?

Thanks for such an encouraging post & let's keep on doing the right thing...

Adobe + Macromedia

Today Macromedia announced that, pending government & stockholder approval, Adobe will buy Macromedia. It looks like an interesting opportunity for both companies -- Dreamweaver > GoLive? Fireworks + Photoshop? Flash + PDF? Flash + SVG?!

Update: Excellent funny from Illiad ;-)

No WiFi at Kings?

I cannot believe King's College, London, are happy to host a web conference yet won't help the organiser with an internet connection and/or WiFi! The near-London institution where I work seems to be ahead in this respect...

Bad Meteorology

Every one involved in teaching atmospheric or environmental science should read this page: Bad Meteorology. Admittedly, the author is trying to give us better explanations so he seems to be nit-picky at times, but a better explanation can more easily lead to comprehension than a technically OK but obscure explanation.

Rude young men

This from one of our administrators:

Just had my first instance of rude young guy who wouldn't look me in the eye turned up 2 hours late for his interview and then when I was trying to explain why he would have to wait for an interview turned his back on me with the comment I don't talk to women.

To paraphrase the Conservatives It's not racist to refuse to give university places to rude, misogynistic scum. (Or do we have a quota?) Seriously: How incredibly, insufferably rude! He wants to be a pharmacist but his prejudices already violate the RPSBG's Code of Ethics and Standards (my emphasis below):

Key responsibilities of a pharmacist

...At all times pharmacists must act in the interests of patients and other members of the public, and seek to provide the best possible health care for the community in partnership with other health professions. Pharmacists must treat all those who seek their professional services with courtesy, respect and confidentiality. Pharmacists must respect patients' rights to participate in decisions about their care and must provide information in a way in which it can be understood.

so I dearly hope we didn't offer him a place, or (evilly) that we did and can beat some sense into his narrow-minded, prejudiced skull over the next 4 years or-so.

Update: After some quick peer pressure where a student on the same interview session had a word, the young man apologised to the adminstrator ... all credit to him for being brave enough to do-so & kudos to the other student(s) for speaking out.