Lab 4 Regrade Philosophy
Emmett Witchel
The lab 4 regrade opportunity sparked some discussion to which I would like to respond. The first point I want to make is that the graph on the lab 4 redux web page showing the mean going from 59 to 67 was created by me and Sit making sure that students got the partial credit they deserved (e.g., for a correct rc file and incorrect disk image), and did not get arbitrarily punished (e.g., for a different scheduling policy). The original grades were unfair, and these were an improvement.
Yet instead of greeting my announcement of righting grading wrongs with joy from the students, I received several angry communiques from students complaining that they did well on lab 4 and they don't want to see anyone else's grade increased. After all of the feedback I received urging me to soften the sometimes stinging blow of an automated grading script, I was pretty disheartened by these student's responses. Maybe it wasn't the exact same students who called both for fairer grading by relaxing output standards and for disallowing their fellow student's grade to rise. But the impression I was left with was that many students were not making a principled objection to the grading criteria, but just wanted what was best for them and their grade. That kind of naked self-interest is kind of ugly.
The resubmission process for lab 4 is another attempt on our part to get you to learn the material. The best way I can do that is to let you raise your grade. I am upset that some students want to prevent the regrade to protect their own score. I urge these students to reconsider their position. Correct regrades will not earn as many points as students who got it right the first time---your hard work will be rewarded. But let your fellow student's demonstrate their own understanding too.
Emmett
Steve
few selfish students.
"Emmett Witchel" <wit...@cs.utexas.edu> wrote in message
news:427F10B...@cs.utexas.edu...
Emanuel Masciarelli
This isn't uncommon. I have noticed this in pretty much any CS class that
has a curve based upon the overall averages of all the students. Whether
its the same students I've noticed, I cannot tell. I do know I have not
seen this in my math classes. The students who did well to begin with won't
have their grade go DOWN, so I never understand this elitist mentality from
my peers. It is sad that these people feel this way, and I hope they don't
take these strange ideals and lack of a team feeling into the workforce.
That being said, can we all get at least a C for effort (even though there
is no C in effort)?
--Emanuel the Optimist
uprugist
-Dark Avenger(2.0).