Marking homework

[new2here]

I'm at the university level, so the age of my students will e different than that of M or P level students..

However, I don't give homework in the classic sense.

I do give in class projects that are designed to be done in groups, and each assignment is different so no two groups have the same one.

Test time is quite strictly controlled as the department brings in proctors and they do the actual test administration.

In those cases where I do have to give individual assignments, I create a list of questions - say 30 or 40 - and assign each student 5 or 10 different questions from that list, so that IF they do want to cheat, they'll have to find someone they know AND has the same questions as theirs.

What ends up happening is that they quickly discover that in order to cheat, they'll have to find and work with three or more people, as no other student will have the exact same questions as they do.

My homework score is really derived from in-class announced and unannounced quizzes given liberally during the term.

[grumbleweed]

All my assignments are completed and submitted electronically. One problem I encounter is copying and pasting of answers from the internet. Fortunately this is easily detected and to help prevent it I deduct double the marks from their overall grade. I make this clear from the beginning and do not allow resubmissions.

Recently, during team submissions and to demonstrate the consequences, I warned my M6 students that if any team copied and pasted all teams would lose marks. I emphasized that I want to teach and not spend my time checking for plagiarism. 3 teams out of 24 didn't head the warning and I carried out my threat

I am actually going to reinstate the marks for the innocent teams, but not before they've sweated a little and argued their point. I am looking forward to a healthy classroom debate in which they will be able to demonstrate their speaking skills

G

[The manic]

Perceive it has peer based, collaborative learning and support!

[brianp0803]

One person doing the work and three people copying is not collaborative learning.

I do see the diligent students working together.

It's great when they can't agree on an answer and come to show me.

Often while showing me their steps they discover their own errors.

Cooperative learning and helping each other is useful.

The good students use this technique successfully.

But sometimes I see one student doing all they work, trying to explain how he did it.

Some students listening and complete their work and some copy without engaging their brain.

[iamariva1957]

Okay... I have to ask... how long have you been teaching? I have been doing it for so many years now, that I have forgotten just how long... God help me... LOL!

Issues about homework and copying have been around since schools first started. This we all know. We also know that we did the same things when we were students (come on... you know it is true) and here in LOS a student is just a student with all the traits and all of the human characteristics that every student has around the world. To think that the students here are in some way different or are guided by a different set of rules or parameters is silly.

For all students hate homework. Yes, you can see this as being just a "general statement", but it isn't. However, homework should not be issued simply or exclusively to extend 'class times' but rather to also teach the student about "deadlines" and to get them to work on their own to solve issues, questions, and/or reinforce what was covered in class and to even, perhaps, go beyond that it.That is what homework is for. Should it be seen as part of the student's grade? Yes, but only from the standpoints of their ability to get things done within a set time frame and their ability to work on their own.

However saying that, the fact that students might very well work together and/or copy from one another is more than a possibility. It is even more so given the Internet and the communication capabilities that not so long ago where not on hand. But is this a bad thing? No it does not have to be. For homework should not bee seen as a teaching tool in and of itself. It is just a small part of the bigger picture. For when I give my students homework I know that they will either not get around to doing it (I will get the usual excuses, and sometimes even get ones that I have never heard before which I sort of kind intriguing) or that they will simply copy each other's work in an attempt to get it over with. All of this I know, as I remember what it was like being a student in my day. My answer to this? I give followup work in class or even a mini quiz and I see "what is what". It takes but a few minutes but not only 'levels the playing field' a bit, but gives me (the teacher) a better understanding of not only my ability to teach the material but also in the students' ability to consume and process it as they should have done...if you get my drift. Of course it will depend upon a number of factors, such as the importance of the material itself and whether or not I will be covering said material again either in the future or even the next day.

Listen, copying is a fact of life within schools and it is not going to go away. We have all done it and our students will continue to do it when the mood, opportunity, or even necessity requires them to. But it is the latter that we, as teachers, need to focus upon. For that is the issue that has to be addressed.

However with regards to plagiarism... though it should not be allowed, it should be tolerated in so far as its use is concerned. Copying something word for word is wrong ... yes and I do not accept that. But to do it within an assignment by incorporating it within the construct of the student's work (without any footnotes or credits given) does show thought. If they have taken the time to find the material that they copy indicates that they spent time working on the topic and in "copying" what they added to their work shows an ability to understand the material and see that what they are copying fits. So, in my mind following this line if thought ia not really such a bad thing. But I let them know that I know what they did and then take the thought and the information that they used and use their actions to get them to understand it.

Teaching is an art. It is part stage performance, part audience capture, yet at the same time (as with any good script) part instruction. All have to work together and both teacher and student must be on the same page. We as teachers, have to be vigilant yet at the same time be understanding as to the student's out of classroom life. We must work together and be ready to apply whatever teaching technique/s we can either create or draw upon (from our own education or 'manuals') when required. We also have to understand that we have to wear a number of different "hats" from time to time and in so doing be ready to answer the 'call' fro a student or students when we see that there is just too much copying going on. For this would indicate that we are not getting through to them and in so doing allowing the material to fall on deaf ears.

Please kindly do speak for yourself. Making assumptions about people you know nothing about is a rather cheap strategy.

As far as i can remember, never once did i copy anyone's homework during my secondary school years.

Neither did i hate doing homework. Quite the opposite ... turning up with the homework (properly) done was not only a sweet way to show off, but in the long term it meant getting preferential treatment from educators & classmates alike.

My suggestion to the OP here would be as follows: first & foremost, do not be too 'serious' about homework but place the emphasis on classwork. Pupils do not learn much from doing homework anyway; homework is more like some chore that needs to be done, & as soon as it is done it's forgotten about. That means many will take the easiest way out, for the mere sake of the mark.

Instead, mark them for class participation, for creativity, for attentiveness, for tasks completed on site.

And by all means, quiz them.

Tzar.

I have been teaching for years now, and can tell you that I actually expect that my students will at so point copy something from each other's work as I have already said. But I agree with the latter portion of your posting. I never take the homework that I give out that seriously at all. Actually, it is for me just a rather 'cheap' way of seeing if they got the material covered in class in the first place and as a guide on what to do later and/or how to improve matters. The student's work in class and their participation are far more important.

However, I made no "assumptions". Furthermore, I was speaking for myself and in my opinion copying is what all students do from time to time. Though I am impressed with your claim that you never did it and had, what seems to have been, a love for homework (in so far as completing it "properly" and by what you wrote), you cannot say that your actions are those of the majority of students within schools.

As for your comment about getting "preferential treatment" for completing the aforementioned homework assignments in the manner you stated... I wonder in what direction that "treatment" took. For it has been my experience, as both a teacher and a student, that those that become the "Teacher's Pet" are usually the ones that have greater difficulties with their fellow students and find themselves eating alone at lunch time or, at worst, picked upon by other students in their classes. I have never heard of any average student ever thinking that it was a good way "to show off"... well except maybe for those that hugged the walls at a the school dance? Frankly, it sounds well below the norm and if it is in fact true what you have stated, then good for you! But you do not represent the majority I am afraid.

[SlyAnimal]

Not copying homework isn't unique.

I very rarely copied homework at high school, although not because I wanted the learning outcomes of doing it myself, or because of high morals.

I rarely copied as I simply didn't trust my friends to get the answers correct. I would however allow all of my fellow boarders to borrow my books during prep (I was at boarding school, so had 2h of compulsory silent study time each night called prep). All of the other kids envied how easy it was for boarders to copy lol.

Although I had a mate in my accounting class who I'd alternate doing the homework with, he was like me and didn't trust any of our other friends to do it. In Japanese I'd regularly copy though as hated the subject (Which is also how I worked out the benefits of homework, since that was the only subject I ever failed lol).

Once I copied someone else's chart of the moon, which we'd had to observe over the holidays, he'd actually made about half of it up, but as about 150+ people copied his work, we had all of the science teachers doubting their own observations lol.

[brianp0803]

Wow. The only subject you failed was the subject you copied the homework.

Also funny your story about the moon.

I like the story.

Once I observed an English teacher ask the class for the correct grammar on a sentence. The entire class voted for the wrong answer. The teacher looked confused but then circled the unanimous choice of the class but the class was wrong. The teacher didn't trust her own judgement.

I am telling my students many of the question on the test will be straight from the homework with minor variations. This is easy to do with math.

I am hoping this gives added motivation.

When I see many papers with a problem solved in a unique style I get suspicious.

When I see identical incirrect answers on different papers I have written on each test the students with identical wrong answer.

I am not acussing them of copying. Just noting ab interesting repeating anomaly.

Occasionally it is a collaborative error in knowledge. Unlikely but possible.

[The manic]

Don't give homework - the kids put up with enough crap at school.

[meand]

If you are grading homework, as in actually wasting your time and looking at it, you've got some serious delusions and problems. Do yourself a favor and just put a check on each paper and be done with it. Put your effort in with the students interested in learning during class. That is where it's at, there and only there. Until Thais wisen up, that's just the way it has to be. Don't waste your time!

[SheungWan]

Everyone in Thailand knows that 50% grade is for lazy students that fail and show no effort.

If they show some effort and try a little they will get 55%.

My tests questions are:

50% can be answered with minimal effort and listening in class.

30% require doing most of the homework.

20% are difficult.

Partial credit for making a reasonable attempt at the problems.

I was worried how I can help the failing students and talked with other teachers. I discovered the students that were failing my class usually had the same problem with all teachers (including Thai subjects)

Since they are also failing Thai classes, I concluded their low scores usually were not about their math ability or English ability or the teaching style but their overall effort.

Students getting grade 4 from me deserve it.

On the ball. If the school/college expects students to be passed, then giving the hopeless students the minimum pass mark should keep everybody happy. The reality is that if making those students do the work again is not going to improve their assessment record then why drag them through the hedge again. The same thing might be tried with plagiarism. Give both papers a minimum pass. If there is a complaint tell them that either they accept it or be reported for plagiarism. (However, there is a bigger problem if the school/college does not have a rigorously enforced assessment procedure and allows staff to individually respond to the issue)

[SheungWan]

I worked with a teacher who randomized the questions and also a few the answers. The students never knew if she had 1, 2 or 3 different versions of the exam. She didn't tell the students, and it was so interesting to see who had cheated and copied the person next to them and, of course, got a very low grade.

She also liked to mix up the answer so that even if it was the same question, on one test the answer might be a and on another it might be b.

I set up a multiple choice online test once for about 200 students sitting in about 3 different labs. The software allowed the order of the questions to be randomized so that students sitting next to each other had different order of questions. The software also allowed the answers A,B,C,D to be randomized so there was no way they could cheat. Unfortunately when setting the answers I put as the answer D for some of the questions 'None of the above'. Hands started going up about 15 minutes into the test (from just a handful mind you) asking what to do. Since the software had completely crashed the previous week, there was no way we were going to run the bloody thing for a third time so what to do?

[grumbleweed]

I worked with a teacher who randomized the questions and also a few the answers. The students never knew if she had 1, 2 or 3 different versions of the exam. She didn't tell the students, and it was so interesting to see who had cheated and copied the person next to them and, of course, got a very low grade.

She also liked to mix up the answer so that even if it was the same question, on one test the answer might be a and on another it might be b.

I set up a multiple choice online test once for about 200 students sitting in about 3 different labs. The software allowed the order of the questions to be randomized so that students sitting next to each other had different order of questions. The software also allowed the answers A,B,C,D to be randomized so there was no way they could cheat. Unfortunately when setting the answers I put as the answer D for some of the questions 'None of the above'. Hands started going up about 15 minutes into the test (from just a handful mind you) asking what to do. Since the software had completely crashed the previous week, there was no way we were going to run the bloody thing for a third time so what to do?

What software did you use?

For the next midterm I will be using Google forms. While it randomizes the questions, it also randomizes the student ID sections. Just a minor irritation because the responses are automatically stored on a spreadsheet in the correct order. This allows for another application (fluberoo) to mark the asssignments.

G

[SheungWan]

I worked with a teacher who randomized the questions and also a few the answers. The students never knew if she had 1, 2 or 3 different versions of the exam. She didn't tell the students, and it was so interesting to see who had cheated and copied the person next to them and, of course, got a very low grade.

She also liked to mix up the answer so that even if it was the same question, on one test the answer might be a and on another it might be b.

I set up a multiple choice online test once for about 200 students sitting in about 3 different labs. The software allowed the order of the questions to be randomized so that students sitting next to each other had different order of questions. The software also allowed the answers A,B,C,D to be randomized so there was no way they could cheat. Unfortunately when setting the answers I put as the answer D for some of the questions 'None of the above'. Hands started going up about 15 minutes into the test (from just a handful mind you) asking what to do. Since the software had completely crashed the previous week, there was no way we were going to run the bloody thing for a third time so what to do?

What software did you use?

For the next midterm I will be using Google forms. While it randomizes the questions, it also randomizes the student ID sections. Just a minor irritation because the responses are automatically stored on a spreadsheet in the correct order. This allows for another application (fluberoo) to mark the asssignments.

G

It was so long ago that I can't remember the name of the software. It may have been some freebie that came with one of the publisher texts. I do recall however that it had to be specially installed by the uni computer services team so nothing like the Google cloud software that you will be working with. Yes it automatically marked the tests. One or two colleagues followed on from me and also tried it out, but it was eventually dropped. I found it disruptive using it during the semester. A lot of professional qualifications use multiple choice software now but the assessments usually take place at set times of the year usually after students have completed their studies. Run it in the middle and the study/learning process goes to pot.

Edited November 16, 2014 by SheungWan