If you like to let me know your reasons why you voted so in the Doodle poll, please do leave comments here or just send me emails.
Update: The overall poll results so far (Dec 05, 2008) are in.
Poll: Was the EC better LEARNING experience?
| Yes, it was better learning experience. | No, I did not learn much. | Don't know -- probably no difference. |
| 53 | 34 | 27 |
Poll: Was the EC better experience for being EVALUATED?
| Yes, I felt better about being evaluated this way. | No, I think students can't get evaluated fairly using this type of exam. | Don't know -- probably no difference. |
| 29 | 52 | 27 |
All these votes, except couple votes, were collected before my actual evaluation went out. I do not know whether there is any difference between "before" and "after."
Thanks to those who voted!
4 comments:
I felt that the extra credit problems helped but to only a certain extent. I would start get get on a roll and then hit a wall to where I needed a lot of help. Over all, if I were to look at the correct answers I think I could work backwards and get a good understanding.
-Patrick
The extra credit problems ended up being an excercise in Networking, more so than physics. Doing the problems as a group helped broaden my understanding, but because the task was so large and there was no automated feedback, it seemed that we needed to gather as much data possible from other sutdents to cross check-to maximize the chance of getting the answers. I did not feel completely confident in what I wrote down at first, until I confirmed and discussed my answers with others, the problem was that cross checking is so time consuming when the volume of problems was so great. The task of completing the assignment seemed really excessive for just 30 points!
-Angele
r the excercise was almost imppossible to complete alone!
thanks for your inputs. seeing that the homework and the exam did not correlate too well for many students, i have become opinionated that the current homework system is not very effective in strengthening students' learning. i think it may be too easy to get a little help and then know the answer, before students really appreciate the full steps of solving the problem. this is my strong feeling based on scores so far.
this extra credit problems were sort of an experiment, and i like to take the outcome of this extra credit exam very seriously. i feel that i made most of you uncomfortable and unsure. i see that as a good thing! i see the ultimate goal in any college course as student's learning (how to learn) from self. this involves a lot of discomfort and hard thinking/reading/checking. perhaps many of you had to do this for this exam.
i feel a bit uncomfortable hearing that it was more of a networking exercise than a physics exercise. i hope it does not mean that "even if you did not understand physics, networking gave you the answers." i hope it means that "in order to learn physics, networking helped a lot." i don't find anything wrong with this last statement. also, i think a take-home exam in which you are allowed to get some help should not be so easy to complete alone very comfortably! on the other hand, from some verbal feedback that i got, the level of this exam was not perceived as too high -- which is correct and good.
having said these, i think most of you are doing well in this course!
It is a big lengthy, but I like to share comments from a student (with her permission). She seems to really have hit the bull's eye, as far as getting what I wanted students to get from the extra credit problems. Also, her concerns about the grading this type of exam is well-taken -- first of all, I am having lots and lots of technical difficulties (email format problems!!! not all students follow my direction!!!) at the moment, which is slowing down the grading quite a lot!!!
3 email messages transplanted below this line ...
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That, I believe, would depend on the student. I believe that the questions certainly inspired independent thinking.
It didn't seem like it at 1st, I originally though that it was going to be very simple due to the fact that the questions seemed to baby step their way through the concepts. The reverse ended up being true, however. There are a lot of details in physics that due to time constraints can be over looked.
I believe that because the questions were broken down so much, it actually required *more* independent thinking.
You truly had to understand the entire system and logical deduce the small steps from A to B that made B the correct answer.
I personally, found my self frequently having the right answer for the wrong reasons and had to go back and *truly* think it through.
As for responsible...well, I don't think it required as much responsible decision making as a regular exam, due primarily to the fact that it *is* an extra credit assignment. That's not to say that it required no responsible decision making, just that exams do push that point home better than anything else.
(... name-withheld ...)
On Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:37:19 -0800
Gey-Hong Gweon (gweon@physics.ucsc.edu) wrote:
> Thanks for your feedback. It is nice to hear that it gave you a surer grasp of things. However, I do understand your fear about numbers and how they are graded. I will know what I can or cannot do only when I take a better look. One question: do you think that students had to become an independent and responsible decision maker in this exam?
>
> (... name-withheld ...) wrote on 12/2/2008 3:57 PM:
>> Since you seem to be interested in feedback, I would like to give a more complete thought on how I felt about the EC exam than was allowed in the poll.
>> I felt that it was an amazing learning experience. It fully consolidated and made permanent the concepts you have been trying to teach.
>> The only down side of it was that since the questions built on each other, if you made one mistake then the following questions would all be incorrect as well.
>> I do not feel that is an adequate way of determining ones ability because mistakes are a part of life.
>> The other down side is that for the calculations there can be no partial credit the way it is set up currently. The method could be correct but one calculator mistake and its wrong.
>> Assuming you could address those downsides(amusing you agree with me) then I feel you would have a very well rounded, fair and amazingly effective teaching tool on your hands.
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