students editing output

[Barry Shein]

A good point was hidden in one of these messages just now (should I be
sorry for not dragging the whole message out and inserting '>'? is this
plagirism???)

I use a simple check, a student can not pass most of my classes without
satisfactory grades on exams. Exams are closed book and I make it quite
clear (and design the questions such) that the primary purpose of my
exams is to put the person who is getting too much help on the homeworks
(none of these remarks have even begun to deal with the computer-whiz
friend not in the class who is actually turning out the student's
assignments, I bet more common than editing output, few students in
trouble with an assignment can resist asking a friend for a 'little'
help) at a distinct disadvantage.

For freshman/sophomore classes I basically use:

	50%	homeworks
	25%	midterm
	25%	final

with maybe a little twiddling (15% mid, 35% final.) That insures me that
a student who is not learning from the homeworks is not likely to pass
the exams (and hence, the course, perfect homework assignments alone
would not earn a passing grade, nor exams alone.) I think students who
do their homework in my classes generally find my exams a breeze and
those that do not do their own homework I have seen cry 'unfair'. As I
said, I make this clear before the first exam. If they can get someone
else to do their homeworks and pass the exams then I am not sure what
the problem is, they learned the material obviously (I know, some moral
work-ethic being violated here maybe.)

Sound fair enough? The tricky part is just designing the homeworks and
exams to work together (but that's what you should be doing.)

	-Barry Shein, Boston University