There are too many nuts in this cheeseball
So as you know I spent a goodly chunk of my weekend studying for all of the midterms and shite I had to do today, when I woke up at 5am to do a little last minute review before my 8'oclock I luckily checked my e-mail. There was a message from my loon of a teacher saying that he was down with the flu. There was much rejoicing. And cursing, 'cause I was up at 5am and had wasted my life away memorizing terms. This evening I get this...
400 quiz 2 updates.doc
Quiz 2 as a Journal - a heading now available to you on Moodle.
When you click on this activity, you will see the following instruction screen:
If you can enter here, then you can cut and paste the text of your 4 essays - please try this!
This is an activity in which you have the text of your four essays open in a word processing window. At this site you will copy and paste the content of the word processing file into your "Journal". Select the option to start or edit your journal - as soon as you have a window open, go for it! You can come back and revise this 'journal' as often as you wish, until Thursday Oct 16 at 8 PM.
After that closing time for revisions, I expect to make all journals available for all class members to read!
When you open the Quiz 2 as a Journal activity, you will see these brief instructions. The full instructions are also there, but many computers will block the pop-up. Look for activity on your pop-up blocker, and tell it to let the pop-up through. When you do, you will see the big text below this copy of the brief instructions:
Brief Instructions:
Look up which group you are in.
Write down the questions which members of that group must answer.
Do a quality job of answering those questions.
On Moodle, click on the assignments option "Quiz 2 as a Journal". Have your word processing file in a window so you can copy and paste.
In the Assignment display, click on start/update a journal.
In the text box which appears, paste the contents of your word processing file which is showing your four essays.
You can enter this text box and make changes as many times as you want before 8 PM on Thursday, Oct. 16.
The text box isn't a convenient work space. I suggest that you update your master file, copy it, open the Quiz 2 as a Journal activity, and replace the entire contents with an updated version.
Updates to the Quiz 2 assignment:
This is not an invitation! Some students are having some problems with the changed exam form and schedule, and since I was the one who was not able to come to HSU to deliver the exam as scheduled, I can certainly understand that the new form, which I made up quickly, would not actually work well for everyone. That said, students can be just as weird as faculty, and I certainly notice such things. So I am working to improve on easily corrected aspects of the Quiz 2 assignment, and for some who have written to me with simple problems such as not being able to post during the two-hour block I originally described, you will find that this revised description takes care of our problems. For anyone who reads this note and thinks “Oh wait! Maybe I can still get through this without working!” I would like to remind you that I taught my first college and University classes in 1967, and this has been pretty much my working life. I feel like I’ve seen it all, so please don’t write up some complex explanation as to why you need an assignment other than the one posted...
Anyway, here are some additions to the posting requirements:
- I will open the Quiz 2 assignment as a forum, I will do that effective almost immediately, and I will keep it open until 8 p.m. this Thursday.
- Everything you submit for this exam will become public record to the members of this class. I will make all forum answers visible to all class members, but as I read Moodle I can assign your grades to each essay and you will be able to see those numbers. Other students will not, however, be able to see those numbers. This part I cannot guarantee, so I will grade a few students and then email other class members and see if those grades have become public or not. If the grades are showing, I will not move forward with grade marks entered in the Moodle forum. I will only try this with the truly exceptional students, so if I entered your grades and they turned out, by quirks of Pat + Moodle, to be visible, it will still be quite a compliment: you will have been identified as ‘truly exceptional’.
- the forum will include entries for all of the questions and for one new question. As I read through entries, I will register scores for students based on the first five entries I happen to read for each student. I would like you to begin each entry with your last name followed by your group number. I’m in group three, so every essay I entered in the exam would begin: “Wenger 3:”. As an evaluator, if a student answers the assigned 4 questions and no others, each question will be graded on a 25-point scale, with the difficult-to-obtain possibility of up to 5 extra points. On the other hand, if a student answers any question which is not one of his/her assigned group questions, and answers only 4 questions, I will grade on an absolute maximum for that question of 20 points. If you elect to write on a non-assigned question, please begin: “Wenger 3: non-assigned question.” Finally, if a student writes on extra questions, for example writes on 5 questions, then all of that student’s questions will be based on a maximum score of 18 points per question. If a student writes on more than 5 questions, the random order of questions that I read in encountering your first 5 answers will determine which 5 of your questions will be assigned scores of 1-18. The other answers you submit will be scored 0.
- I hope you watched the Matrix or are reading literature about weird permutations of culture - - the more weird this note becomes the more anxious I am to get back to bed...
The NEW Question, or Question N from Mars: In a rich essay and graphic presentation, organize and present the content of some important class materials.
In answering this question, I want you to look closely at important content from the second 1/5 of the class, and organize it so that your essay helps other class members to understand the importance of the material. You could focus on the Peace Corps speaker or a video or the first chapter of Kleinman. Go over the material carefully, make tables, charts or graphic illustrations, and outline the major content clearly. Your brief essay, which others will read, will help them to understand something that they may have missed.
In summary, just complete the assignment. If you can’t do that, then write on the four assigned questions and on one extra question of your choice, or drop one of the four assigned questions and substitute a question of your choice. If you are not doing exactly and only the questions assigned for your group, you need to say that clearly. If I discover it instead of being told in the essays, I’ll be in a funk. Please do not think of any recent email you have sent me as being an official communication - write what you have to say at the beginning or end of an answer to a question - you might say, for example, “I am unable to complete the quiz as assigned because I missed the video.” Then I will put you on the alternate grading mode, and be fine with our communication. ALWAYS TAKE THE TIME TO MENTION WHAT QUESTION YOU ARE ANSWERING!
I am more than slightly concerned. I believe that my teacher's brain is being devoured by flesh-eating-microbes determined to let him live long enough to drive our entire class insane. I can't even pick my way through a paragraph let alone devine what he actually wants from me!
400 quiz 2 updates.doc
Quiz 2 as a Journal - a heading now available to you on Moodle.
When you click on this activity, you will see the following instruction screen:
If you can enter here, then you can cut and paste the text of your 4 essays - please try this!
This is an activity in which you have the text of your four essays open in a word processing window. At this site you will copy and paste the content of the word processing file into your "Journal". Select the option to start or edit your journal - as soon as you have a window open, go for it! You can come back and revise this 'journal' as often as you wish, until Thursday Oct 16 at 8 PM.
After that closing time for revisions, I expect to make all journals available for all class members to read!
When you open the Quiz 2 as a Journal activity, you will see these brief instructions. The full instructions are also there, but many computers will block the pop-up. Look for activity on your pop-up blocker, and tell it to let the pop-up through. When you do, you will see the big text below this copy of the brief instructions:
Brief Instructions:
Look up which group you are in.
Write down the questions which members of that group must answer.
Do a quality job of answering those questions.
On Moodle, click on the assignments option "Quiz 2 as a Journal". Have your word processing file in a window so you can copy and paste.
In the Assignment display, click on start/update a journal.
In the text box which appears, paste the contents of your word processing file which is showing your four essays.
You can enter this text box and make changes as many times as you want before 8 PM on Thursday, Oct. 16.
The text box isn't a convenient work space. I suggest that you update your master file, copy it, open the Quiz 2 as a Journal activity, and replace the entire contents with an updated version.
Updates to the Quiz 2 assignment:
This is not an invitation! Some students are having some problems with the changed exam form and schedule, and since I was the one who was not able to come to HSU to deliver the exam as scheduled, I can certainly understand that the new form, which I made up quickly, would not actually work well for everyone. That said, students can be just as weird as faculty, and I certainly notice such things. So I am working to improve on easily corrected aspects of the Quiz 2 assignment, and for some who have written to me with simple problems such as not being able to post during the two-hour block I originally described, you will find that this revised description takes care of our problems. For anyone who reads this note and thinks “Oh wait! Maybe I can still get through this without working!” I would like to remind you that I taught my first college and University classes in 1967, and this has been pretty much my working life. I feel like I’ve seen it all, so please don’t write up some complex explanation as to why you need an assignment other than the one posted...
Anyway, here are some additions to the posting requirements:
- I will open the Quiz 2 assignment as a forum, I will do that effective almost immediately, and I will keep it open until 8 p.m. this Thursday.
- Everything you submit for this exam will become public record to the members of this class. I will make all forum answers visible to all class members, but as I read Moodle I can assign your grades to each essay and you will be able to see those numbers. Other students will not, however, be able to see those numbers. This part I cannot guarantee, so I will grade a few students and then email other class members and see if those grades have become public or not. If the grades are showing, I will not move forward with grade marks entered in the Moodle forum. I will only try this with the truly exceptional students, so if I entered your grades and they turned out, by quirks of Pat + Moodle, to be visible, it will still be quite a compliment: you will have been identified as ‘truly exceptional’.
- the forum will include entries for all of the questions and for one new question. As I read through entries, I will register scores for students based on the first five entries I happen to read for each student. I would like you to begin each entry with your last name followed by your group number. I’m in group three, so every essay I entered in the exam would begin: “Wenger 3:”. As an evaluator, if a student answers the assigned 4 questions and no others, each question will be graded on a 25-point scale, with the difficult-to-obtain possibility of up to 5 extra points. On the other hand, if a student answers any question which is not one of his/her assigned group questions, and answers only 4 questions, I will grade on an absolute maximum for that question of 20 points. If you elect to write on a non-assigned question, please begin: “Wenger 3: non-assigned question.” Finally, if a student writes on extra questions, for example writes on 5 questions, then all of that student’s questions will be based on a maximum score of 18 points per question. If a student writes on more than 5 questions, the random order of questions that I read in encountering your first 5 answers will determine which 5 of your questions will be assigned scores of 1-18. The other answers you submit will be scored 0.
- I hope you watched the Matrix or are reading literature about weird permutations of culture - - the more weird this note becomes the more anxious I am to get back to bed...
The NEW Question, or Question N from Mars: In a rich essay and graphic presentation, organize and present the content of some important class materials.
In answering this question, I want you to look closely at important content from the second 1/5 of the class, and organize it so that your essay helps other class members to understand the importance of the material. You could focus on the Peace Corps speaker or a video or the first chapter of Kleinman. Go over the material carefully, make tables, charts or graphic illustrations, and outline the major content clearly. Your brief essay, which others will read, will help them to understand something that they may have missed.
In summary, just complete the assignment. If you can’t do that, then write on the four assigned questions and on one extra question of your choice, or drop one of the four assigned questions and substitute a question of your choice. If you are not doing exactly and only the questions assigned for your group, you need to say that clearly. If I discover it instead of being told in the essays, I’ll be in a funk. Please do not think of any recent email you have sent me as being an official communication - write what you have to say at the beginning or end of an answer to a question - you might say, for example, “I am unable to complete the quiz as assigned because I missed the video.” Then I will put you on the alternate grading mode, and be fine with our communication. ALWAYS TAKE THE TIME TO MENTION WHAT QUESTION YOU ARE ANSWERING!
I am more than slightly concerned. I believe that my teacher's brain is being devoured by flesh-eating-microbes determined to let him live long enough to drive our entire class insane. I can't even pick my way through a paragraph let alone devine what he actually wants from me!