I just can't even.
EDIT: And, turns out it was the COORDINATOR, not G--- who made the edit to the exam! Without notifying me.
Jesus H. Christ on a skateboard.
What is so hard about quickly calling a person and saying "Hey, I think your question is a little confusing with the word "an". How about you change it to "its" and we'll move forward?" instead of modifying a question without asking the person who is responsible for it!!!!
But now I feel kind of like I flew off the handle and behaved like an idiot...
So I'm crafing a response to her reply which needs to say "Thanks for clearing all this up. I'm still not ok that you changed my question without giving me a heads up. I understand that you have final review to edit/modify but STILL-- let me know so that I'm prepared to deal with student fallout if indeed there is some!"
.........
I am currently co-teaching in a course with a busybody faculty member. She means well, aways has the students best interests at heart... but she meddles. Two years ago, in the process of "reviewing" questions for an upcoming exam she changed the wording on one of mine that COMPLETELY changed the focus/tone of the question (went from pharmacology-- how drugs work to physiology-- how the body works) and then students couldn't answer the question. YA THINK?!?!? So, under pressure, I ended up "throwing out" that question on the exam or accepting all answers or some other bullshit response to "my question was altered without my knowledge or consent, so you all get the points". Which is fine, from a student perspective, but is NOT fine, from a faculty perspective.
Today was the first test with this faculty this term. Our exams are given via an online software, so I had to upload them, had discussions with the course coordinator (which the meddling faculty is NOT) about wording or whatever, made the appropriate changes to the questions and hit "Approve" on the software. This essentially "freezes" the question so that it's ready to drag into a particular assessment, etc. Once someone hits "Approve", their name is listed as the last modifier on the question, so it's easy to track if multiple people are making changes (similar to Google Docs or something).
Anyway, so I fixed any minor typos I found, hit "Approve", my name was associated with the final version of the question, and I moved on.
Until today.
The exam happened, students did really poorly on one of my questions and I thought "that's weird". So I went into the software to look at the individual question analysis (how many students chose "A" versus "B" and all that) and I noticed that my name was no longer listed as the last approver. It was hers.
Now, because this has happened before, I made a copy of ALL my questions, in their final versions, and saved it as a document on my computer just in case something like this happened. And it did.
It was a small wording change-- replacement of "an" for "it's". Didn't change the focus of the question, students didn't perform poorly... but she didn't ask me. In fact, she didn't even let me know she was going to LOOK at my questions (which is not her role anyway, as she's not course coordinator!!!). PLUS, to make me even more livid, the replacement with "it's" is improper grammatically! As any third-grader can tell you, it's is a contraction for "it is", NOT implying ownership of whatever by "it"!!!! So it makes my question look sloppy and like I don't know how to write proper, grammatically correct English.
So I fly off the handle and send this email to the course coordinator, copying my department chair (whom I've had discussions with about this problem before) and the meddler's department chair (basically, her boss):
Hi K---,
This email is to let you know that I noticed one of my questions was modified without my knowledge or consent by G--- prior to today's exam. In going through the exam reports on ExamSoft, I noticed that, instead of my name being listed as the most recent person who "Approved" the question in ExamSoft, G---'s name was listed for all of my questions (ASCVD, Aspirin PPMC, and Dyslipidemia PPMC).
I'm not sure exactly why this is the case, as G--- is not course coordinator this year and I had assumed that all final modifications of exam questions would be handled by you (including the "un-grouping" that we discussed in an earlier email).
The text of the question as I uploaded it to ExamSoft originally as well as the text of the question as it appeared to students today is shown in the attached document. The change was a minor one-- switch of "an" to "it's", which did not change the focus of the question nor did it adversely affect student performance.
My issue here is more of personal academic integrity and faculty autonomy over their course content and assessment materials.
In no way and at no time did G--- contact me to let me know she was going to look through my questions (it is not her role this year regardless, as she is not coordinating the course), nor did she let me know that she did in fact change the wording of my question. That the change did not affect the question's focus is beside the point as two years ago G--- did a similar "small" change which completely altered the focus/tone of the question and led to poor student performance.
In addition, the use of "it's" in G---'s modification is incorrect grammatically (it's indicates "it is", not ownership which is the intent of the question) and lends a certain air of sloppiness to my question. I can assure you, I work on my exam questions diligently and strive to use correct tone, professional "voice" and always check for typos.
I am not exactly certain what I hope the outcome of this discussion would be, but I did want to let you know that this indeed happened, that I am frustrated that it continues to happen despite G--- being asked to not do these actions, and that I hope it will not happen for future exams.
Jesus H. Christ on a skateboard.
What is so hard about quickly calling a person and saying "Hey, I think your question is a little confusing with the word "an". How about you change it to "its" and we'll move forward?" instead of modifying a question without asking the person who is responsible for it!!!!
But now I feel kind of like I flew off the handle and behaved like an idiot...
So I'm crafing a response to her reply which needs to say "Thanks for clearing all this up. I'm still not ok that you changed my question without giving me a heads up. I understand that you have final review to edit/modify but STILL-- let me know so that I'm prepared to deal with student fallout if indeed there is some!"
.........
I am currently co-teaching in a course with a busybody faculty member. She means well, aways has the students best interests at heart... but she meddles. Two years ago, in the process of "reviewing" questions for an upcoming exam she changed the wording on one of mine that COMPLETELY changed the focus/tone of the question (went from pharmacology-- how drugs work to physiology-- how the body works) and then students couldn't answer the question. YA THINK?!?!? So, under pressure, I ended up "throwing out" that question on the exam or accepting all answers or some other bullshit response to "my question was altered without my knowledge or consent, so you all get the points". Which is fine, from a student perspective, but is NOT fine, from a faculty perspective.
Today was the first test with this faculty this term. Our exams are given via an online software, so I had to upload them, had discussions with the course coordinator (which the meddling faculty is NOT) about wording or whatever, made the appropriate changes to the questions and hit "Approve" on the software. This essentially "freezes" the question so that it's ready to drag into a particular assessment, etc. Once someone hits "Approve", their name is listed as the last modifier on the question, so it's easy to track if multiple people are making changes (similar to Google Docs or something).
Anyway, so I fixed any minor typos I found, hit "Approve", my name was associated with the final version of the question, and I moved on.
Until today.
The exam happened, students did really poorly on one of my questions and I thought "that's weird". So I went into the software to look at the individual question analysis (how many students chose "A" versus "B" and all that) and I noticed that my name was no longer listed as the last approver. It was hers.
Now, because this has happened before, I made a copy of ALL my questions, in their final versions, and saved it as a document on my computer just in case something like this happened. And it did.
It was a small wording change-- replacement of "an" for "it's". Didn't change the focus of the question, students didn't perform poorly... but she didn't ask me. In fact, she didn't even let me know she was going to LOOK at my questions (which is not her role anyway, as she's not course coordinator!!!). PLUS, to make me even more livid, the replacement with "it's" is improper grammatically! As any third-grader can tell you, it's is a contraction for "it is", NOT implying ownership of whatever by "it"!!!! So it makes my question look sloppy and like I don't know how to write proper, grammatically correct English.
So I fly off the handle and send this email to the course coordinator, copying my department chair (whom I've had discussions with about this problem before) and the meddler's department chair (basically, her boss):
Hi K---,
This email is to let you know that I noticed one of my questions was modified without my knowledge or consent by G--- prior to today's exam. In going through the exam reports on ExamSoft, I noticed that, instead of my name being listed as the most recent person who "Approved" the question in ExamSoft, G---'s name was listed for all of my questions (ASCVD, Aspirin PPMC, and Dyslipidemia PPMC).
I'm not sure exactly why this is the case, as G--- is not course coordinator this year and I had assumed that all final modifications of exam questions would be handled by you (including the "un-grouping" that we discussed in an earlier email).
The text of the question as I uploaded it to ExamSoft originally as well as the text of the question as it appeared to students today is shown in the attached document. The change was a minor one-- switch of "an" to "it's", which did not change the focus of the question nor did it adversely affect student performance.
My issue here is more of personal academic integrity and faculty autonomy over their course content and assessment materials.
In no way and at no time did G--- contact me to let me know she was going to look through my questions (it is not her role this year regardless, as she is not coordinating the course), nor did she let me know that she did in fact change the wording of my question. That the change did not affect the question's focus is beside the point as two years ago G--- did a similar "small" change which completely altered the focus/tone of the question and led to poor student performance.
In addition, the use of "it's" in G---'s modification is incorrect grammatically (it's indicates "it is", not ownership which is the intent of the question) and lends a certain air of sloppiness to my question. I can assure you, I work on my exam questions diligently and strive to use correct tone, professional "voice" and always check for typos.
I am not exactly certain what I hope the outcome of this discussion would be, but I did want to let you know that this indeed happened, that I am frustrated that it continues to happen despite G--- being asked to not do these actions, and that I hope it will not happen for future exams.