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Use of Computers | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden)
[new] Reply to Original Post (none / 0) (#5)
by Jonny77889 on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 08:52:08 PM PDT

That sounds utterly disgusting! Grading and never returning papers is stupid! Sounds like teachers can give F's to students they don't like and get away with it. And it doesn't help the student any if he has no idea why he got the grade he got.

The tests seem unfair, too, since multiple-choice math exams are unfair and not a good idea unless there are too many students and too few people to grade the exams. On top of that, if it's online, students can easily cheat on such a test and get away with it.

I don't like online teaching for math classes; it's equivalent to telling the student to read the book on his own and stop by your office if he needs help on something. That surely sets up many students for failure. Online tools can be a good supplement for a class (and I think they can be used very effectively), but the internet should never, ever substitute for in-class teaching and learning.

As for online assignments and homework, here's what I'll say: UK here uses a lot of online homework for lower-level math classes, and I've grown to detest such homework. It's easy for students to cheat on it; they get no experience in writing their answers clearly and correctly and explaining their reasoning (so it enforces the students' false belief that only the final answer matters and not the reasoning and work leading to it); homework cannot be graded for students' methods and reasoning to obtain their answers (especially worse in the cases where there are multiple-choice questions, which may or may not have multiple answers, and the student can simply guess the answer enough times till he finally gets it right because the system lets him try as many times as he wants before the due date); and the darn thing messes up a lot, creating a lot of headaches for teachers when students complain they can't log on or that the system isn't working properly! Such problems never happen with good ol' paper homework!


Use of Computers | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 hidden)
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