Part of what added some 'spice' to this segment for me was that the college mandated that all first year class grades be based 60% on 'effort' with second year class grades droping to 50% 'effort' and no mandated 'effort' component for subsequent years. Another issue that played strongly into the story was the fact that this occured at an 'historically black college.'

So, what do readers (or students) out there think? How much (if any) of a students grade should be based on 'effort' versus 'understanding' or 'mastery of the material'? (Determining how to evaluate 'understanding' or 'mastery' is another interesting question in itself. For that matter, how does one accurately evaluate 'effort'?)

There is a low cost high quality alternative out there which you may not be familiar with. In fact, it is a free program called Manhattan. This is a high quality course management program which allows students to have discussions, turn in assignments, check their grades, and other things as well. The interface is very clean and user friendly. It does require an apache server (i.e. a Unix/Linux server) to live on. You can find out more at the site http://manhattan.sourceforge.net.

In an effort to explain to my students the importance of getting some understanding the proofs of the theorems we study, I use the analogy of a car - knowing the gas pedal makes the car go is not enough, we have to look under the hood and, while I'm not expecting everyone to become ASE certified mechanics, I do expect them to get a sense that there is this thing called an engine that has chambers in which vaporised gas explodes and pushes pistons that turn cogs that ultimately make the car go when you step on the gas.

So, in this context you can understand my glee when my wife pointed out this segment entitled Colleges Reevaluate AP Math Credits from All Things Considered which talked about how 'Colleges are making it more difficult for incoming students to get credit for advanced placement calculus, and some high schools are changing the way they teach calculus as a result.'

This semester I have set up several discussion boards and have made regular posting about the reading a small portion of the students' grade. So far I am very happy with the results: reading through the questions and comments the students post about the sections of the text is not only forcing them to keep pace with reading through the book, but it seems to be giving me (as well as the TAs) a "window" in the mind of the class.

Has anyone else out there ever tried using discussion boards in their classes before? Was it useful? What issues arose? How did the students react? Did it help their learning? Please post and share your experiences.