Well, TAs CAN be paid to assist with grading. I know that I was expected to grade as a TA, and I have had TAs help with grading. One justification for the low pay that TAs get has always been that part of the job was the learning experience. How can one learn teaching without practicing teaching? Grading is a part of teaching. As a TA in a large introductory course, I was a part of, for want of a better term, "grading parties." Each paper was marked by three TAs. The middle score was recorded. Fair? It was one prof's way of coping, and it seemed to work. By the third exam (there were five counting the final) we converged pretty closely on the scores. We used what has been called by educationists a "rubric." We called it a model answer. A group of TAs could also use the system used by the Advanced Placement program, which again involves a rubric, but only one person scores a given response. A team leader monitors scores for each grader, and provides feedback to the graders, so that they can know how far from the team mean and median scores their own estimates of central tendency are.
I usually only had a single TA or at most two for any course I taught as a faculty member. I worked with them to develop a list of points that should be included in any short answer or essay response. I graded some papers, the TA graded some, and I double checked a sample of his or her work. It worked for us. Of course, if TAs take on grading, and have not been doing so all along, then the grading time has to be factored into their work load. I assume if they are already grading, it has been taken into account. David McNeely ---- "Judith S. Weis" <[email protected]> wrote: > Absolutely right! But how do you give essays in a very large class? > Grading them is an enormous job. And that's not what TA's are paid for > (unless the university provides a "grader" which I've never come across) > J > > > Use short answer and essay questions. It's more work, but students can't > > cheat and they (are more likely to) learn the concepts. > > > > Steve > > > > > > ............... > > Stephen L. Young, PhD > > Weed Ecologist > > University of Nebraska-Lincoln > > http://ipscourse.unl.edu/iwep > > Twitter: @NAIPSC > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news > > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Malcolm McCallum > > Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2014 1:27 PM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] fake papers, the h-index, and publish or perish > > > > This is what happens when two things are paired together. > > 1) impact ratings driving science instead of the other way around > > 2) lacking control over cheating in college/grad school. > > > > I have been shocked at the large amount of cheating that goes on, and that > > is ignored, even in professional schools. Here is a nice link for anyone > > who does online grading automatically... > > > > http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1347802-Cheating-on-an-online-test/page2 > > > > On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 12:18 PM, David Duffy <[email protected]> wrote: > >> "Labbé says that the latest discovery is merely one symptom of a > >> "spamming war started at the heart of science" in which researchers > >> feel pressured to rush out papers to publish as much as possible" > >> > >> > >> *Publishers withdraw more than 120 gibberish papers* > >> > >> Conference proceedings removed from subscription databases after > >> scientist reveals that they were computer-generated. > >> > >> Nature.com > >> > >> 24 February 2014 > >> > >> The publishers Springer and IEEE are removing more than 120 papers > >> from their subscription services after a French researcher discovered > >> that the works were computer-generated nonsense. > >> > >> Over the past two years, computer scientist Cyril Labbé of Joseph > >> Fourier University in Grenoble, France, has catalogued > >> computer-generated papers that made it into more than 30 published > >> conference proceedings between > >> 2008 and 2013. Sixteen appeared in publications by Springer, which is > >> headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, and more than 100 were published > >> by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), based > >> in New York. Both publishers, which were privately informed by Labbé, > >> say that they are now removing the papers. > >> > >> Among the works were, for example, a paper published as a proceeding > >> from the 2013 International Conference on Quality, Reliability, Risk, > >> Maintenance, and Safety Engineering, held in Chengdu, China. (The > >> conference website says that all manuscripts are "reviewed for merits > >> and > >> contents".) The authors of the paper, entitled 'TIC: a methodology for > >> the construction of e-commerce', write in the abstract that they > >> "concentrate our efforts on disproving that spreadsheets can be made > >> knowledge-based, empathic, and compact". (Nature News has attempted to > >> contact the conference organizers and named authors of the paper but > >> received no reply*; however at least some of the names belong to real > >> people. The IEEE has now removed the paper). > >> > >> *Update: One of the named authors, Su Wei at Lanzhou University, > >> replied to Nature News on 25 February. He said that he first learned > >> of the article when conference organizers notified his university in > >> December 2013; and that he does not know why he was a listed co-author > >> on the paper. "The matter is being looked into by the related > >> investigators," he said. > >> > >> How to create a nonsense paper > >> > >> Labbé developed a way to automatically detect manuscripts composed by > >> a piece of software called SCIgen, which randomly combines strings of > >> words to produce fake computer-science papers. SCIgen was invented in > >> 2005 by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) > >> in Cambridge to prove that conferences would accept meaningless papers > >> - and, as they put it, "to maximize amusement" (see 'Computer > >> conference welcomes gobbledegook paper'). A related program generates > >> random physics manuscript titles on the satirical website arXiv vs. > >> snarXiv. SCIgen is free to download and use, and it is unclear how > >> many people have done so, or for what purposes. SCIgen's output has > >> occasionally popped up at conferences, when researchers have submitted > >> nonsense papers and then revealed the trick. > >> > >> Labbé does not know why the papers were submitted - or even if the > >> authors were aware of them. Most of the conferences took place in > >> China, and most of the fake papers have authors with Chinese > >> affiliations. Labbé has emailed editors and authors named in many of > >> the papers and related conferences but received scant replies; one > >> editor said that he did not work as a program chair at a particular > >> conference, even though he was named as doing so, and another author > >> claimed his paper was submitted on purpose to test out a conference, > >> but did not respond on follow-up. Nature has not heard anything from a > >> few enquiries. > >> > >> "I wasn't aware of the scale of the problem, but I knew it definitely > >> happens. We do get occasional e-mails from good citizens letting us > >> know where SCIgen papers show up," says Jeremy Stribling, who co-wrote > >> SCIgen when he was at MIT and now works at VMware, a software company > >> in Palo Alto, California. > >> > >> "The papers are quite easy to spot," says Labbé, who has built a > >> website where users can test whether papers have been created using > >> SCIgen. His detection technique, described in a study1 published in > >> Scientometrics in 2012, involves searching for characteristic vocabulary > >> generated by SCIgen. > >> Shortly before that paper was published, Labbé informed the IEEE of 85 > >> fake papers he had found. Monika Stickel, director of corporate > >> communications at IEEE, says that the publisher "took immediate action > >> to remove the papers" and "refined our processes to prevent papers not > >> meeting our standards from being published in the future". In December > >> 2013, Labbé informed the IEEE of another batch of apparent SCIgen > >> articles he had found. Last week, those were also taken down, but the > >> web pages for the removed articles give no explanation for their > >> absence. > >> > >> Ruth Francis, UK head of communications at Springer, says that the > >> company has contacted editors, and is trying to contact authors, about > >> the issues surrounding the articles that are coming down. The relevant > >> conference proceedings were peer reviewed, she confirms - making it > >> more mystifying that the papers were accepted. > >> > >> The IEEE would not say, however, whether it had contacted the authors > >> or editors of the suspected SCIgen papers, or whether submissions for > >> the relevant conferences were supposed to be peer reviewed. "We > >> continue to follow strict governance guidelines for evaluating IEEE > >> conferences and publications," Stickel said. > >> > >> Labbé is no stranger to fake studies. In April 2010, he used SCIgen to > >> generate 102 fake papers by a fictional author called Ike Antkare [see > >> pdf]. Labbé showed how easy it was to add these fake papers to the > >> Google Scholar database, boosting Ike Antkare's h-index, a measure of > >> published output, to 94 - at the time, making Antkare the world's 21st > >> most highly cited scientist. Last year, researchers at the University > >> of Granada, Spain, added to Labbé's work, boosting their own citation > >> scores in Google Scholar by uploading six fake papers with long lists > >> to their own previous work2. > >> > >> Labbé says that the latest discovery is merely one symptom of a > >> "spamming war started at the heart of science" in which researchers > >> feel pressured to rush out papers to publish as much as possible. > >> > >> There is a long history of journalists and researchers getting spoof > >> papers accepted in conferences or by journals to reveal weaknesses in > >> academic quality controls - from a fake paper published by physicist > >> Alan Sokal of New York University in the journal Social Text in 1996, > >> to a sting operation by US reporter John Bohannon published in Science > >> in 2013, in which he got more than 150 open-access journals to accept > >> a deliberately flawed study for publication. > >> > >> Labbé emphasizes that the nonsense computer science papers all > >> appeared in subscription offerings. In his view, there is little > >> evidence that open-access publishers - which charge fees to publish > >> manuscripts - necessarily have less stringent peer review than > >> subscription publishers. > >> > >> Labbé adds that the nonsense papers were easy to detect using his > >> tools, much like the plagiarism checkers that many publishers already > >> employ. But because he could not automatically download all papers > >> from the subscription databases, he cannot be sure that he has spotted > >> every SCIgen-generated paper. > >> > >> -- > >> > >> Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit > >> Botany > >> University of Hawaii > >> 3190 Maile Way > >> Honolulu Hawaii 96822 USA > >> 1-808-956-8218 > > > > > > > > -- > > Malcolm L. McCallum > > Department of Environmental Studies > > University of Illinois at Springfield > > > > Managing Editor, > > Herpetological Conservation and Biology > > > > "Nothing is more priceless and worthy of preservation than the rich array > > of animal life with which our country has been blessed. It is a > > many-faceted treasure, of value to scholars, scientists, and nature > > lovers alike, and it forms a vital part of the heritage we all share as > > Americans." > > -President Richard Nixon upon signing the Endangered Species Act of > > 1973 into law. > > > > "Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" - > > Allan Nation > > > > 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert > > 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, > > and pollution. > > 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction > > MAY help restore populations. > > 2022: Soylent Green is People! > > > > The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi) Wealth w/o work Pleasure > > w/o conscience Knowledge w/o character Commerce w/o morality Science w/o > > humanity Worship w/o sacrifice Politics w/o principle > > > > Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is > > for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential > > and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or > > distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please > > contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original > > message. > > -- David McNeely
