At 09:25 AM 4/8/02 +1000, Alan McLean wrote: >Eventually I realised that assignments are simply inappropriate as >assessment tools for large classes. They work fine as learning tools - >if you can get the students to do them as such! - and they work fine for >a small class (under 10). For large classes they are simply nonrandom >number generators.
i find this hard to believe ... seems to me that the problem is with the graders ... not being able to figure out a systematic way to handle the assignments ... why is this a problem of THE assignment? or the student doing the assignment? i agree that in large classes, it is difficult for instructors to deal with these sorts of activities ... but, let's not fault the activity ... >(You might pick up a certain emotional tone to this email......) > >Regards, >Alan > > >Tristan Miller wrote: > > > > Greetings. > > > > On Sun, 7 Apr 2002, Glen Barnett wrote: > > > Assuming you *can* take average student abilities across classes as equal > > > > Who said that we are sampling across classes? I was thinking of the case > > where the assignments from a single large class are randomly divided among > > several graders for marking, and one of the graders is an outlier. > > > > > there are a variety of ways you might match mean and s.d., > > > but the obvious one is the linear transformation you get by > > > multiplying the B group's marks by the ratio of standard deviations (r > > > = s_A/s_B, making the new sd equal to s_A), and then adding the > > > difference d = x_A - r x_B. > > > > Thanks, this is exactly what I'm looking for. :) > > > > On 6 Apr 2002, Jay Warner wrote: > > > I would be more concerned that the graders can interpret the answers > > > in such blatantly different ways. Perhaps the students do the same, > > > which begs the question of the precision & usefulness of the > > > questions. Reviewing the questions with your graders might tighten up > > > your (instructor's) part of the process. > > > > I am aware that the best solution in this case is preventative rather than > > corrective, but unfortunately situations do arise where the damage has > > already been done, and redesigning or remarking the assignment is not > > practical. In such cases the regulations of my university mandate a > > linear scaling of the affected grades, hence my query. I hope that my > > assignments will be so clearly specified and my markers so clearly > > instructed that I will never have need of such a scaling, but I wish to be > > prepared for all possibilities. > > > > -- > > \\\ Tristan Miller > > \\\ Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto > > \\\ http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~psy/ > > > > . > > . > > ================================================================= > > Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the > > problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: > > . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . > > ================================================================= > >-- >Alan McLean ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) >Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics >Monash University, Caulfield Campus, Melbourne >Tel: +61 03 9903 2102 Fax: +61 03 9903 2007 > >. >. >================================================================= >Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the >problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: >. http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . >================================================================= . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
