There was a time when I took a hard line as well. Then one day a student
came to me and said, Can I take the exam on Monday instead of today (Friday)
I asked in a threatening voice (which I am quite good at)"Why?" He replied -
because I haven't had time to study. I was so taken aback by his
truthfulness that I said yes. If we are hardasses about makeups, students
make up plausible sounding excuses. The students who haven't studied lie and
tell us the protypical dead grandmother story. It works so we are
reinforcing them for lying. Another thought, it might very well be true that
not all courses are equally important to a student. As much as my pride
might be wounded, a student who is majoring in computer studies might not
value my class as much as a nursing student. As mentioned in another post,
the students almost never do as well on makeups, so they are being punished.
We have a policy that works well. We have a testing center in our library.
Faculty send the exam to the testing center, which administers the exam.
When I gave makeups in the past, I would put students in empty rooms or my
office, so I had no control over cheating. The testing center strictly
proctors the exams. I give makeups as a matter of routine. I am not in the
position of having to determine whether an excuse is valid and the students
don't do as well which constitutes a built in penalty. Do people abuse my
policy? Perhaps, but this doesn't upset me as much as having to discriminate
valid from invalid excuses.
Harry Avis PhD
Sierra College
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Anything worth doing is worth doing at all
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