Steve,
I agree that such a policy adds a burden to faculty, and it may allow
students to shirk some of
their own responsibility.
However, given that many instructors do schedule exams and papers for the
last 2 weeks of their
courses, it's imaginable that even the most conscientious students would
have difficulty preparing
for 3 exams on one day, early in the subsequent finals period.
If the point of final exams is to encourage students to spend time studying
and reflecting on the
entire course's worth of material, then 24 hours or less is not going to
provide adequate time. I
might suggest that in order to accomplish the goal of allowing students
suitable time to adequately
prepare for finals, a better university rule might be to forbid instructors
to schedule exams
or have papers due in the last week of class. AND, to establish a 3-4 day
reading period during
which no exams can be scheduled and no papers can be due.
Under these conditions, students should be able to handle multiple exams
scheduled on the
same day.
-Mike
At 11:33 AM 2/27/01 -0600, Stephen W Tuholski wrote:
>Hi Tipsters,
>
>I have a question for the group... I am on our university's faculty
>senate, and at our next meeting we are going to vote on a final exam
>scheduling issue.
>
>The motion is to allow students with more than 2 final exams on one day to
>reschedule one of their finals. My reading of the motion is that the
>affected faculty member will NOT have a say. So if little Johnny
>Undergrad has my final and 2 others, and he wants to reschedule mine, i
>must let him.
>
>The rationale that is offered for this change is that having more than 2
>final exams in one day is not consistent w/ spreading finals over a week's
>time.
>
>Personally, I think this is laughable for a few reasons.
>
>1. The student knows at the time they REGISTER when their finals are... I
>think that 16 weeks is sufficient time to prepare.
>
>2. Life's schedule isn't always convenient... are we not sending a bad
>message to the students by letting them re-schedule their finals?
>
>3. This places unnecessary burden on the faculty member... that is, they
>may need to write 2 exams (i wouldn't let one person take an exam on
>monday, and then let the rest of the same class take the same exam a day
>or two later).
>
>4. I am too young to say this, but back in my day this kind of thing
>happened to me... I dealt w/ it by preparing in advance, not by whining to
>the administration.
>
>Anyway, I am interested in your thoughts and feedback...
>
>Steve
>
>****************************************************************
>Stephen W. Tuholski Ph.D.
>Asst. Professor
>Dept. of Psychology
>Southern Illinois U. at Edwardsville
>Edwardsville IL 62026
>Phone: 618 650 5391
>Fax: 618 650 5087
>http://www.siue.edu/~stuhols
>
>"Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so."
> - Bertrand
> Russell
>***************************************************************
************************************************
Michael J. Kane
Department of Psychology
P.O. Box 26164
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, NC 27402-6164
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
phone: 336-256-1022
fax: 336-334-5066
