Let x equal the number of handouts I've distributed explaining the requirements of the assignment and y the number of times I've explained it in class, and then assign value q to the quality of the examples and templates I've provided showing what a successful result should look like; let a equal the number of times I've urged students to meet with me outside of class to discuss their progress on the assignment and let b be the number of class sessions devoted to work designed to help students handle the assignment.
1. At what point in the wee hours of the morning on the day the assignment is due will students e-mail me to ask for clarification of the requirements?
2. How many students will complain on course evaluations that the requirements were not clear? How many will write the exact words "We never knew what she wanted"?
6 comments:
I KNOW! Drives me crazy. I even tell them, in front of the class, "30 percent of you will fail to follow this instruction correctly, and it will have a negative effect on your grade." And yet, the percentage varies not a whit.
I'd like to say that following directions is a dying art, but this implies that once upon a time students were able to follow directions. True or false?
I think students have poorer listening skills, these days, maybe? They seem to go through life distracted.
Yes, but I suspect that there are some contexts in which they can follow directions and focus on goals really well. My class just isn't one of them.
1. Question time in hours before assignment due = 1/q*(x/s + y*alpha)
Where
q is valued 0-1, 1 being best
s is number of students
alpha is average attendance during which examples were explained
What this says is that better quality handouts and explanations actually cause questions to be asked closer to the deadline. The student reads over a high quality guide and they think they know what's going on. When it comes time to do the assignment they realize that it's way more work than the student was thinking, so asking questions before the deadline somehow magically gets them more time for the assignment. If the handouts were terrible, they'd glance over them and think, "oh boy I have no clue what's going on and this handout doesn't help! I'd better ask questions!" Unless of course they don't even look at the handouts until the night before the assignment is due... in this case, this equation does not apply.
2. F+D
Where
F is the number of students receiving an F
D well, you get the point
So true! And so brilliant! A+!
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