Thread

1. nfrankel · 1790405760 · focus · HN ↗

   I have a fairly long experience of both teaching and grading, even though I stopped a couple of years ago. After a couple of years of trial-and-error, I think I found the "right" way:

   * Alternate between theory and practice in the course of a single 2-hours slot. Theory is necessary, but the attention span of people is very limited. * Grade either a homework assignment in the form of a real project with specifications. You give the assignment half-semester, so that students who start early can ask questions. Otherwise, grade a in-session exam, with every resource available, including the course and the whole Internet. However, you don't assess the knowledge, but if the student is able to apply their knowledge to the different tasks at hand.

   These approaches are now completely moot in the age of AI.

   I was surprised the first time a colleague asked me to do an oral exam. I thought it was a burden on people with poor social interaction skills. It went surprisingly well: you could see in a couple of minutes if the student had integrated the concepts of the course, even if they were shy. Now I wonder if it's the way to go. There's one caveat, though: it doesn't scale.

   1. universa1 · 1790416615 · focus · HN ↗

      The oral exams scale better than one might expect, at least if you're not just doing multiple choice exams and you have to actually grade the exam. The time spent on grading the exam could have also been spent on an oral exam... For bachelor level it's usually 15-20min (usually quicker for the well prepared students), and for master courses it is 30min.

      Usually you know after a few minutes if it's going to be a fail, and then otherwise you only need to figure out where on the passing scale the student ends up.

      1. kvemkon · 1790518954 · focus · HN ↗

         > and you have to actually grade the exam

         That's the point. As a professor you're allowed to outsource the grading of written exams to you assistants (ongoing PhD teaching stuff). But you must do an oral exam personally.

         > usually quicker for the well prepared students

         That's true. More time is needed only in case the answer is missing and you have to check whether you hit accidentally the only poorly understood material piece or there are more troubles.

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