I like the idea of a comprehensive final to assess at the end. I've seen enough students who can do decently on RATs but don't do that well on application or deeper understanding of the material. These students might also be "good" teammates, active, taking on a recorder or facilitator role, or something that garners them high teammate evaluations, but they don't have an A level of understanding of the material. A comprehensive final will assess that. Just one more piece of the assessment, in my opinion.
On the other hand, I've seen enough students who do pretty poorly on RATs but much better over time learning to apply the material. Sometimes they really pull it all together by the end of the semester. I allow students who perform better on the final exam than they do on the midterm exams in my intro course to replace all exam scores with the final exam score. This does not encourage slacking off, as few students would be willing to place so many eggs in one basket.
Hope that helps.
Molly Espey
Department of Applied Economics and Statistics
263 Barre Hall
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634
(864) 656-6401
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 10:49 AM
Subject: Re: Midterms and finals.
And a follow-up question, how many are willing to give up the midterms
and finals and go with just the tbl scores? One of our faculty members
believes in this such that he feels that with our 20 week course, that
has 40 tbl session( 2/week) and variations of Irat &/or grat combos
there is more than enough information to know how well the students
are doing.
Sandy Cook,
Duke-NUS
On Jun 15, 2009, at 10:38 PM, "Herb Coleman" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> For those who give them, can you tell me how your mid-term and final
> exams differ from your iRATs and T-RATs. I'm considering going with
> a midterm and final instead of my usual term paper.
>
>
> --
>
> Herb Coleman,Director Instructional Computing and Technology
> Adjunct Professor of Psychology Austin Community College
> Highland Business Center
> 5930 Middle Fiskville Rd.
> Austin, TX 78752
> [log in to unmask]
> 512-223-7746
> *************************************************
> “I, and every other professor on this campus, are here to help you t
> o find, take back, and keep your righteous mind.”
> ---Professor Melvin Tolson from the motion picture "The Great
> Debaters"
> *************************************************