My practice is similar to Amanda’s and Neil’s…I teach freshman Major’s Biology at a two year college and do attach value to team activities- if there is no value, most of my students would exert very little effort in the activities. Independent learning is very difficult for most of them, and they tend to want to walk away from activities that are “hard” (as they call them). The challenge of earning a point for success keeps many of them going. When I find that a question in my activity is bordering on the frustration level of difficult, I convert the question to a participation point, with the point contingent with an answer supported by a logical, content based argument. With regard to absences, I share Neil’s philosophy. I have found that the peer evaluation more than addresses that issue. I give a mid semester peer evaluation to alert students that are perceived as slackers or free loaders so that they can address the issue. Only the end of semester peer evaluation counts in the final grade. My students have responded well to this.

Best,
Rebecca Orr, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
Collin College, Spring Creek Campus
972-516-5088
http://iws.collin.edu/rorr



On Oct 1, 2015, at 10:33 AM, Neil Haave <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

I no longer concern myself with absences other than zero for not writing an iRAT. I let the student peer evaluation multipliers take care of that. I tell students that if they are going to be absent from a class it is their responsibility to inform their team and then it is up to their team-mates to decide whether or not it is a valid excuse and whether it should be a consideration in their peer evaluation. I also remind the class as a whole that university-sanctioned activities  (e.g. sports teams and field trips) that force students to miss class should not be held against the student who is absent. Generally speaking the students do a better job of policing themselves then I do of policing the class.

Cheers

Neil

Neil Haave, PhD
Associate Professor, Biology
Managing Editor, CELT
Vice-President, AIBA

University of Alberta, Augustana Faculty
Rm C155, Science Wing, Classroom Building, Augustana Campus
4901 - 46 Avenue, Camrose, AB, CANADA   T4V 2R3


"We do not learn from experience . . . we learn from reflecting on experience" - John Dewey

On 30 September 2015 at 18:30, Amanda Rees <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Alison

No show, no grade :). If Rey aren't there to work with the team them they aren't there to sign the team application sheet, at least in my class.  I also have a team folder that I keep team grades on so everyone can see their team grade activities.  And folks that don't show get a big zero.  It's a good "stick."

Does that need to be in the syllabus? 

Manda

Dr. Amanda Rees
Professor of Geography
Columbus State University

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 30, 2015, at 8:19 PM, Alison Bates <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hello,

I am teaching my first TBL course and decided to grade the in-class application exercises (upon several threads here since the semester started, I probably wouldn’t do this again). Regardless, I am having a problem: absent students during graded in-class work. It’s not widespread but nonetheless each class maybe 1-2 absent students. I did not specify in my syllabus how this would be handled. My first reaction was to give the missing students a 0 for that exercise, but I do have the peer multiplier built into group grades. How have others dealt with this issue? 

Thanks for any advice,

Alison


Alison Bates
Lecturer (Renewable Energy & Sustainability)
Department of Environmental Conservation
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Holdsworth 209
160 Holdsworth Way
Amherst, MA 01003






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