No-Compete Clause

I ended my blog last week with the “glory-be” epiphany of discovering that if I assigned students to rate each others’ Blogs and Wikis (for points), they would have to read (and hang on) every single word posted by their classmates! (Well, that was the theory anyway ;-)

My “Rate Your Classmates” assignment was a work-around to deal with a common issue that I’ve heard with online discussion boards: e.g., that students will only read a few posts -- the latest ones, with no replies -- and then respond only to those to earn their peer post credit.

I wanted my students to read and covet every word of work submitted by their classmates (as we faculty do ;-) More importantly, I also wanted to set them up so they could provide meaningful feedback to their classmates (because doesn’t everyone want to hear, “out of everything I read, yours was most awesome!” ;-)

So here are my actual assignment instructions:

Rate Your Classmates’ Blogs:

After the Chapter Blog deadline has passed, I’ll open up a survey assignment so that you may rank the top five Blogs for each chapter (yes, you may vote for yourself ;-) As part of this process, you’ll post substantive comments (four to six sentences, worth three points each) -- on the top three Blogs, according to you (and yes, you may comment on why yours is amazing ;-) To earn maximum credit, you'll need to copy/paste your substantive comments in your survey assignment to me (including the name of the student you posted them to) and then your remaining rankings, #4 through #10 (name only).

The “top finishing” students will earn extra credit points: 10 points for the highest vote-getter, 9 points for the second, 8 points for the third, 7 for the fourth, 6 for the fifth, and so on.  My vote will be the final decider.

Before I launch into the “interesting” feedback that I received on this assignment last week, let me disclose up front that I frequently pick up the odd adjunct teaching job here and there to “make ends meet.” (My previous career was in pharmaceutical re$earch. When I made a “quality of life” change and accepted a full-time community college teaching position, my annual income was one-third of what it had been in my previous life.) But at least I can feel that I’m contributing more good than evil to the world now ;-))

I must admit, I was feeling that this ranking system was a stellar new strategy -- THE new strategy for all of my classes…but alas, as I discovered last week, not all of my students everywhere feel the same way ;-)

Here is an excerpt from an actual email that I received last week from a student, enrolled in my Drugs and Society class (at an unidentified institution ;-)

"My current GPA is 4.0 and I am very hard on myself.  I feel this class curriculum is overwhelming for me at this time.  The competing Wiki pages made me panic.  My entire life I've had to compete in business.  School is a place I do not want to compete for a number one spot.  I think the need to be number one can actually cause substance abuse.  I'd remove that from the course but you are obviously very talented and smart."

Presidents Club - Top 2% USA 

<Insert Company Here>  Realtor 

Ay yi yi eesh! Asking students to rate each other’s Wiki posts could drive someone to substance abuse? Wow. But even more wow, I think she was serious!

Alas, we can’t make all students happy all the time… but she actually dropped my class because of this assignment (well that and she couldn’t figure out how to use the Mashup button, it was entirely too stressful, even with my video tutorial…)

Given my work in the social sciences, I am highly sensitive to not creating undo stress for my students. In fact, I do agree with this student on one aspect of her concern, that yes, the “world” is competitive enough already. Even when we don’t ask for it, others will compete with us. And one needn’t look far to notice that snarkiness is in bountiful supply these days. We can’t control that…but we can control our reactions to it.

Not to digress, but....I’m fascinated to hear water-cooler talk that rails against “trivial” concerns of the Great Unwashed, like reality TV and celebrity culture… as if gossiping about coworkers is somehow “better” and more elevated, a holier pursuit...

Honestly, I didn’t envision the “Rate Your Classmates’ Wikis” as a competition. I just intended it be good clean fun. Seeing what others are doing/writing/posting, what matters to them, what they perceive to be meaningful, what’s happening in their worlds and how they string sentences together… much like this 9x9x25 blog experience … ;-)) Et vous? 

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