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I Think You're Kind of Missing the Point, My Dear

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  • I Think You're Kind of Missing the Point, My Dear

    We have a freeware product which is designed for students learning a certain skill. It allows them to do by hand what our main paid product does automatically. This is because doing things by hand is considered essential to learning this skill.

    Also, we state on the download page that we only provide tech support on the freeware product to instructors, but not individual students. We have good reasons for this which I won't get into here.

    So I got an email from a student who had an assignment. He was wondering how to get the freeware product to automatically do his assignment for him.

    Yes. That happens quite a bit. I don't know if the student was trying to cheat, ignored his instructor or just had a bad instructor. So I handle it tactfully.

    My canned response mentions that, by design, the freeware product doesn't have the ability to do what he is asking. If he isn't sure how to use it to complete his assignments, he should contact his instructor for further help and instructions.

    I almost never get a response to that.

    But this guy responded. The jist was that he had already ASKED his instructor for help and she refused. He was really lost and desperate.

    OK. These students ARE potential customers of ours once they pass this course, so I'm not going to leave someone floundering. What was his question about using the freeware product?

    He still wanted to use it to do his assignment automatically for him because doing it by hand was difficult and he NEEDED to pass the course.

    There was desperate earnestness to it that told me he honestly didn't realize that was cheating. It wasn't dishonesty or a bad instructor. He was just that ignorant.

    I don't know what moved me to try and explain. I should have simply referred him the instructor again. I worded it carefully.

    "[Freeware product] does not have [automated process] built in. You use it to type out your assignments by hand after you have [done the process in your head]. The way you do this is by [explanation of how to type using the freeware]."

    He wrote back and asked how he was supposed to know if his answers were right or wrong if he had to figure it out himself? Another carefully worded answer.

    "Check with your instructor for feedback on the accuracy of the assignments you complete using [Freeware product]."

    Yes. I told him he'd know if his answers were correct after his instructor corrected them.
    Last edited by Dips; 03-14-2008, 02:47 PM.
    The best karma is letting a jerk bash himself senseless on the wall of your polite indifference.

    The stupid is strong with this one.

  • #2
    I had a teacher like that.

    On tests, he'd word questions very strangely

    If you asked him to explain it he'd simply say "Well what do you think it means"

    Which to me ment "You're gonna get this wrong regardless"

    Comment


    • #3
      Nam: My solution:

      If it's an essay question, answer it in all possible ways, then point out the ineffectiveness of the question (In a respectful way XD ). If necessary, bring it up with department head.

      Worked for me, only had to go to the department head once, and I didn't even need to do anything other than bring in the test, and point out the confusing aspects.
      I am a Blank Space for spacing purposes, ignore me.
      In order to treat someone as your equal, you first need to believe both: that they are your equal, and that you are their's.

      Comment


      • #4
        This talk about confusing test questions brings me back to one of the most memorable exams I sat for in university.

        I was taking a philosophy class one semester and by chance I'm assigned a professor who was nicknamed Dr Lector for his penchant towards wording his exam questions in the most confusing way possible and the utter joy he supposedly got from failing students. Most infamous of all was his final exam.


        Lector's final exam consisted of ONE and ONLY ONE question: Define in the best way possible what is a risk?

        Now most students taking the test proceeded to write an extremely detailed answer cross-referencing various authors and adding their own analysis. These people rarely got more then a passing mark with coments from the prof wondering if they truly understood the concept


        what did I do? seeing as how I pretty much knew I was failing the course and had nothing to loose. So I flipped to the last page of the answer booklet and wrote down " I just taken a great risk" handed in the exam and walked out


        come report card time I am shocked and amazed to see I passed the course with a C+ scoring a 98% on the final

        Comment


        • #5
          The -2% was probably cause you actually WROTE something XD
          I am a Blank Space for spacing purposes, ignore me.
          In order to treat someone as your equal, you first need to believe both: that they are your equal, and that you are their's.

          Comment


          • #6
            Quoth flyinghi View Post
            what did I do? seeing as how I pretty much knew I was failing the course and had nothing to loose. So I flipped to the last page of the answer booklet and wrote down " I just taken a great risk" handed in the exam and walked out

            come report card time I am shocked and amazed to see I passed the course with a C+ scoring a 98% on the final
            Good for you. I don't think I'd even think of trying that. I wonder if anyone's tried it since then.
            Curiously Lydean - curious interests of a curious person.

            Comment


            • #7
              Best 'exam final' question I ever heard of was, I think, from my brother's Philosophy professor in college. Come final day, he wrote one word on the board, and gave the students the whole five hours to write. My brother takes his paper, writes two words, turns it in, and gets a perfect grade.
              The question? "Why?"
              His answer?



              "Why not?"
              "I call murder on that!"

              Comment


              • #8
                Quoth Juwl View Post
                Best 'exam final' question I ever heard of was, I think, from my brother's Philosophy professor in college. Come final day, he wrote one word on the board, and gave the students the whole five hours to write. My brother takes his paper, writes two words, turns it in, and gets a perfect grade.
                The question? "Why?"
                His answer?



                "Why not?"


                "Because sometimes, that's just the way it is."

                Well, "Why not?" just seemed like the C grade answer. Yeah, it's a response, but... I would do "Because I said so", but that doesn't seem to answer the full range of ages. It's a sometimes-needed answer for younger kids, but an unsatisfactory one for adults. Just try it with your employees, and see how far it gets you. They may do it, but they won't like it.
                Last edited by Gurndigarn; 03-14-2008, 11:55 PM.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Both final exam stories told here are well-traveled urban legends.



                  http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/oneword.asp

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Quoth Kali View Post
                    Both final exam stories told here are well-traveled urban legends.



                    http://www.snopes.com/college/exam/oneword.asp


                    I looked at the page, and despite it, I have no trouble believing it happened, despite being a well-traveled urban legend. After being in a university and reading some of the formal written articles by people with more letters after their names than in them, I gained a certain cynacism for acadamia. It has an even worse reality disconnect than large corporations. After all, at a certain point, even the wealthiest corporation has to bow to reality (and cash flow), or else collapse from lack of money. Universities often have weathy alumni banking them, or various government bailouts, or the fact that education is a sellers market, and has been for quite a while, so they can get away with some really stupid things much easier than a corporation.

                    Contrasting the thousands of corporations that fail, I know of only one university that has folded (well, is in the process of folding, depending on the disposition of pending lawsuits)... and yes, the cause was severe reality disconnect bad enough to eventually choke off their student (and therefore tuition) flow. Even if you only count large corporations who can survive for some time with reality disconnect, the ratio of failures is still far heavier on the corporate side than on the academic side.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Quoth Gurndigarn View Post
                      "Because sometimes, that's just the way it is."

                      Well, "Why not?" just seemed like the C grade answer. Yeah, it's a response, but... I would do "Because I said so", but that doesn't seem to answer the full range of ages. It's a sometimes-needed answer for younger kids, but an unsatisfactory one for adults. Just try it with your employees, and see how far it gets you. They may do it, but they won't like it.
                      When this story was making the rounds of the university town I grew up in, it went that the first year one guy answered "Why Not" and got an "A", but by the second year that story had spread and lots of people did it, so the "A" went to the one guy who simply wrote "Because."

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