Another biting cold day. So cold, in fact, that Jenelle's phone rang late last night with the news of a forthcoming 'snow day.' While she enjoys a day off I'm enjoying a day on... campus, with class and group work shuttling around via email and sandwiches on Kresge 4. All that is well and good, but I would rather be at home chasing kitty and helping clean a closet than sitting up here in the heat waiting for a new draft of a report to "deeeaahhh" into my life by way of Outlook.
My hottest opinion of the day revolves around take home exams. I have never cared for them, but my feelings grow more resolute with the passage of time. Today, Professor Indjejikian announced that the ACC 650 exam will be a take home, thus removing the Friday morning time constraint placed by the in class scheduling. This makes my skin crawl; we've trivialized an already marginal learning activity in the name of extending Spring Break for a minority of students. A take home exam is a prisoners' dilemma of classic detail: my grade is no longer related to my knowledge relative to a standard, but related instead directly to the time others spend. I know that others know this, and in a competitive academic institution everyone must assume that everyone else will spend the maximum amount of time possible - 72 hours less sleeping and eating. What hypocrisy, then, for an exam in a 1.5 credit class to take more than three hours, let alone the untold dozens that my peers will spend. The exam should be in class and should not last longer than two hours in either case. (Thanks Prof Wiggins for providing the initial foundations for my argument and Prof Stephan for sealing my opinions on the matter.)
Monday, February 05, 2007