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Thanks, Michael!
Can I propose a small thought/moral reasoning experiment?
Think about your three favorite students; think about the three students you worry about most; think about three colleagues over 60 that you care about; think about three staff members you depend on; think about three low wage workers who make your food or clean your office.
You are now responsible for those 15 people.
Think about how much time you are spending trying to figure out how to complete 3 mere weeks of a semester.
Really, what's the best solution? From: Michael Filimowicz
Sent: March 18, 2020 9:12:34 AM To: Stacy Pigg; Cynthia Patton; Nicky Didicher; Christopher Pavsek; academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca) Subject: systems thinking What Ray Kurzweil said about technology applies to the current virus crisis now: its spread and effects are global and exponential, but most people can only think linearly and locally.
Administrative culture selects for people who think incrementally, so you're just not going to see a sudden change of the bureaucratic imagination. For instance, if you look at the recent CODE restructuring, university admin decided not to support fully online courses, and support only blended learning, which is about as behind the times as you can be (not to mention the market of 20,000 CODE students and the millions earned by that unit).
But anyway, speaking of January, I published this blog post on how to set up a home studio space for shooting online lectures, which some might find useful,
Best,
Michael Filimowicz, PhD Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology School of Interactive Arts and Technology | Simon Fraser University Office: SUR 2818 | 250-13450 102 Ave. Surrey, BC V3T 0A3 T: 778-782-8178 | Skype ID: michael.filimowicz From: Stacy Pigg <stacy_pigg@sfu.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2020 12:49 AM To: Cynthia Patton; Nicky Didicher; Christopher Pavsek; academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca) Subject: Re: Good ideas for final exams? I want to repeat Cindy Patton's point about the urgent need for SFU to get more flexible in support of students and instructors:
Bureaucracy, please speed up. It requires abstraction and systemic thinking to see, but every small system action that accommodates the crisis situation really does save lives.
Dr. Stacy Leigh Pigg
Professor of Anthropology Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive Burnaby BC V5A 1S6 Canada
At Simon Fraser University, we live and work on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the Squamish
(Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw), Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), and Kwikwetlem First Nations. I respectfully acknowledge this fact.
From: Cynthia Patton <cindy_patton@sfu.ca>
Sent: March 16, 2020 9:14 PM To: Nicky Didicher; Christopher Pavsek; academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca) Subject: Re: Good ideas for final exams? Who makes up these rules??? "can't drop a final . . . "
I have been extremely dissappointed with the persistent undertone that students will try to get away with something.
I reiterate:
This is not some kind of game, this is a genuine, global health emergency, in which real people (many of them the age of our "older than average" faculty) are dying. No one can plan for this kind of thing. That means that "normal rules" just don't apply. In extremely condensed zones, medical personnel are forced to decide who is going to get treatment. The real issue is health system capacity. If we screw around any longer and a bunch of people get really, really sick, then . . . what???
Put the students in the lifeboats first, then let us old timers in. The rest of you can don masks and come quickly after.
(Forgive the Titanic metaphor, but its begged . . . we're sinking.) From: Nicky Didicher
Sent: March 16, 2020 8:53:22 PM To: Cynthia Patton; Christopher Pavsek; academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca) Subject: Re: Good ideas for final exams? In FASS, we've been told we can't drop the final if it's worth more than 20% of the total grade, but we can offer an alternative online assessment, presumably one that would offer students a chance to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding, and skills. Some students may be counting on the final to bring their grade up, for a variety of reasons. My preference would be for a reflective essay in which students talk about what and how they've learned in the course, what they still struggle with, how they might apply this in their lives outside the class, etc. Chris, do you have to mark the 230+ exams by yourself or do you have TAs? Nicky From: Cynthia Patton <cindy_patton@sfu.ca>
Sent: March 16, 2020 8:24:03 PM To: Christopher Pavsek; academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca) Subject: Re: Good ideas for final exams? I am a really strong advocate of eliminating the final exam. You could take the mid-term exam and extrapolate a grade, or you could take the current average. If students can make the case that their final exam would have raised their grade, then do different math.
If this were an Earthquake with buildings fall around us, would we be having these conversations??? Folks, please get real about this situation. Let's appreciate the great learning that we're been able to accomplish and just get the semester done as quickly as possible. From: Christopher Pavsek <cpavsek@sfu.ca>
Sent: March 16, 2020 8:00:33 PM To: academic-discussion (academic-discussion@sfu.ca) Subject: Good ideas for final exams? Hi all—I’m wondering if anyone here has come up with an interesting solution for administering a final exam to a large class (230+ students).
I thought about doing a final within Canvas at my allotted time slot, but I think a fair number of students might be back home in very different time zones or without good internet access. My course is an intro to film studies, fwiw. Has anyone come up with something good? Thanks Chris Pavsek |