Boosting Rangers

[crazybillyo]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Again, just my 2-1/2 cents... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Worth every penny.

Now let's say we get this thread back on topic... ok?

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Sheridan: Are you trying to cheer me up?
Ivanova: No sir, wouldn't dream of it.
Sheridan: Good, I hate being cheered up. It's depressing.
Ivanova: So in that case we're all going to die horrible, painful, lingering deaths.
Sheridan: Thank you, I feel so much better now.

 

[Capt. Neville]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Capt. Neville:
As for the e-mail attachment issue: yes, the user has a choice to *open* the attachment, but they don't get a choice of whether to *download* it, which was my original point. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

See? I was already back on topic


-mcn

 

[hypatia]

Don't worry, Capt. Neville. Gender can be very difficult to figure out on a message board!

And, btw, my students do NOT have the luxury of submitting assignments at any time; they have about a week and a half to do so. And they have to take the final exam in a live, timed, no notes situation. (To get academic accreditation we had to do that. It can be hard to find a proctor for the final if the student is in another state. Luckily, most of our students who are not here are affiliated with another college, or the military.)

Anyhow, I ramble. Our course makes it possible to put a test on the web and have students sign in. It times the student on the assignment. I don’t use it, because I prefer them sending their written work to me, but if they improve the technology, I might try it. (The student is not cut off after the time limit, the final document just shows how long they took to finish the assignment. Also, power outages and such are a real pain with online, but timed, web assignments. )

Now, sorry to have gotten us off track yet again here. I just wanted to thank everyone, the Capt. Especially, for the info. I think I’ll stick with posting the assignments on the website and emailing a copy to them also. The email reminds them that an assignment is due soon, if nothing else!


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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo

 

[Capt. Neville]

LOL thanks Hypatia

Just to clarify, tho, I didn't mean they could turn the assignments in at any time, I just meant they didn't have to turn it in between 11:00pm and 12:00pm on a certain day. (I had a professor try that once; it didn't go over too well, needless to say...)

As for the test-taking system, it certainly is more promising to be able to take the test on the internet, although I can quite appreciate the desire for the written form (they're easier to take, sometimes, too). As for dealing with power outages, that shouldn't be a big deal, since it should be trivial for the system to keep track of how much time the student is actually viewing the page minus power outages (although they could always print it out and then fake a power outage, which is kinda not good...)

Sorry for the rant. My suggestion, tho, since I now got it lodged into my head and I can see how I would've loved the system back when I was taking classes, is: written, live tests because they're far easier to ensure no cheating on, and assignment pages with submission forms via FTP at the bottom of the assignment. And, of course, you could always send the page via e-mail as an HTML e-mail and have the submission form still on it

You guys can't tell I like designing this kind of stuff, can you? Good. :~)

Cheers,
-mcn

 

[drakh]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by bakana:
Unless it's all in the same room, or at least the same Building, you seldom know What computers the message passes through.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Well duh! We were discussing transfering things over the internet after all. The point was that these dispenses with uncessary middlemen, like FTP or mail servers, and that is generally described as a direct connection. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>The only thing that varies with ICQ and IRC functions is Which message passing protocol gets used. Some protocols are faster than others because they have less processing overhead. It has more to do with error checking and routing verification than anything else.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Which is handled on the base protocoll level (TCP/IP in this case). The programs themselves can do little more than to pump out raw binary data.

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You are not entitled to your own opinion. You are only entitled to your own informed opinion.
-- Harlan Ellison qouting Gustave Flaubert

 

[bakana]

Hypatia, there is alway the Sneaky way to get your students to prefer "face to face" testing:

Since an Online test amounts to a variation on the Open Book / Take home test, do the old standby:

Give them a test with the sort of questions where an Open Book doesn't help.

IOW, Some Thought Required.

I had an electronics teacher who did that once. In response to one of the not so smart students who was dumb enough to actually Ask for an Open Book test.
He got it. Three hours into the test, the teacher announced that anyone who wasn't Finished yet could take it home and turn it in the next morning.
Next day, talking it over, we realized Mr. Smartmouth had called Every One of Us asking for help. We had All turned him down.

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Yes, I like cats too.
Shall we exchange Recipes?