Not going to phone it in

Originally written Monday night... and edited tonight.

*****

I gave my first BlackBoard test today and it went smoothly. By giving the questions one-at-a-time, randomly, and not allowing them to go back, I think there was virtually no cheating... which is quite a feat.

The scores were bad: An average of 56 in one class and 58 in the other. Had I given a paper exam with multiple versions and watched them like a hawk the scores would have been the same. (One upside to the scores: This is the class that students fought to get into in part because they viewed me as easy... killed that myth quickly.) It's not that the test was hard - it wasn't - it's that we have a bad textbook and even worse PowerPoint slides.

At the beginning of the semester I vowed that this semester I wasn't going to phone it in. My first semester here was draining. Adapting my way of teaching to this culture was not as easy as I expected and God knows I wasn't prepared for the cheating. Spring and fall 2009 were practically coasting... and summer 2009 was the easiest teaching gig of my life. I could easily continue to coast. I could report to work, do my job with little effort, and consistently be considered a good teacher. I'm not being cocky. I'm teaching courses I've taught dozens of times before and teaching comes naturally for me. I am very lucky that I found a job I love and can do it well without a lot of effort. Very lucky.

But at the end of last semester I had a "Dead Poet's Society" moment: In the US I was able to inspire many of my students... not to the point of disobeying their parents, getting in trouble and committing suicide... but enough that many have kept in touch years later...

Here I'm the guy who makes boring stuff interesting (that's my reputation on the message board they use). But inspire? Not really. So this semester I have vowed to go all out. Offer review sessions. Offer study guides. On Thursday I will go do a voice over for the PowerPoints that will be recorded. If it works it should be good for review.

I have no idea if it will work or make any difference. I just know I have to give it a try.

(The post above was edited to a third of what I wrote Monday.)

Update:

I'm not sure if my "go all out" strategy is going to work. I went into the men's and women's classes (that had bombed the quiz on Monday) and said, "OK, we have to change how we do things..." I gave them the quiz again and told them to work in groups, use the book, use notes, anything to get to the right answers. The women were meticulous. 25 minutes later some groups were on the fifth question. I said, "I appreciate your making 100% sure to have the right answer but we've got to do this faster."

In the afternoon I'm with the guys. One group had all 25 questions answered in five minutes. The group score? 72/100. Others followed shortly after with scores only slightly higher. I said, "Oh dear God, this was supposed to be a learning exercise. You didn't have time to look ANYTHING up. Do it again."

The guys said, "But tell us which ones we got wrong and we'll look those up."

Yep. The semester of going above and beyond may well be remembered as the semester of beating my head against a wall.