Hi all,
There have been several posts to this list about how to make it less likely that students would collaborate inappropriately during online tests. There's some evidence* that signing a pledge after doing a task isn't any more effective at reducing
cheating than not having students sign a pledge at all but that signing beforehand does, in fact, reduce cheating. You might consider having students read and sign an integrity pledge before they do the task. It's
not a perfect solution, of course, but it might be something to consider. In case you're interested, here's the study: *Shu, L. L., Mazar, N., Gino, F., Ariely, D., & Bazerman, M. H. (2012). Signing at the beginning makes ethics salient and decreases dishonest
self-reports in comparison to signing at the end. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(38), 15197-15200.
In terms of testing mapping, map interpretation, etc., a colleague on this list emailed me after I posted all the Google Earth kmz files to ask if I had any suggestions for how to test students' abilities online. Giving each student a different mapping
area would be too time-consuming to grade in all but a small class, but choosing only one or two areas would run up against the inappropriate collaboration problem. I offered him a couple suggestions, and I've shared them below. I'm sure that all y'all will
have suggestions for other approaches that could be used as well. And, although what I've written below is specifically about mapping in Google Earth, there's no reason why the strategies couldn't also be used for interpreting existing geologic maps, virtual
outcrops or samples, photomicrographs, etc.
If you wanted students to work independently, you could choose, for example, 4 mapping areas, divide those 4 areas into a number of different subareas each, and assign 1 subsection to each student. Or you could choose several different contacts in a mapping
area that could be mapped and assign 1 of those contacts to each of the people in the mapping area. If you wanted to do cross sections, you could choose a number of different cross section locations in a mapping area and assign 1 of those lines to each of
the people in a mapping area.
Students are likely to actually learn more by working in pairs/groups on a mapping area. Here's one way that you could have students do both independent and collaborative work that, I think, reduces the likelihood that students would just copy from someone
else. Choose, for example, 4 mapping areas. Assign 8 people to each area and then make 4 teams of two for each area. Have each person on a team map half the area independently, share their map with the other person on the team, and then put together a geologically
reasonable composite map. Students would need FaceTime, Skype, WhatsApp, or something like that, but students do have lots of experience with those. I would certainly try it with my students (but, then again, my students all know one another, which wouldn't
be the case if you have a large class). Only you would know if it would work with yours.
Looking forward to hearing other ideas!
Best,
Barb
--
Barbara J. Tewksbury
Professor of Geosciences
Hamilton College
198 College Hill Rd.
Clinton, NY 13323
voice: 315-859-4713
fax: 315-859-4807
http://people.hamilton.edu/btewksbu
