Maybe I should start calling my regular assignments “extra credit.”Fellow Troy University professor Scott Nokes wonders:
Why is it that students who wouldn’t scratch their bottoms to get a final exam grade will do anything for extra credit?
Indeed, the number of students who will eschew reading, studying, etc. will frequently beg for extra credit. They want to write papers, retake test or “anything” (anything, it would seem, except do the work of the course in the first place).
Scott may have hit on the solution:
Maybe I should start calling my regular assignments “extra credit.”
A proposal worthy of consideration.
Maybe from now on I should start the semester by telling the students that they have all failed, but I have some wonderful “extra credit” opportunities on the syllabus for them to partake of, should they desire.
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October 19th, 2024 at 10:33 am
I’ve noticed many who teach fail to see why “extra credit” is attractive to students. It all boils down to time pressures and not knowing what to study for tests. I know a student should know what to study but the reality is the teacher likes to keep them guessing and the students have more than one class to study for. Many times a student thinks they are prepared but only realizes they were not after the test scores are handed out.
The “extra credit” work is less pressure and can be completed in a more open time frame. Control passes from the teacher to the student in a sense.
If the goal is for the student to learn the material I don’t see why it’s a problem. After all, in college classes who’s paying for the education?
October 19th, 2024 at 11:23 am
“If the goal is for the student to learn the material I don’t see why it’s a problem.”
So under this logic, you should one day expect to go to work, play on the internet, take a 3 hour lunch and finish off the day with a nap at your desk. Because if you can get the work done by the deadline, what’s the problem?
As an instructor, I hate the concept of extra credit. I can see your effort in class and through your assignments. If you’re asking me for extra credit you’re basically telling me that you don’t care enough to do the required work, or you are too lazy.
I do realize that students are balancing more than just my class. Part of college is learning the valuable skill of time management.
Students (or their parents) do pay to come to college. That pays for the student the opportunity to earn an education. Part of earning that education is doing the required work that goes along with it, as well as studying under talented and sometimes brilliant minds. It does not give them the right to dictate how they will get their education.
This entitlement generation of students is a terrible thing to happen to the educational system.
October 19th, 2024 at 12:14 pm
Extra Credit
My former colleague Steven Taylor and his current cross-campus colleague Scott Nokes reflect on the strange fact that “students who wouldn’t scratch their bottoms to get a final exam grade will do anything for extra credit.”
My guess …
October 19th, 2024 at 3:35 pm
Steve,
You have to understand that the students begging for extra credit typically do not study, do not attend class, do not ask questions, and then find themselves about to fail and then want to “do some extra credit” to hopefully rescue themselves from the hole they have created for themselves.
And Lauren is right: the tuition is paid for an opportunity to learn, not for the right to do whatever one wants.
October 21st, 2024 at 4:46 pm
“The ‘extra credit’ work is less pressure and can be completed in a more open time frame. Control passes from the teacher to the student in a sense.”
… except that in this case, the students had a week to do the take-home midterm. During that week I assigned no reading and cancelled classes (though I held special office hours during the normal class period to advise the more skittish among them.
As for the extra credit, they had only two days, it was competitive, and only one group (four students) would ultimately receive the extra credit. The extra credit was MORE pressure, had a shorter time frame, and MOST of them would receive no credit.
As for the issue of not knowing what to study, when I was in undergrad I had a PoliSci professor who would had out a study guide before each exam. The exam was EXACTLY THE SAME as the study guide, every time — he just substitute the word “Exam” for “Study Guide” at the top of the sheet. Yet it was the same thing — students would fail an exam for which they essentially had a cheat sheet, and then would pour hours into unimportant extra credit opportunities.
I think it’s that magical word “extra” — if they feel like they’re getting something for nothing, they’ll work extra hard without realizing it … kind of like blowing $50 a week on lottery tickets rather than investing in penny stocks.