Assessment in Covid times

August 3, 2020September 16, 2020 devayanitirthali1 Comment

Most of the colleges in India, conduct a final exam to assess student learning. Covid has put constraints on large gatherings to take an exam. It is a good reason to get out of the entrenched system of final exams, external examiners and all its trappings. Ideally we should be focusing on continuous assessment by the teacher rather than depending on a one time effort to assess semester-long learning.

Take a moment to think through why you need timed final exams. There could be a variety of reasons. Competitive timed exams with invigilation have a primarily gatekeeping objective. A similar reason I have heard multiple times at the university/college level is – keeping sanctity of education or the degree.

If we agree that the primary aim of the whole exercise of a degree program is learning to think/do/communicate X, who do we assume or believe is responsible for the learning? The ‘sanctity of education’ discourse and need to monitor exams closely, presumes that the institution and the teachers are responsible for student learning. If you believe that the students are responsible for their own learning, you might not need monitored exams.

Over the years, many teachers have commented that students have a short term objective to get good grades rather than giving importance to learning and it is their responsibility to goad students on the path of long term benefit away from short-termism. If you believe this, you can think of learning as a shared responsibility and inculcate the culture in your classroom from the first day of class. Design assignments that would push for learning rather than performance. Grade for effort, rather than right or wrong answers.

This is a conversation you need to have with yourself at the beginning of the semester and plan your assessment strategy based on it.

Just a note: If students want to cheat rather than learn, they will. Fixed and strict time limits, video monitoring of students while writing the exam etc establish the culture of teachers being responsible for learning and provides more impetus for students to find ways to skirt the constraints. Rather than motivation for learning, these methods end up being punitive for students who do not have a stable internet connection, separate room, and a separate robust device to take the exam on.

Alternatives to monitored exams
Open book test: If you would like to know how well students can apply something they learnt, the best way is to give them a problem solving assignment that cannot be completed by copying from the textbook or easily googled. An open book test with a lenient time frame gives importance to higher order learning than rote learning and makes sure that the most disadvantaged students are not penalised.

Final paper, presentation, or a product: Works well if you can break it into multiple short assignments throughout the semester leading to the end product. This scaffolds the process of creating the end product, especially important for students who might balk at a lengthy writing assignment or students who have never worked on a semester long project who might falter at time management skill. This assignment gives you a glimpse into the process as well as the end product making the grading more meaningful.

For more ideas see this list from Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning at Indiana University.

Continuous Assessment
Rather than thinking about how to move the final exam and invigilation online, it might be a good time to embrace continuous assessment. You can start by converting your final product or exam into a semester long process as mentioned above. If your subject does not lend itself to a final product or the students are not prepared for it you can start small.

A simple addition of a weekly homework for attendance grade mentioned in the previous note can start you on this path. The homework can be a simple reflection exercise. For example, write the main point of today’s discussion or lecture; list 3 takeaways from the session today. Another of my favourite exercise is – list skills, techniques or concepts that need more work this week, What do you plan to do about it. The plan could be self study, practice problem solving, ask for help from peers or time for office hours. These exercises teach students how to take responsibility for their own learning. That for me is the most important skill they can learn than any ‘content to be covered’ for a subject.

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Teaching in Covid times

July 27, 2020September 13, 2020 devayanitirthali2 Comments

The UGC timeline of August 1st week to start the academic year for already registered students is now upon us. It is quite clear, at least in places like Delhi where I live, that university campuses cannot/will not open for face-to-face instruction. I hope Universities have planned before hand for this eventuality.

In the winter semester, campuses closing suddenly meant, the classroom instruction was moved to online as an emergency measure. There was no time to learn or follow best practices. No time for preparation of online resources or setting up processes for clear communication. We survived through that. However, the August 1 starting is not sudden, we know we will have to teach online so there is no excuse for just copying classroom practices to online and hope or pretend that it will work. These two are completely different spaces with their own strong and weak points. Replicating the face-to-face experience online in the name of not lowering /keeping standards will be a huge mistake.

Here are some areas in which teachers and administrators need to think differently to achieve best outcomes. These are based on decades of research in online and distance teaching and learning:
Classroom time together
The best part of face-to-face instruction is constant feedback for the teacher; quality time with the teacher and peers for the student. However, it is not translated well at all in synchronous online teaching. An online lecture due to its lack of non-verbal feedback is one of the least productive teaching strategies. The best part of ‘online’ is the flexibility of not being present physically. By asking students to attend lectures in real time fails to capitalize on the best that online can offer.

Instead, teachers need to plan for recorded lectures for basic content, and a follow up session every week to check in with students, address queries, expand on the material already provided. This takes care of practical difficulties students face such as – lack of stable connection, lack of space to study, lack of individual resources (computer, mobile, internet connection) for each person in the house to use at the same time. This also gives students time to mull over the material and apply the concepts so that they are much more prepared in the weekly check in session. Overall, a much more productive use of resources and the synchronous teaching time.

When creating rules about contact hours, the important point for administrators would be to think about total hours spent in synchronous and asynchronous contact rather than being hung up on replicating the twice or thrice a week timed lecture in the classroom, in an online setting.

Grading for attendance
As we shift from the weekly timed lectures to a mix of synchronous and asynchronous teaching, we also need to rethink the participation grade. Many teachers, use attendance in face-to-face classroom (and may be being vocal in that space) as a proxy for participation. Colleges also have policies about attendance. In the changed circumstances it will be punitive for the most underserved students unless the colleges can provide a dedicated computer, internet connection, and space where they can attend the synchronous online sessions.

Instead think of activities that can be completed asynchronously, such as discussion forums, regular ungraded homework assignments that can tell you if a student is participating. If colleges have a generic classroom attendance policy, administrators need to change it to participation policy to keep up with the times.

Planning for an hour-long lecture vs planning for a unit
In a face-to-face setting, our syllabus/ instructional planning is generally based on the number of hour-long lectures we have in a semester and the content to be covered. With the focus shifted to a mix of synchronous and asynchronous, the time together cannot be the central unit of planning anymore.

Instead plan based on a unit focused on subtopics you want to introduce. Best practice is to think of a subtopic that can be handled as a weekly unit. The unit can have recorded lectures, readings, activities that scaffold learning with the material provided, and a culminating synchronous session. The recorded lectures further need to be thought out as small subtopics that can be explained in bite sized short 10-minute videos. Depending on the complexity of ideas, each video or a group of videos can end into a self-study question. Such possibilities of self-check peppered throughout the unit keep students on task, provide feedback to the teacher, and creates basis for the participation grade.

Administrators need to offer workshops and/or ongoing consultations from a specialist to help teachers plan for the online settings. They also need to provide technology support and consultation so that teachers can prepare quality online content.

These are just a few places where we need to make a thoughtful shift. I will write in more detail about assessments and grading in the next post. Now that we are not available physically during our assigned lecture hours, clear communication and managing expectations is also going to be an important aspect. I guess another post on that is in order as well.

Social Media, Technology & Education

The thesis writing factory

June 14, 2020November 3, 2021 devayanitirthaliLeave a comment

I have heard about the thesis writing factories in India and have brushed it off thinking it is not a wide spread problem. However, recently it has come up so many times that I can’t ignore the extent of the phenomenon and the clients not only in India but also in US and UK universities.

A couple of years back I joined sites like People Per Hour to see what was going on there. My profile sets me up as a researcher, evaluator, writer, editor. It has been a pleasure working with some MA and doctoral students stuck somewhere in their research and writing process but most of the requests I get are to write papers, chapters outright. Some openely ask to ‘ghost write’ a journal paper while others use sneaky phrases like ‘major edits’. Some asking to get entire end term papers written are fearless to just post the assignment with the course and university name clearly visible.

It is appalling and distressing to see the number of such requests that reach me when it is quite clear I do not do such work. How many papers, thesis are being written by people who make it their profession? I was told the going rate for a thesis is in lacks.

If you decided to study, why wouldn’t you want to learn I keep asking in bafflement. It was clarified by one simple remark – I am not interested in research, I am doing this only to get the degree as now-a-days it is difficult to get teaching assignments without it. The incentives are all wrong already. The thesis factories are going to just baloon some more with the new UGC requirements for degree and publishing to be an assistant professor.

I am pretty sure there are still people out there who are stuck without good mentorship who will give their best if I can just help and motivate them. I am also hopeful that there are at least some who can be poked and motivated into at least trying before they declare they don’t care enough to work to get their piece of paper.

Musings · Social Media, Technology & Education

Growing up

January 15, 2020July 27, 2020 devayanitirthali1 Comment

Going through all the old stuff at my mother’s house has been an education in how privileged my life was in terms of at least one parent taking active interest in my education and Marathi language development. Previously I wrote about the newspaper cuttings of poems. Poems that she taught me to enact. During the recent visit we found a poem she wrote herself to teach us about fruits. I remember enacting, in fifth grade, a story she wrote. It had a somewhat sad ending but taught me about ethics and not making assumptions about people. Simple lessons that have served me well my entire life. She used to write speeches for me for ellocution competitions as well. I particularly remember the one she wrote for B G Tilak’s Jayanti – an age appropriate story from his childhood depicting his independent spirit.

This one looks like a poem written for a much younger age. Focused on interesting sounds and imagery – खाड खाड बूट आपटत , अंतू चिंतू मंडळी, लट्ठमभारती पोंक्षे etc. You can see extra lines scribbled in the margin probably to include some fruits missed in the first effort. Here is the complete poem:

फळांची ओळख
बंडोबान काढलं फळांचं दुकान
फळं घ्या फळं गोड ताजी छान
लोकांना मिळाली वर्दी
दुकानात झाली एकच गर्दी

काठी टेकत टेकत आले मिस्टर तांबे
खोकत खोकत म्हणाले कसे डझन आंबे
अंतू चिंतू मंडळी, पाहून आली जंजीर
बंडोबाना म्हणाली गॉड आहे ना अंजीर
सुलू ताई आल्या, बरोबर होती कुक्कु
म्हणाली आई मला नको काही, घे फक्त चिक्कू

खाड खाड बूट आपटत आले दोन शिपाई
ऐटीत राहूंन उभी, मागितली पपई
डुलत डुलत आले लट्ठमभारती पोंक्षे
सीझन नव्हता तरी म्हणे हवी मला द्राक्षे

सकूटर थांबवत थोडी म्हणाले सुरेश मंत्री
आहेत का हो तुमच्याकडे नागपुरी संत्री
विद्याताई आली साडी नेसून डाळिंबी
आजोबांसाठी तिला घ्यायची होती मोसंबी
प्रतिभाची मुलं म्हणे खात नाहीत भाजी पोळी
शिकरणाला हवीत तिला रोज घरात केळी

यमुनाताईंची सदा घाई, दोन हवे अननस
लवकर द्या हो नाहीतर चुकेल माझी बस

बंडोबान काढलं फळांचं दुकान
माल गेला संपून व्यापार झाला छान

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What is education for?

November 17, 2019November 17, 2019 devayanitirthali2 Comments

Conversations about JNU student agitation against raised fees were trending on twitter last week. Many commented that the increase is not much. Rs300 per month is pittance. Others pointed out that 40% of JNU students are from families below poverty line who cannot afford even this sum that others think is small so they will be priced out. The oft repeated discourse was:

The students are free loaders.
Government should not be wasting tax payers’ money on subsidising education.
Medicine and technology education should be subsidized than humanities, liberal arts education that earns nothing.
Students should start earning after BA. Should do odd jobs to support themselves.

There are many points to discuss /refute here but I picked up one that is on my mind everytime there is a controversy related to education. The fundamental question: What is education for? Much of the browbeating assumes the primary and only objective of education is to get a well paying job. What about:

Education as a means to develop well rounded citizens in a democracy.
Education as a means of self actualization.
Education as a cognitive, metacoginitive, social, emotional -skill building, over and above the core subject or the degree. What we call Learning to Learn.

Current education might not be fulfilling these objectives but the point is to aspire to it and plan for it rather than getting hung up on just a job at the end of a degree.

From many of the twitter conversations it looks like it is not just the question of what is education for… but also about who can aspire to which motivation/objective for education. As this tone deaf tweet assumes – poor people can only think about education as a means to a job that can earn a quick buck.

Or a youth from Rajasthan whose family is battling agrarian distress want to study Spanish. Will 3 years and a bachelors degree in Spanish land him a job? Or youths from poverty hit families in UP spending 3 years studying Pashto and German
— Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) November 15, 2019

Free or subsidized education in all disciplines is an investment in the future of the country and not a waste of taxpayer’s money. ‘All disciplines’ needs to be stressed here as “We want engineers in the world but not a world of engineers” (Churchill??). More number of better educated people from diverse backgrounds (education, life experience etc) generate more, better ideas. According to economists that is the only durable source of growth in the long run. The government paying for education is not a handout to the person getting educated. It is not just for personal benefit but a necessity for future of the entire society. Definitely investment with better returns than statues and vain projects with nationalistic fervour.

Musings · Social Media, Technology & Education

Whataboutery

April 24, 2019July 27, 2020 devayanitirthaliLeave a comment

Lately, it has been hard to continue any dialogue, on social media (Facebook, Twitter,WhatsApp) . If the topic is lynchings, the response is, what about Kashmiri Pandits who suffered at the hand of muslims, or the historic atrocities. If the topic is economic issues due to demonetization or corruption, the reaction is, what about all the ghapalas Congress engaged in, or Lalu or some other person, party engaged in. If a person points at the atrocities on animals, or refugees in need of help, the reaction is, what about these other groupings of people? Why wouldn’t you comment on that?

This particular way of arguing, whataboutery, does not move dialogue. Here is a definition of whataboutery from Wikitionary:

Protesting at hypocrisy; responding to criticism by accusing one’s opponent of similar or worse faults.
Protesting at inconsistency; refusing to act in one instance unless similar action is taken in other similar instances.

This is an ‘Ad Hominum Tu Quoque’ type of fallacy , Tu Quoque literally translated as ‘you also’. Instead of refuting or engaging with the argument put forth, the focus is on labeling the commentor with hipocracy.

Whataboutery does not move dialogue, so how do we teach people how to argue productively? Looking back to see the influences in my life; I learnt about fallacies in my Logic class in 11th grade. It might be the basis of how I learnt to argue well, or how I learnt to write well, building on arguments to reach a desired point. But then again, I remember one of my classmates being frustrated with the subject as she could not make head or tail of the T,F table or the list of fallacies and their definitions. Much of it was taught like math is taught in many Indian schools. Learn the steps and just follow them without a thought. Nobody expected any particular effect on the way we think, argue, spot faulty arguments etc. Other subjects most definitely did not teach us how to argue a point well or write an opinion piece based on solid facts and reasoning. No wonder I keep getting papers to review at masters and even PhD level that are a hodgepodge of borrowed ideas than a well formed argument. But I diagress.

Coming back to the problem of public discourse – I realize now that my basic assumption that people will engage in productive dialogue if they were provided with the tools, might be faulty. The entire reason to resort to whataboutery is to shut up the person whose views do not match your world view. So the problem is much more funadamental.

The basis for the need to shut up another is because of the perception that my way is the right way and there can be none other. Some of it is because of the current polarizing discourse. Much of it I think is also because of the subpar education in schools and colleges that do not teach or expose students to the diverse experiences, histories of people. The ability to acknowledge and celebrate (not tolerate) others’ way of being and ability to listen, reflect deeply, and graciously agree to disagree – these are the skills we need to teach kids in homes and in schools.

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Random thoughts on Plagiarism, literature reviews and such

December 28, 2018February 25, 2020 devayanitirthaliLeave a comment

It is getting really frustrating to get requests to edit/review thesis or literature review that actually expect me to write most of the document or rewrite copy pasted chunks so that they are not caught by softwares like TurnItIn. The requests come from people supposedly in North America or Europe. So before you jump in and decide it might be a third world country problem, it is not.

I am perplexed. Do these people not know that it is unethical or they do not think they will get caught or may be there are no repercussions? I voiced this frustration while chatting with a group of school friends. One of them an established scientist in US now. She completed her Masters in India before going to US to complete her Doctorate. She commented that she did not know about plagiarism or how to do a literature review till she wrote her first paper and was told not to do a patchwork copy paste work like that again. She had a better mentors who eduated her. However, I also know another story from Columbia University, my alma mater where computer science students got in serious trouble for using part of code from each other.

Is nobody teaching students how to conduct or write literature review along the way?

I try to remember where/when/how I learned it. It is difficult to pin point now after all this time and it has become so everyday. Probably learned along the way in multiple courses, or watching other senior researchers may be?

One specific overtly designed experience I remember was in Prof. Lin’s class on Metacognition. She asked us to summarize the paper as per a structure, a table or a form she had provided. By second or third week we learnt to give a quick read to the assigned papers for the week and pick up the most important points instead of getting stuck in the weeds. I also remember writing literature reviews as part of class assignments for at least 2-3 subjects.

Musings · Social Media, Technology & Education

Hindi Hain Hum: language skirmishes continue

October 5, 2018September 29, 2019 devayanitirthaliLeave a comment

I try to avoid commenting on language skirmishes on twitter but yesterday some statistics shared in a tweet war peaked my interest. It all started from a Kannadiga receiving entry-pass in Hindi which is unreadable for him. The expectation was that it should be in Kannada the local language or at least there could have been an option to select the language of the pass. The rebuttal was that Hindi is the majority language (41% speaker) and for practical purposes it should be accepted as The language.

There are multiple problems in that discourse. Firstly, the assumption that a nation needs one language, one identity to gather behind is not an indisputable fact. I have already discussed that here so I will skip that. The detail that pushed me down the rabit hole was the figure 41%.

I was quite surprised to see the original census data. This percentage quoted comes from the 2001 census. The numbers aggregate speakers of 49 languages including Hindi, excluding the category ‘Other’. This includes prominent and widely spoken languages like Bhojpuri, speakers of which are fighting to get a separate language status. One of the oft repeated complaint under #StopHindiImposition is how Hindi belt or the Central Government is silencing the voice of South Indians and Bengalis by forcing Hindi instead of local languages. I wonder if we are aware that we do the same as we paint a lively and diverse language landscape from Rajasthan to Bihar and Uttaranchal to madhyapradesh in a broad brush stroke of ‘the Hindi belt’.

The latest census data is from 2011. The percentage of Hindi speakers has increased over the decade to 44% but so has the number of languages combined under the heading Hindi. To make sense of this data better I am trying to create a data visualization – a language map of what the Hindi belt looks like in its different hues. Please suggest any tools, code or any ideas you may have for map based visualization in the comments below.

The census data, the attached documents and summaries are a gold mine to understand the language landscape as well as the politics behind the data. Stay tuned to see more historical data, comparisons over the year and the socio-economical, political variables that decide the status and spread of a language.