If I were the professor I’d take my own test and include myself in the curve. Just to keep things interesting, then suddenly everyone who boycotts gets a C instead of an A. Average effort deserves and average result.
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Probably not, but I like to think that he was hoping at least one student would notice the exploitable loophole in his grading algorithm and share it with the rest.
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I would have snuck in through another door, taken the test, get an A, everyone else gets an F. Because that will teach them a lesson as well. Never assume everyone has your back.
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That’s part of it, yes. I’m also suggesting the students should try to get more out of their experience than an A. But apparently, that’s an unpopular opinion and I know nothing about college and what it’s for. But par for the course around here, right?
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I think that’s a charitable view of the whole thing. It’s clear that it certainly pushed the professor to come up with a more effective set of options for his students.
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Yeah… I totes agree with that.
I have given all As, and I have failed a quarter of the class: my students earn it, I demand a lot, and I give a lot. It’s work all around.
I was never a grade-chaser myself… I was more interested in what I was getting out of the experience. I think grade-chaser students are a tad rocked by my expectations.
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Indeed. And a good instructor will always be improving their class structure to get the results that they want. But some students can’t let go of that adversarial relationship between teacher and student. They think it’s a given, but most of us here (especially those of us who are contingent faculty or not at elite institutions) do care about education and it’s role in creating a better life for people.
Yes, this. Not nearly enough folks who have this mindset, which given the problems of K-12 education, can be understandable.
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‘Gaming the system’ is all well and good, I guess; but when it comes time to actually show and prove, there may be some students who’ll wish they’d genuinely studied.
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If it worked, and if I were the prof, I’d have totally approved of their Kobayashi Maru move, and then stopped grading on curves.
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My husband is a software engineer, and he says the new hires who come out of more elite programs can’t bring the goods in terms of practical applications of writing code.
That is literally what happened here. exactly so.
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He didn’t have an agreement with his students - he imposed a grading system on them that wouldn’t accurately reflect their mastery of the syllabus.
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Cool; obvs I just skimmed the article 
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As an alum, though not a particularly recent one, I can say with enthusiasm that I’m more impressed by the ability of the students to organize a complete boycott of the exam than I would have been by the grades that they might have mustered. As was alluded to in the article, Hopkins has a culture that can be more than a little cutthroat at times. These kids solved a social engineering problem that I would never had tried to tackle.
They, like the Parkland students, remind me to look beyond my expectations of the young 'uns.
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I can understand this view to some extent. However, what upsets me is how these young adults seem to view college as nothing more than part of k-12, as if there is nothing valuable to higher ed other than “get the grade.” It’s the assumed adversarial relationship between the prof and students that bothers me, especially since plenty of profs want their students to succeed and to get something valuable out of the course other than the grade. If someone thinks that going to one of the most elite institutions in the country, with some of the smartest profs isn’t a unique privilege where they can learn something valuable outside of getting the grade, then I really worry.
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I hear you saying that but it feels from here as if you’re reading more into it than actually exists.
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I might agree for other courses, but
I get where you’re coming from. If I’d been in one of these courses in a prior term and was one of the fails (after demonstrating knowledge of most of the course material), I’d be particularly irked.
However, in terms of it being “their loss,” there are a few things to say. They were thinking like software engineers and did find a solution to the exam. The exam itself is not what will serve them in their future careers. If some of them didn’t learn as much, they’ll likely get sorted later in the workplace.
As they are intro courses, they may also be taken to meet GE requirements not related to their majors - which is to say, they really will never ever return to this field. Programming Intro courses will often use languages that are obsolete or serve antiquated technologies just to familiarize students with the history and programming concepts.
Tech as a field has opened the door to many engineers and programmers who could not afford a four year university much less Johns Hopkins.
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IMO, grading on a curve works when the class has already been pared down to actual elite non-morons. It means that grade-inflation gets taken out of subjective hands. And as much as people don’t like everything being a competition, I don’t think its a bad idea for students to get an idea as they progress where they are going to stand in the job market after graduation. Even if you’ve mastered the material, if everyone else is mastering it even better and you’re in a field with limited job openings you aren’t going to get those jobs. That might be good to find out before you’ve gone another 50k in debt. (though this isn’t to denigrate the idea of education for its own sake, which I support).
It can be incredibly motivating, whether its to an unhealthy extent or not is up for debate. I remember a guy I knew in the Michigan B school who said all it took was for one or two people to be spotted in the library on a Friday night and word would spread and most of the class would cancel their party plans. It does make sure kids are studying instead of partying.
Indeed. I’m torn between being mildly appalled at their behavior and admiring that they avoided the Prisoner’s Dilemma.
There’s another way to read it though. They resented being forced to compete with each other instead of themsleves, and so decided, and succeeded, in showing that cooperation could overcome competition. After all, I know it would have taken all my willpower not to break the boycott and sit the test. I agree that for the sake of education this isn’t behavior that should be normalized. But it’s precisely because Johns Hopkins doesn’t nominally accept lazy dolts that, rather than sloth being their motive, many probably had to overcome the desire to excel for this to work (though I’m sure a healthy dose of peer-pressure was involved). Just my 2¢.
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It’s the outcome of a larger society and culture* that values symbolic gestures (e.g. a credential) over actual outcomes (e.g. an education) and that places zero-sum competition above co-operation (though at least in this adversarial case they incorporated some solidarity and group action).
Combine that with the fact that for a while now a Bachelor’s degree has become the new high school diploma as far as corporate HR departments are concerned and I can’t blame the kids too much for thinking that way. That doesn’t make it any less disheartening to their professors or anyone who thinks academia is about more than getting a job, of course.
[* many college administrators included]
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Maybe not from you, but given that I’m a VL at a large university, the presumed adversarial relationship between students and profs IS a problem. I’m not here to make their lives hell, I’m here to help them better understand history - that’s my actual goal. You and others here may not believe that and think I’m here to make their lives hell, but I’m not. I guess you don’t have to believe me, since lots of people here seem to think I’m entirely ignorant about college life.
The fact that many students treat it like a game that they’re trying to win as opposed to seeing me as someone who actually gives a shit about them and wants to help them better understand the world is, to put it mildly frustrating.
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