Quoting jamesboulter from 10:31, 25th Mar 2008The University Court has given in to some overblown political correctness from the Union and torn up the last dying vestiges of the student-tutor relationship.
What’s wrong with a tutor knowing who wrote an essay they are marking anyway? If my tutor hates me, it’s probably because I’m annoying in tutorials and deserve a bad mark.
Some of the great figures of history owed much of their success to their relationship with their tutor. What would Plato have said if Aristotle had to submit his coursework anonymously?
False dichotomy. He's pushing a third option: That regardless of specifics it is entirely possible that any given tutor might make mistakes. This is the same for all academics: Bias crops in regardless. To reduce it is to reduce it. Few people (?) directly steal things or make things up, but it's still prudent to ask for complete referencing and a bibliography.Quoting jamesboulter from 10:31, 25th Mar 2008
The Union’s “Director of Representation”, Steve Savage, said in his oh-so-widely-read propaganda newsletter*: “We’re not accusing staff of deliberate bias, but there is an element of the sub-conscious”. This is a deliberate fudge. Either he’s accusing tutors of being unprofessional or not. Which is it?
I see little problem with anonymity. Tutors really need (deserve?) little else to go on than academic ability. I find it quite worrying that folks'll be marked down academically simply because they're lacking the correct social skills to bond to a huge degree with their tutors.Quoting jamesboulter from 10:31, 25th Mar 2008Most worryingly of all, he adds “this is a step in the right direction”. What does he have in mind next? Students turning up to tutorials in balaclavas?**
Quoting jamesboulter from 10:31, 25th Mar 2008In practice, anonymous submission is a joke in any case. The tutor often knows which essay everyone is doing in advance and may well know their writing style.
Quoting jamesboulter from 10:31, 25th Mar 2008So we call on the University to see sense and retract this damaging policy. In the meantime, let’s rebel and put our names on every single page of every piece of work! We’re proud to be real people!
Anonymous (060003115)
Quoting Jono from 12:09, 25th Mar 2008
Just to be clear; I disagree with pretty much all the angry white male gobshite that's coming out of your mouth.
I joined the group because in my opinion the anonymisation of coursework is incompatable with the prevailing climate of the history department. In contrast to Psycology, we have tutorials with class sizes of less than ten, and seminars of ten to twenty. We have semester-long tutors, and a personal relationship with that tutor is pretty important to the whole course.
In light of that, Anonymisation is stupid because A) It undermines that relationship, and B) More often than not, your tutor knows who wrote what essay anyway! In any event, to get feedback; you have to own up to the essay.
This policy has affected worst those classes whose structure sets each student a unique essay, two due in each week. It actually undermines the whole course, and one of my tutors is openly flouting the policy as a result. I'm happy with that; as are the entire seminar group if anyone's got a problem!
Which brings me to my next point; I feel that this policy was adopted and pushed by the union with bugger-all democratic participation. Where was the vote? The only thing I heard about this was when a survey was taken by a couple of guys outside the main library. I certainly hope the faculty of Arts didn't adopt this policy on the basis of that!
Quoting jamesboulter from 10:31, 25th Mar 2008
What’s wrong with a tutor knowing who wrote an essay they are marking anyway? If my tutor hates me, it’s probably because I’m annoying in tutorials and deserve a bad mark.
Quoting exnihilo from 17:41, 25th Mar 2008
So because there might be the odd dick who should not suffer for it everyone loses the personal relationship with their tutor? Sounds about par for the course.
Quoting Raaaaaaaar from 17:58, 25th Mar 2008
How will you lose a personal relationship with your tutor? You're not going to stop going to tutorials and interacting with your tutor so that relationship will be there. Submitting an essay with your number instead of name on it won't change that relationship. Similarly, anonymisation won't stop you getting feedback on an essay. You take it to the tutor once it has been marked and they can discuss it in more detail with you.Quoting exnihilo from 17:41, 25th Mar 2008
So because there might be the odd dick who should not suffer for it everyone loses the personal relationship with their tutor? Sounds about par for the course.
Quoting starsandsparkles from 15:50, 25th Mar 2008
I received an e-mail from my tutor just before a deadline reminding us to not put our names on our coursework, just our matriculation numbers so I did just that.
I received it back today and it now has my name written across the top, which must've been written by my tutor as it's the same handwriting and the same pen.
Slightly ridiculous.
Quoting Huckabee from 19:23, 25th Mar 2008Quoting starsandsparkles from 15:50, 25th Mar 2008
I received an e-mail from my tutor just before a deadline reminding us to not put our names on our coursework, just our matriculation numbers so I did just that.
I received it back today and it now has my name written across the top, which must've been written by my tutor as it's the same handwriting and the same pen.
Slightly ridiculous.
Coursework has to be de-anonymised after is it marked so they can enter the mark on your record and give it back to you. Although, in theory a tutor could do this before marking because they all have a list of student names and matriculation numbers.
I can see how this would be valuable in some subjects. However, as was already said, I don't think it works in history at all especially when students have to set their own topic which requires discussion with your tutor.
Quoting Raaaaaaaar from 17:58, 25th Mar 2008
How will you lose a personal relationship with your tutor? You're not going to stop going to tutorials and interacting with your tutor so that relationship will be there. Submitting an essay with your number instead of name on it won't change that relationship. Similarly, anonymisation won't stop you getting feedback on an essay. You take it to the tutor once it has been marked and they can discuss it in more detail with you.
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