Xref: utzoo comp.edu:1537 sci.math:5086 sci.physics:5130
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!joyce!gds
From: gds@spam.istc.sri.com (Greg Skinner)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Student and Course Integrity
Message-ID: <15406@joyce.istc.sri.com>
Date: 12 Dec 88 01:37:21 GMT
References: <1131@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu> <1887@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> <ddb7N72f2g1010RKML2@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <42@microsoft.UUCP> <4813@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Sender: news@joyce.istc.sri.com
Reply-To: gds@spam.istc.sri.com (Greg Skinner)
Organization: SRI International, Menlo Park CA
Lines: 35

In article <4813@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> dykimber@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Daniel Yaron Kimberg) writes:
>Well there's at least one degenerate solution to that problem that I can see,
>which is the reason I would instantly sign my name to the list and leave the
>room with no guilt whatsoever (unless I thought the material were extremely
>interesting, which wouldn't be the case for an intro social psych class).

The readings weren't all that interesting, but the class discussion
was worth time spent in class.  I will have to go back and look at my
class notes, but I can recall that some stimulating discussions came
up.

>This might
>not be what any actual person would do, including myself, but the implied
>assumption behind the professor's thinking is that students are incapable of
>learning on their own.  Either that, or the professor is simply acknowledging
>that he/she feels that whatever administrative screwup forces students to take
>the course against their will is stupid, in which case it's more of a friendly
>gesture.  In either case, I'd probably take the option, unless I were actually
>interested in taking the course.

I don't believe either of these were the case.  The course was not an
MIT requirement.  I don't recall if it was required by the Psychology
department.  I have an idea that he wanted to show that some MIT
students were more interested in getting good grades than learning.

Another cute thing he did that pissed the hell out of a friend of
mine was to post everyone's name, id #, and final grade on his door.
My friend was embarrassed because he didn't get a high grade.  I, on
the other hand, thought it was unethical.  I don't believe he had the
right to divulge everyone's grade to all of MIT.  I don't know how he
managed to get away with this (unless there is no law at MIT that
prohibits faculty from publicly posting student grades by name), but I
suspect it was another of his case studies.

--gregbo