Brock University
#Lego #AFL
| Brock Physics | https://www.physics.brocku.ca/ |
| iOLab | https://www.physics.brocku.ca/labs/ |
Thad Harroun
- 128 Followers
- 162 Following
- 118 Posts
Professor, Physics
Brock University
#Lego #AFL
Brock University
#Lego #AFL
jonny (good kind)The way it is complimenting the prompter throughout for their fascinating and groundbreaking theorizing is giving me a very grim pit in my stomach. Normal conspiracy theories are sticky and trap people's minds, but their cultures are actually usually highly internally critical and collaborative - it might seem ironic but in conspiracy theory forums you get intense exclusion of "the wrong version" of the theory, both as a way to maintain some vanishing sense of "external credibility" but also as a group norming and hierarchy mechanism.
I think almost everyone knows that LLMs will enthusiastically tell you the wrong information, but I hadn't seen an example of an LLM enthusiastically telling you are a genius as you slip away from reality. There is no way to set guardrails against that. There is no macro pattern and there is nothing intrinsically harmful about the content per se, the harm is how its use will alienate, isolate, and likely cause a great deal of personal crisis in this person's life - and they won't be able to tell it was chatGPT that helped them get there.
Enter ChatGPT, and the adoption if automation in assessment is now untenable.
In-person exams are the last recourse against cheating in this context; but now you have to arrange 1500 students to take the test at the same time. You can see the problem.
If we throw resources at improving the learning experience without online testing, the per-student cost skyrockets. And we don't have the person power to do that, even if we had the financial resources.
In-person exams are the last recourse against cheating in this context; but now you have to arrange 1500 students to take the test at the same time. You can see the problem.
If we throw resources at improving the learning experience without online testing, the per-student cost skyrockets. And we don't have the person power to do that, even if we had the financial resources.
So if you don't have an army of TA's (UofT Astronomy : 1350 students ... both time and resource intensive in that it involves managing a hierarchy of TAs..." Kerr, A. 2011) you typically need online multiple choice exams.
I don't have a conclusion to this; it's where we are. ChatGPT has put us between a rock and hard place, and is really changing the economics of class size.
How can you assess learning in large classes?
"Instructors use technology-based quizzes to facilitate instruction, feedback delivery, and assessment management; construct higher-order fixed-choice exams to reduce the volume of work associated with free-response evaluations; provide frequent feedback at a low administrative cost through peer review, self-assessment, and low- or non-graded assignments." (Kerr & Vasudevan Assessing Student Learning in Large Classrooms. Ed. Advisory Board, 2013)
"Instructors use technology-based quizzes to facilitate instruction, feedback delivery, and assessment management; construct higher-order fixed-choice exams to reduce the volume of work associated with free-response evaluations; provide frequent feedback at a low administrative cost through peer review, self-assessment, and low- or non-graded assignments." (Kerr & Vasudevan Assessing Student Learning in Large Classrooms. Ed. Advisory Board, 2013)
"It was generally agreed that a passive attitude to learning, lack of student motivation, and minimal opportunities for faculty-student interaction were major factors affecting student engagement and the likelihood of higher order, deep learning on the part of students.
... it was felt that many students valued only those approaches which were oriented towards exam preparation and ensured positive grades." (Ibid.)
... it was felt that many students valued only those approaches which were oriented towards exam preparation and ensured positive grades." (Ibid.)
"Most were moving to some form of a blended learning model ... online learning materials such as web-based learning modules, interactive demonstrations and other electronic tools."; " Most instructors used a (automated) multiple choice format on at least a portion of the evaluation scheme as a means of reducing marking load" (Ibid.)
So what do you do?
"...as a result of limited resources, a number of faculty continued to use the traditional large lecture as the principal delivery model...conced(ing) that implementing time consuming active learning strategies required a reduction in the amount of content that could be covered in the course." (Kerr, A. (2011). Teaching and Learning in Large Classes at Ontario Universities: An Exploratory Study. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.)
"...as a result of limited resources, a number of faculty continued to use the traditional large lecture as the principal delivery model...conced(ing) that implementing time consuming active learning strategies required a reduction in the amount of content that could be covered in the course." (Kerr, A. (2011). Teaching and Learning in Large Classes at Ontario Universities: An Exploratory Study. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.)
Introduction to Astronomy classes i) have << 1% astronomy majors ii) are mostly students with little interest or preparation in science, iii) most of real learning occurs only when confronted by homework and labs - too burdensome for this audience, and iv) ** are absolutely intended to be taught a very low per-capita cost.** (O’Connell. Astron. Ed. Review, 6:1, 2007)
Alex Usher once provided a simple economic model of how universities arrive at class sizes. Given an annual student intake, number of professors and their workload, account for attrition and student course load, he shows that the student-faculty ratio obscures choices made in the distribution of class size. (https://higheredstrategy.com/managing-class-sizes-part-1/)