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The Virus - Are You Affected?

Jimmy Higgins said:
We have the worst leadership in the White House in our nation's history.
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I guess there's always careful use of language to mitigate fear and encourage that people make smart decisions. You guys don't have to fix the whole country overnight, but if you help a couple people here and there, that's a win.
 
ZiprHead said:
Devin Nunes says young people should just go out to bars and restaurants and have a good time. It's important those establishments keep a stream of money going.
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Such an asshole. They sure don't grow them smart in the South Valley, I'll tell you that.
 
First day of "remote learning" tomorrow. As one of our certificated online instructors I also obligatorily serve as an advisor for folks in training, usually not a big job, but of course now I've been fielding calls and e-mails all day. I can tell you one thing for certain, tomorrow will be a bit of a disaster. Plenty of our faculty have never so much as tried to teach online before, and if they are finding the learning curve.steep the students will be baffled. Many of them don't have computers at home, more than you'd assume if you haven't spent much time in poor communities.

Still, I grouse, but I am not challenging the call. Better confused students than dead ones, or a sea of typhoid Maries out into the community from our port.
 
See the zero on that scale? It means we have almost zero cases. Will happen any day now.

/channelling Trumpo
 
TSwizzle said:
In two to three weeks time we will be getting back to normal.
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Swizzle is dreaming. In two to three weeks the Cheato Regime will be trying to convince people that "it has always been this way", even as they are holed up in their domiciles, afraid to go out and afraid to let anyone in.
If things are "getting back to normal" in six months it will be a YUUUUGE tremendous incredible triumph of human co-operation. Realistically, there will be no return to what was "normal" a few months ago. In a year there will be a return to relative economic and social stability but it will bear limited resemblance to what was.
 
All bars and restaurants are ordered closed to sit in customers today in Michigan. Take out only.
 
ZiprHead said:
All bars and restaurants are ordered closed to sit in customers today in Michigan. Take out only.
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Same thing in our county - for two weeks. Am I cynical or does that duration have to do with not being able to collect unemployment?
 
Politesse said:
First day of "remote learning" tomorrow. As one of our certificated online instructors I also obligatorily serve as an advisor for folks in training, usually not a big job, but of course now I've been fielding calls and e-mails all day. I can tell you one thing for certain, tomorrow will be a bit of a disaster. Plenty of our faculty have never so much as tried to teach online before, and if they are finding the learning curve.steep the students will be baffled. Many of them don't have computers at home, more than you'd assume if you haven't spent much time in poor communities.

Still, I grouse, but I am not challenging the call. Better confused students than dead ones, or a sea of typhoid Maries out into the community from our port.
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Yeah, I have many friends in that situation.

How do you deal with assessment and testing to determine grades when there is no control over their use of textbooks, internet, friends, classmates, etc.?

I hear one method is to use strict test timing to reduce ability to "look things up", but those with learning disabilities (sometimes 1/3 the class these days) would have a problem with that and it just disadvantages slow readers.

Another method I can see based upon my own work with assessment is to create applied inference questions where the answer cannot be found anywhere but must be inferred from an understanding of the concepts and their causal/logical relations to each other. That doesn't have to mean, hard to grade open-ended questions. You can create multiple choice inference questions that require inferences from a conceptual understanding. This approach doesn't solve the cheating with classmates/friends problem, but at least if they had to get someone to explain the answer to them, then they might learn something while cheating :)

Also, creating inference/application questions is far more difficult than the memory based questions most tests consists of, but can be easily cheated. Also, students who don't do well on inference tests get mad, b/c they can't see how the correct answer is tied to what was covered in the course, so they see the questions as "unfair".

These are problems for online assessment in the long term, beyond the added difficulty of having to create a online course overnight.
 
ronburgundy said:
Politesse said:
First day of "remote learning" tomorrow. As one of our certificated online instructors I also obligatorily serve as an advisor for folks in training, usually not a big job, but of course now I've been fielding calls and e-mails all day. I can tell you one thing for certain, tomorrow will be a bit of a disaster. Plenty of our faculty have never so much as tried to teach online before, and if they are finding the learning curve.steep the students will be baffled. Many of them don't have computers at home, more than you'd assume if you haven't spent much time in poor communities.

Still, I grouse, but I am not challenging the call. Better confused students than dead ones, or a sea of typhoid Maries out into the community from our port.
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Yeah, I have many friends in that situation.

How do you deal with assessment and testing to determine grades when there is no control over their use of textbooks, internet, friends, classmates, etc.?

I hear one method is to use strict test timing to reduce ability to "look things up", but those with learning disabilities (sometimes 1/3 the class these days) would have a problem with that and it just disadvantages slow readers.

Another method I can see based upon my own work with assessment is to create applied inference questions where the answer cannot be found anywhere but must be inferred from an understanding of the concepts and their causal/logical relations to each other. That doesn't have to mean, hard to grade open-ended questions. You can create multiple choice inference questions that require inferences from a conceptual understanding. This approach doesn't solve the cheating with classmates/friends problem, but at least if they had to get someone to explain the answer to them, then they might learn something while cheating :)

Also, creating inference/application questions is far more difficult than the memory based questions most tests consists of, but can be easily cheated. Also, students who don't do well on inference tests get mad, b/c they can't see how the correct answer is tied to what was covered in the course, so they see the questions as "unfair".

These are problems for online assessment in the long term, beyond the added difficulty of having to create a online course overnight.
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In terms of assessment, I'm basically in damage control mode right now; I'm more concerned about keeping as many students still enrolled in the course than plagiarism issues at the moment. Frankly if cheating on the exams causes this semester to be less of a statistical/funding DISASTER for the department, I'd very nearly (though not quite :D ) be willing to turn a blind eye. I do have a class to formally assess this term, but that's a bridge to cross when I get to it, I think. There are some technological things that can help - Turnitin, Lockdown browsers, etc - which I use in my usual online courses. Anthropology is pretty essay- and idea-centric to begin with, so your notion of necessary inference is already there inherently. Very few of my exam questions can be satisfactorily answered by a google search or by "looking for the answer" in the book, simply by the nature of the kinds of questions we pose. Many of my multiple choice questions, for instance, hinge on applying methodological or theoretical principles to a provided case study which isn't in the book, but which is easy enough to understand if they've been paying attention.
 
I just got word that mom's new assisted living is now in lock-down. No visitors other than necessary medical visitors.

I sure am glad we got her move taken care of this past weekend instead of waiting for next weekend. Or she could have been stuck.
 
Schools in Connecticut were closed Friday and later a message came through that they are closed for some time. It's possible the closed time could become for the rest of the school year.
 
TSwizzle said:
Jimmy Higgins said:
TSwizzle said:
In two to three weeks time we will be getting back to normal. In the meantime we will muddle through.
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It might take 4 to 8 weeks. And the muddling is certain as the CDC was castrated by the Trump Administration and nothing was accomplished in the three month lead up to this.

The cities and states have been forced to put together an ad hoc response, because the Executive Branch is so utterly incompetent to handle this. But at least they got to rile up some liberals, so win some, lose some.
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Boo hoo Jimmy. Your whining is tedious.
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His Flatulence's failure to address this well will probably lead to an unneccessary megadeath.
 
ZiprHead said:
Devin Nunes says young people should just go out to bars and restaurants and have a good time. It's important those establishments keep a stream of money going.
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Yup, and then they'll go home to their families and kill off a bunch of retirees. Presto, Social Security and Medicare spending go down, they don't have to repay as much of the trust fund as they were expecting to. Wins all the way around! Never mind how many of their base they will kill off.
 
T.G.G. Moogly said:
ZiprHead said:
All bars and restaurants are ordered closed to sit in customers today in Michigan. Take out only.
Click to expand...

Same thing in our county - for two weeks. Am I cynical or does that duration have to do with not being able to collect unemployment?
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I think it's more about not ordering it for any longer than they are sure is necessary. I'm sure it will be extended.
 
Loren Pechtel said:
T.G.G. Moogly said:
ZiprHead said:
All bars and restaurants are ordered closed to sit in customers today in Michigan. Take out only.
Click to expand...

Same thing in our county - for two weeks. Am I cynical or does that duration have to do with not being able to collect unemployment?
Click to expand...

I think it's more about not ordering it for any longer than they are sure is necessary. I'm sure it will be extended.
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I'll be okay as long as the liquor stores stay open. Wheeee!!!

Alcohol kills viruses, right?
 
Elixir said:
Realistically, there will be no return to what was "normal" a few months ago. In a year there will be a return to relative economic and social stability but it will bear limited resemblance to what was.
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As the story goes, the citizens of the Norfolk area resented the Navy residents. I have seen pictures of signs saying "Dogs and Sailors keep off the grass." Certainly while i was stationed thrre, they served tourists first, locals second, military last. Out of season, we were more popular, but i recall the mayor telling tge graduating class at the police academy, their job was to protect the tourist dollar from drunks and sailors.

So, after telling and telling people that thry should be grateful for the disposable income of sailors and their dependents, the Norfolk commandrrr put all of Norfolk off limits.

The base exchanges, commisaries, and clubs were open 24-7.
You were allowed to shop local for that bottle of milk for breakfast, or a jar of marinara, butbthere was a $ limit. Buses ran to tske people out of area to Williamsburg, SixFlags, beaches other than Virginia Beach.
It lasted one week.
Bars and strip clubs were begging for relief after two days. But the ban lasted the week.
Some businesses never recovered. Some of the old-timrrrs could drive along the roads by the bases and describe 'Used to be ten bars along here, not just the two.' Even with sailor exaggeration that means at least four permanently closed, if not six.
Not everyone has a millionaire boss who can skip a payday to keep a business afloat when thry lose a substantial portion of their income, or has creditors in a position to forgive debts for a while.
 
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