This is a long one, so I will add a pagebreak to it, if you are bored enough to want to read the whole thing just click it.
Before reading, some context -
For the module, PL3235, Social Psychology, one of the graded assignments is an essay. The essay topics, instead of being revealed at once, is going to be released at 'random intervals during the semester', and students have only 3 weeks from the time of topic release to complete that particular topic. (Only have to do ONE essay, of course)
In other words, you have no idea when he is going to release an essay question, and you have no idea what the other questions are about.
If you are wondering why we keep using the term 'ungodly' in the email, yes, this was the lecturer who wrote this on IVLE:
Oh, the lecture is at 8AM.
Hi Professor Cha,
This is with regard to an announcement you made earlier this week.
Before I start off, I would like to thank you for your efforts in making the lecture more interesting with the odd songs and video clips. The lecture timing is indeed at an ungodly timing as you say. Anything less interesting and you will be talking to an LT of sleeping students.
Let's start it off with a quote of what you posted on IVLE, to refresh our memories:
"A student wrote to me about my intention to reveal the four assignment topics at random interval during lecture. Her concern is that it may be an unfair system because one may work on an earlier topic just to discover later on that another topic is "easier". In case some students are thinking along the same line, this is my thoughts on the issue:
-Part of my aim for having such a system is to add variety (by having more choices of assignment topics that one could work on).
-However, I also do not want students to start comparing the four topics and work on the “easiest” one (if there is indeed one). Instead, I hope students could work on whatever topic that interests them. Thus if a topic intrigues you, just go ahead and do it. Don’t think too much, and as a result turn it into a strategic decision of attempting an “easier” question. The intrinsic motivation of working on the topic would be lost in the process.
Finally, I do not think this is an issue of fairness because it doesn’t mean that an “easier” topic would lead to better grades.
At least I will try to make sure that it doesn’t happen that way (perhaps by varying the stringency of marking across topics based on difficulty). In fact, if you put in the effort to work on something that interest you, that interest would show through in terms of quality and you would likely be awarded for it.
Finally, I think there are pros and cons for attempting a topic early OR waiting for a later one. At the end of the day, it inevitably involves tradeoff (which is also what Baumeister and Bushman try to emphasize whenever we make a choice or decide on a certain course of action).
Finally, for students who have already submitted one assignment, please do not submit a second one because the later one will be disregarded."
I have to say I am disappointed in your response, which seems to simply be an exhibit of your defence mechanism of rationalization. ("in which perceived controversial behaviors or feelings are explained in a rational or logical manner to avoid the true explanation"(Wikipedia, 2010)) Why do I make such a statement? Let's look at the announcement in detail.
1) 'A student wrote to be about my intention...'
I have not seen the original email, but I assume the question went something like, "Prof, WHY are you releasing the questions in such a staggered fashion?? WHY?"
Thus, what is the reason/intention for releasing the questions in such a unique, unorthodox manner? Let us take a moment to internalize this question because it is important to keep sight of it as I progress in this email.
2) "Part of my aim for having such a system is to add variety"
This is the right answer to the wrong question. What does having the topics released in a staggered fashion have anything to do with variety? I daresay the large majority (I would say all, but I can't be 100% sure since I do not know the module outline of every single module available. I could be terribly wrong in this aspect so just ignore this point) of modules in NUS that require an essay as a midterm paper would give at least two options for topics(or more). In this case, there is ALWAYS variety in topics so it is a redundant point to make.
More precisely, the question was referring to the reason for having the topics released at random intervals, not 'why are there 4 topics?(instead of 3? or 2?)', which would certainly be a ridiculous question to be asking.
3) -However, I also do not want students to start comparing the four topics and work on the “easiest” one (if there is indeed one). Instead, I hope students could work on whatever topic that interests them. Thus if a topic intrigues you, just go ahead and do it. Don’t think too much, and as a result turn it into a strategic decision of attempting an “easier” question. The intrinsic motivation of working on the topic would be lost in the process.
This is a valid point. However, a valid point is not necessarily a good one. I will extract a portion of this to explain what I am disagreeing with:
"Thus if a topic intrigues you, just go ahead and do it"
How wonderful if this could be the mindset of all students! Personally, I would love to have this mentality when pursuing my undergraduate education. Unfortunately, the very concept of having a GPA /CAP prevents students from purely 'pursuing their interests'. Everything is graded! As such, it would be extremely foolish to 'Not think too much' as strategic planning IS part and parcel of NUS education.
Even for a situation where we have all topics presented at once, the final decision on which topic to attempt is obviously not just one of 'which is easiest' but a combination of other factors such as 'interest'. In the rare case, a student would actually attempt a question in which he has absolutely no interest in merely because he perceives it as more easy to write. However, most students would actually choose one that, on top of being understandable, is something they have some interest in.
In fact, the only way to draw out students to make this decision based entirely on how much it intrigues them, is to make it graded upon a Satisfactory / Unsatisfactory option. This, for sure, will allow students to pursue their topic of choice.
To summarize this point, it is hard to have any 'intrinsic motivation'(because we really like it) to work on an essay when there is the strong 'extrinsic (de)motivation' of a poor grade, unless that intrinsic motivation you are referring to is simply that of 'writing an essay', in which your point does not make sense.
4) Finally, I do not think this is an issue of fairness because it doesn’t mean that an “easier” topic would lead to better grades
At least I will try to make sure that it doesn’t happen that way (perhaps by varying the stringency of marking across topics based on difficulty)
The underlined portion made me scratch my head, as it seems to contradict your earlier point. Let me explain.
Imagine Essay 1 was released and 5 students attempt it. Let's suppose they were all excellent essays, so they were all awarded As.
Then Essay 2 was released, and let's suppose this was 'easier' (I have no idea how you will operationalize this though) and 5 students attempted it.Let's suppose they were all excellent essays as well. Because it was easier, you try to be more strict, and they got A-.
If I were to just argue on this point and say that this shows that it is unfair, you may quickly point out that this is exactly how the bell curve system is supposed to work, and being more strict on 'easy' topics is a very common, logical practice among all professors. Indeed, I can't refute this point.
However, how does this tie in with your previous point about encouraging students to work on an essay because it intrigued them? If you were to actually mark like that, it seems that working on a topic that they prefer out of interest is detrimental to their grades since it may have been marked strictly against.
You may argue with your next statement:
5) In fact, if you put in the effort to work on something that interest you, that interest would show through in terms of quality and you would likely be awarded for it.
Which I would immediately say that this is quite invalid, and I will illustrate this with an absurd example, but it should capture my reasoning as to WHY it is invalid:
"I am interested in flying. I flap my arms as hard as I can - will it show through in terms of adding more flying ability to myself?"
Or we could use a more reasonable example which also explains my point:
"Think American Idol. Thousands of contestants have a strong interest and desire to sing. Singing could very well be their passion in life. Does that mean it shows through in terms of quality?" (In case you have no knowledge about the atrocity of singers in the audition rounds of American Idol, the answer is - Obviously not)
It seems that this point is just an attempt at rationalizing your previous assertion that you want students to do something they like.
6) Finally, I think there are pros and cons for attempting a topic early OR waiting for a later one.
So do I. So does everyone. Unfortunately, we cannot accurately weigh our options because .... we do not know our options.
If you actually just meant the decision between 'attempting early' and 'attempting late', this tradeoff is STILL present even if you release all the questions in Week One, and have the deadline in Week 11. In fact, this is an irrelevant point to the question at hand.
7) What is the whole point of this email?
If you have read up to this point, I thank you for your kind patience in bearing with my meticulous picking apart of what you said. If you have just scrolled down to reach this point and skipped the above section, please do read it all as they are all relevant.
Regardless, I would first like to offer my deep apologies if I had offended you in any way, I have already tried to heavily filter what I was writing in spite of my swelling feelings of resentment. If bits of sarcasm and whatnot has slipped through, please forgive this young, impulsive writer.
I bothered to write all this because while you took the effort to write such a long paragraph of 'reasons', you chose to leave out the true answer to the original question. Let us revisit it.
"What is the reason/intention for releasing the questions in such a unique, unorthodox manner?"
It seems apparent to me that the true reason is simply :
"So that I can get all the students to come for lecture, which I think they would otherwise not come for because of the 'ungodly hour'."
If you had simply stated this instead of writing such a long paragraph of 'reasons', I believe I would not have been perturbed enough to compose this email and just 'accept my fate'.
That's all I have.
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That was what I sent. I had to keep deleting really sarcastic remarks I wrote as I don't really want to insult/offend the prof, just to call him out. I mean, come on. He just wants people to come for his 8AM lecture. No need for other excuses.
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