'tis the season

[freckles_and_doubt]

Exam committee season, that is, not necessarily the jolly holly bit, which seems somewhat subdued this year, mercifully: the supermarket music selection has, for some reason, given me Walk Like An Egyptian two weekends running rather than syrupy Xmas carols, which is about a million times preferable and causes the traditional outbreaks of bopping in the aisles. No, 'tis the season of me and what my handy ruler informs me is a 7cm-thick pile of board schedules, which I have since Friday been spending merry 10-hour days checking. I have just finished annotating one and am taking a brief tea-and-bloggery break before assailing the next. With the usual acompaniment of cussing, whinging, exhortations to the heavens for patience in the face of unlikely student catastophes, and occasional wild cries of glee as random individuals manage, in the teeth of the COVID odds, to produce shining and admirable results.

It's been a very weird year for student marks. We expected a high level of fails and academic exclusions, given the extent to which students are not responding well to the remote format, and I think the exclusion rate is probably slightly up. Also, my non-finalist board schedule is about 200 students larger than usual, while the finalists are 200 smaller; all this COVID and larking about remotely is putting a serious crimp in our grad rate. But weirdly, the Dean's Merit List awards are popping up at about double the usual rate. Our faculty's courses all went continuous-assessment this year, since students weren't necessarily in CT for in-person exams; it's inflated the marks somewhat without the usual exam input. Conversely, students who crash, crash hard, and completely, clearly struggling with remote learning and, in many cases, illness and death and economic hardship and really difficult working conditions in their family environments. The marks are strangely polarised, either excellent or catastrophic, the middle stretches are extremely shrunken. Thus, apparently, is academic life under the thumb of the pandemic. In that the pandemic, like the bastard that it is, has its thumb on the scales.

I record for posterity the scene of annotatory endeavour:



From the left: packed of Côte d'Or pralines, with which I am motivating myself through this; board schedule, scribbled upon; curriculum note handout, produced by me in quantities in a desperate attempt to stop our complicated curriculum structures from eating advisors alive; glasses case, containing incredibly expensive new bifocals which appear to have the wrong prescription in that they do not allow me to actually focus on anything close, necessitating much swearing and me wearing the old ones because I can't afford the time to throw them back at the optician until at least Wednesday; cup of Earl Grey, one of endless succession which is powering this whole horrible process; practical essentials including pencils, erasers, handbooks, further curriculum notes, calculator; vase of St Joseph's lilies, which has the consolatory property of at least, if I have to sit here for hours on end, smelling nice. There's a cat in this picture, but she's under the table, on the chair next to me, snoring gently in her sleep.

I am making progress, there is an end in sight, but gods, I hate this time of year. And back to the salt mines I go.

Comments

[caprices]

That sounds a very mixed bag of results. Given how dependent I was on external spaces to study in for my student days, I cannot even conceptualize how current students are keeping their focus. Good luck on your travails.

[freckles_and_doubt]

It's really a very sobering comparison to make. I am so happy, working from home, and actually more productive than I am in the office (less interruptions, and my fatigue gets triggered much less easily), but of course that's such a position of privilege. I have the high-speed gaming computer, and the fibre internet, and I live alone apart from a cat whose current tendency to plaintive yowling occasionally enlivens meetings, but doesn't really interfere: it's nothing like having to manage a shared office with a partner or kids, or dodgy internet connections. Weird to think that residence life for a lot of our students is a massive step up in lifestyle and comfort.

[caprices]

I still remember trying to (rather desperately) finish a project over spring break which required a lot of phone call interviews. My family's house never got over 50 degrees (fahrenheit!), our landline made a massive buzzing noise in the background of every call, and there was a foot of snow on the roads. The dorm policy, of course, was that no students could stay in the dorms over the spring break, and I deeply missed both the amenities of a working phone and heating sufficient to retain feeling in my fingers.

[caprices]

I still remember trying to (rather desperately) finish a project over spring break which required a lot of phone call interviews. My family's house never got over 50 degrees (fahrenheit!), our landline made a massive buzzing noise in the background of every call, and there was a foot of snow on the roads. The dorm policy, of course, was that no students could stay in the dorms over the spring break, and I deeply missed both the amenities of a working phone and heating sufficient to retain feeling in my fingers.

[torquetum]

We also saw that bimodal response in the last academic year (2020-2021). Lots of crashing, but a small group of students exvelling beyond what is standard. We hypothesised that the students who would normally do well, due to hard work and general proficiency, had nothing to do except focus on their academics. So they just studied all day long and did amazingly.

One of my top students last year I never even saw. He was a top achiever in maths and his elec eng subjects, but since maths was 100% flung online so all on-campus time could go to lab type stuff, I only ever saw students who made one-on-one time with me, with cameras on. This student never did. I met him for the first time, this year in 2nd year. So bizarre.

This academic year we've had more on-campus time. Term 1 was all on campus. Now we're in term 2 and there is a venue capacity maximum of 75 people. So any classes larger than that have to go online or some hybrid thing. I've moved my lectures online but my tuts can all still be on campus, thank goodness.

[freckles_and_doubt]

We're looking at a hybrid model for next year, the current plan is one contact period per week per course, but there's no guarantee that'll survive whatever COVID and Omicron throw at us. I hope it makes a difference to the students who are struggling. I also hope, desperately, that we have enough computer lab space to allow all these struggling kids to access their courses properly in a way they can't at home. We have had actually a very good laptop provision project in place, but it doesn't get everyone.

But it's also weirdly reassuring that you're also seeing the polarisation, I think you're right, and the remote learning thing simply does work for a certain kind of student. Much more exaggerated in our case, though, because of the lack of formal exams.