It's 8:05 P.M., Your Homework is Late!

Following up on my previous post on how I want to stop grading, I thought it would be good to provide some notes from the field as we head in to our second full week.

• I sent out a "Math Checkup" using a Google Form. This was a pretty quick and easy diagnostic assessment that I made using NYS Testing Program multiple choice questions. A few students had trouble opening the form either in their e-mail or through a hyperlink, but after a few days most everyone had figured it out. I now know a rough estimate of each student's proficiency and could figure out the value-add at the end of the year if I give a similar exam. I also know a few topics to cover early on that I may have skipped over. Oh, and did I mention that I can skip collecting exams, grading the answers and entering the data into Excel?

• We have started to do nightly homework assignments also using Google Forms. When I gave out a quick survey at the end of this past week, I got the following results:

"The one thing that should change about this class is..."
"The homework" (1)

"The one thing that should NOT change about this class is..."
"The homework" (2)

Ever seen kids answer a survey and say that they didn't want the homework to change? And that one student is getting a paper copy printout tomorrow.

• While the students are completing their homework in Google Forms, I come home from school everyday and check my Google account after dinner. I always get to see who has completed the assignment already and can think ahead to what we need to review in class the next day.

The next steps for this project:

1. Reliability - This is an issue. Some kids have been reporting trouble opening the email or submitting their finished work. I think a few more test cases should help solve this.
2. Confirmation - Everyday students have come in to class asking "Did you get my homework?" It's music to my ears! However, I'd like for them to know that I received their work before then so there is no anxiety. Currently, I've customized the confirmation note, but even this leaves them wondering if it even worked.
3. Feedback - One possible solution to #2 is to give the students permission to view the results. This would be great because it could give them instantaneous feedback on whether they got it right or not. However, currently this would mean they could see everyone's answers. I need to make sure they can be trusted not to use that information for evil. I want to trust them, but we need to discuss this and maybe build up our group norms a bit. There is also the risk that they could cheat by seeing the answers then sending them to a friend. But that's why I love that time stamp feature that is built in. I wouldn't mind students submitting, checking and resubmitting. In fact, that would be the best. Video games good.