Blogging and alternative life styles...

Since most of my initial duties at the University of New Hampshire related to the graduate program in public administration, I had not fully participated in undergraduate teaching until this past semester when I took on two undergraduate courses. It wasn't until I was preparing a syllabus for one that I noticed a “W” in the schedule. I vaguely recall being told about "writing intensive" courses, but I was about to deal with my first. In response I created a monster by deciding to use student blogging (see here and here) and discussion forum entries as the basis for 70% of the grade. To make matters worse, I exercised my characteristic procrastination techniques all semester and left the grading to the last two weeks. I have just completed (for the most part) the task of grading several hundred short (from one to several paragraphs in length) "essays". The task was as "enjoyable" as it sounds. Yesterday, with the assistance of my graduate assistant (thank you, Kevin!) I finally filled in most of the gaps and now have only student complaints to deal with.... (The registrar's office is on my case since I have already missed their generous deadlines and will now have to wait until after the holiday weekend to file the grades). And now it is back to blogging and other essential matters of life.... Tags: grading papers, University of New Hampshire, accountabilitybloke, Mel Dubnick