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Giving Exams in an Online Chat Room
12/26/2001
I’ve lately become aware that my expectations are often negative when
confronted with something new. I’m not a negative person usually, but this
was certainly the case when I confronted the idea of teaching my International
Business course online. I committed to trying it once, but I admit I didn’t
have high hopes. After all, I confided to friends, one of the rewards of teaching
is being there to actually see the light go on in a student’s eyes.
We are now plunging into our fourth semester. And although online teaching has some drawbacks, it also has advantages over the classroom. One of these advantages is that you get to know your students and their educational needs much better because they communicate far more readily in threaded discussions than they do in the classroom. My negative expectations that online teaching lacked a social element failed to account for the social pressure that silences so many students in class. And I’ve discovered another unexpected reward in a chat room: I can use a kind of Socratic question-and-answer method that I achieve all too rarely in a classroom.
The final assessment in my online class takes place one-on-one, in a chat room. About a week before the first exam, I post times when I’ll be available, and students sign up on a first come, first served basis for half-hour time slots. In the same message, I include 10 to 12 potential questions. These are big, theoretical questions, such as assessing the pros and cons of China’s entry into the World Trade Organization.
I tell students they have the option of skipping one question, but that they should prepare to answer all the others. I stress that they should marshal their main points, because the half-hour will go more quickly than they think, but not to prepare entire answers word-for-word, because the assessment will be a dialogue. I also tell them to have a copy of the questions on hand when they come to the chat room, so I can refer to them by number.
When the big moment arrives, I try to get into the chat room a minute or two early and type in a greeting: “Hi, Daniel. I’m ready when you are.” When they get in and say they’re ready, I ask them to start with number 3, please. As they get started typing, I post another message, asking them to hit “enter” every two or three sentences, so I can ask questions or redirect.
Then, as they post, I can choose to wait until their meaning is clear, push for further clarity, or redirect if they’re off track. “In what specific situations would that be true?” “What do you mean by cultural barriers?” “Can you give me an example?” After about 27 minutes of this torture, I post a message to the effect that they’re off the hot seat and do they have any questions before we log off? Many are amazed that the time has gone so quickly, and they often write that it wasn’t nearly as bad as they had anticipated.
An online chat room final exam has its pitfalls, of course. Half an hour isn’t
a very long time to evaluate a student’s understanding of a range of theoretical
material. My experience, however, is that I can cover about three questions
in that amount of time, which is usually the number I grade (“choose three
out of four”) on a written final. We get to the nub of the matter more
quickly in a chat room—no time for fluff.
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