I am sitting at my office desk right this moment, head still reeling from the 'online chaos' that described most of my day yesterday. After completing my morning duties (church and other personal matters), I went straight home to check my mail, anticipating the volume of e-mails from students who are signifying their intention to participate in this new online requirement that I'm having in my Com Theory and Com Seminar classes. And, as expected, there were a lot of respondents.
The procedure was quite simple, actually. Check the e-mail, add to the blog database, and link the site to the main blog site (this one). It was the number of requests that overwhelmed me, really. But I expected this. Between a one-time critical essay (of 8 to 10 pages) and a weekly blog, I was quite sure that most students would choose the latter. I just hope that the students realize the commitment required of them to maintain a weekly blog, much less write interesting and engaging articles on it.
This blog-writing activity, on the other hand, is a required project for my graduate class. This means that all nine students enrolled in the class would have to write their weekly blogs, on top of a critical essay to be submitted end-of-term. However, after e-mailing all nine students of their grades for the first article, I came to an important realization. I said to myself, "Holy *%#@! I have to do this every week!".
It was only then when I realized that while my students were require to write at least one article per week, my part of the bargain was to read, grade, and comment on all 60+ blogs every week, for 14 to 15 weeks. Talk about imbalanced exchange.
Good thing I had a solution, which I actually thought of prior to giving the assignment, but for a totally different purpose. I was thinking of developing a grading rubric for two reasons: 1) to apply what I learned in a seminar I took a couple of years ago on testing and evaluation, and 2) to make it easier for me to grade essays and papers. Back then, I was still planning on writing and e-mailing individual comments for each article/student. But 60+ comments every week might be just too much for a mortal like me to handle. So, I quickly developed the rubric last night, e-mailed it to my students, and told that if they will have questions/comments/complaints about the grades they will be receiving, they can just talk straight to me.
But I am happy with the outcome, so far. I spent a good deal of my time yesterday going through my students' blogs, and I should say, they're doing a pretty good job of expressing themselves. One week into the 'game' and I have already been getting a lot of very interesting insight from my students. It actually makes me think that if what my students get to say online can be translated into actual class discussions, then perhaps I could just forget about the syllabus and engage in discussions and debates all semester-long!
Such is the nature of my profession--one has to be inventive and creative (to say the least) to reduce the monotony of academic life. Otherwise the work can potentially be as dull and as boring as turning pegs all day long (note to Com11 students: read up on cognitive dissonance and you'll know what I mean). Having taught for almost ten years, I've observed that halfway through each semester, I find myself annoyed, stressed, under-motivated and bored. So I have to make life interesting for myself and, more importantly, for my students. And it takes measures like this to do just that. Yes, the work can be tough as hell, but I know I'll be thoroughly pleased once it's over... because I know that my students have done well, have done their best, and have done me proud. And I'd be reminded once more why this is the life (and career) that I have chosen for myself.
Or perhaps this is just selective interpretation (in Leon Festinger's terms). Oh, well. I'll know soon enough.
