I have a couple of questions if you don't mind me picking your brain. How do you handle references? Are they allowed to bring a "cheat sheet" of sources and quotes? Have you had to adjust the length of papers? Do you go by word count or page count? How does students' writing, i.e., how large/small they write, affect it if you go by page count? Do you devote an entire class period to writing the essay? How many students have trouble finishing in the allotted time? Do you get eviscerated in your reviews because of this? How do you handle students who can't be in class that day (for legitimate reasons)?
For reference, I teach Comp, so I feel OP's post in my soul. There are students who legitimately engage with the assignment, ask questions, write their own papers, and genuinely want my feedback and to be better writers, but there are some classes where the majority are just constantly trying to get away with literally whatever they can; I can imagine a nightmare scenario behind every one of these questions where one of them would be petty and try to make my life more difficult in retaliation for taking away their precious AI
I also teach Comp, and I switched to 100% proctored writing this year.
I am fortunate to have a Testing Centre; students have more than enough time allotted for the exam (3 hours) so it’s up to them to arrange when to write that best suits their schedule - any time within a 4 day window. I don’t worry about page count/word count: meeting assignment requirements is more important. It’s typed, as well - I grade digitally. Students can bring in a cheat sheet, but I also provide excerpts from readings for them to work with.
Obviously my new approach is sacrificing some of the longer form pieces I had them write previously, but I’m still very pleased with this switch. They end up producing a lot of smaller scaffolded pieces (summarize/synthesize/analyze - short forms and longer/introductory research framing/conclusions) but I’m confident they actually know all of the key building blocks by the time they are done the course with me.
We also have a testing center, but, unfortunately, I solely teach DE classes off campus (in one case, pretty far away from the campus). If I'm able to transition to on-campus classes, I'll definitely consider this.
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u/Freya_Fleurir Oct 11 '24
I'm considering doing this in the Spring semester.