During the pandemic, I have been looking for a way to test my students without giving them the stress of an online lockdown browser but also at the same time really understanding what they have learned in the class. With this motivation, I have started graded group chats which are online oral exams which are taken as a group.
You have already been divided into groups, you know group members, you work together, you are hopefully comfortable doing math with each other.
What is graded group chat.
This is a 50 minutes-ish oral exam which you take with your group on Microsoft Teams. You should book a time with me to take this exam as a group.
Why graded group chat.
I can not ethically ask you to use a lockdown browser. Also, I really do not want to give you a 1 day/1 week exam during the term where you are already trying to squeeze so much school work in. And I think I can test you better if I see what your thought process is like. For example, if you start by saying something wrong but then change your mind through discussion towards the correct answer, you should not be penalized for that. The purpose is that you learn something and you show that you learned it during the chat.
Time Slots.
You should book a time slot from below by sending me a message on Teams. One person from the group is enough, do not send duplicate emails please.
Tuesday 5pm: Group 2.
Tuesday 6pm: Group 1.
Thursday 5pm: Team 7.
Thursday 6pm: Group 10.
Thursday 7pm: Team 6.
Friday 10am: Group 4.
Friday 4pm: Group 8.
Friday 5pm: Group 3.
Friday 6pm: Group 5.
Friday 7pm: Group 9.
<aside> 💡 Tip. Meet at least once ****with your group members and get used to answering things as a group. A feedback from last semester's student was that they had difficulty during the exam because they never talked to any group members beforehand.
</aside>
The exam room.
This will be in your group's channel in Microsoft Teams. Try to show up on time.
How this will work.
Suppose I am asking the group member Blorb a question. I will wait for Blorb's answer. Then, I will ask each of you one by one: do you agree with that answer? Yes/No. We will count the votes. If everyone says Yes and the answer is correct, we will move on. If everyone says Yes and the answer is incorrect, I will try to give hints towards the correct answer by asking further questions. If some people say no, then I will moderate a discussion between the group members until (hopefully) the group reaches a common decision. After this, if the answer is correct, we will continue. If not, I will ask further questions to give hints.
What is covered.
Up to and including Thursday's lecture (invertibility of matrices). The questions will be more conceptual than computational.
🆕 Video and Audio
During the graded group chat, you must have your camera and mic both on.
🆕 Sample questions
These sample questions are from Fall 2020.