Opinion

I've turned into a grading machine.

Why does she have to hit my keys so hard and so fast? It’s as if her brain is running to break the Olympic record in Academic Writing, or as if she would forget her next thought if she waited one more second to write the last one (to be honest from the way she looks so blankly at my screen from time to time, I sometimes think this is the case; she forgets what she’s going to write because obviously her brain is faster than her fingers).

A few years ago, my college started a January intersession in which students take a single course for two weeks. It was a runaway hit; enrollments have grown every year, course completion rates have hovered around 90 -- off the charts by community college standards -- and faculty feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

What are some of the dumb things you have done with e-mail?

News broke this weekend about the University of Florida's plans to restructure its computer science department. What are the ramifications -- on the department, on the discipline -- of this decision?

In a recent post, David Roberts describes the downside of being reasonable during discussions about ecological sustainability and climate change. His main point is that in order to win (effectively, if not technically), all that unreasoning climate denialists have to do is to refuse to budge regardless of the evidence and logic against their position. Eventually, any reasonable person gets to the point of walking away or dismissing them as stupid or agreeing to disagree. Any of those leaves them as the last combatant in the arena, such that the last man standing wins by default.

Steven J. Corbett tries to find out if much-derided form of instruction can be improved by turning it over to students.

A regular correspondent writes: "My state wants cc administrators to be able to change grades if faculty demonstrate 'error' or 'unfairness.'"