Group: I think it is time for SUNY-Oneonta to revisit the range of activities permitted of Teaching Assistants.
The current rules are unduly restrictive, in my opinion.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, I employed a large number of TAs in my Introductory Psychology classes.
About ˝ of the points that counted toward students’ grades were earned by taking quizzes – one quiz per chapter of the text (for a total of 13).
There were 4 alternate forms of each quiz.
At designated times during the week, students could go to a room in which the quizzes were administered.
A TA would consult a spreadsheet to determine which forms of the quiz the student had not taken, and randomly choose a version of the quiz from among those forms.
The student would be given a copy of the quiz, find a seat, and take it.
A second TA monitored the process.
When a student completed a quiz, she brought it to the monitoring TA, who accompanied her next door, where a group of 2-4 additional TAs were waiting.
The student would sit down with a TA, who would quickly grade the quiz (as the student watched).
Then the two would spend time going over the questions the student missed, discussing both content and quiz-taking strategy.
Afterwards, the student returned to the first room and handed the quiz to the TA at the desk, who recorded the grade on the master spreadsheet. At that point, the student had the option of considering the quiz-process
for the chapter complete, or taking an alternate form of the quiz, with the understanding that the final quiz grade would be the mean of scores earned on each form of the quiz taken by the student.
Feedback from students (both formal and informal) was extremely positive.
During the 3 or 4 years I used this system, there did not appear to be a single instance of cheating (by TAs or students).
The TAs appreciated the responsibility and the trust they were given, and the students respected a process that they saw was designed to help and benefit them.
It seemed to be a win (student) - win (TA) – win (teacher) – win (college) situation.
Of course, such a system would be entirely forbidden under today’s college rules governing TAs.
I don’t think it should be.
Steve.