4 ms·

If it weren't for the online codes it would be a lot easier to get through college without purchasing textbooks. The books are easy to find but the most of the

by killaken2000 10y ago

If it weren't for the online codes it would be a lot easier to get through college without purchasing textbooks. The books are easy to find but the most of the cost has been shifted to the online codes. Most of the early math/phys/chem classes require codes to access the online homework.

sotojuan 10y ago
Are those more common in big universities? Mine had 15-25 average class size and we never had to do anything online.
- killaken2000 10y ago
  My "Chemistry for Scientists and Engineers" class had 600 people in it and my "Intro to Programming" had another 600 people. I've been told that with the amount of students it wouldn't be possible to grade stuff like that by hand. As far as the online grading goes it is mostly the early STEM classes that have the online grading. The non-STEM classes were mostly "read this and do an essay" and the tests were graded on scantrons. After you move past the courses with no pre-reqs and weed-out classes there are less people left and the professors don't really rely on the online grading as often.
  - lostlogin 10y ago
    >I've been told that with the amount of students it wouldn't be possible to grade stuff like that by hand./< This is a pretty lame excuse. Far greater numbers of students have a far larger volume of work to submit at schools and yet that is all marked by humans, or at least it is where I am. Some could be very easily scripted. The rest (hand writing comes to mind) cannot be assessed by human or machine.
    - killaken2000 10y ago
      Well that is just what I was told. Another possible reason is that it is much easier to let MyMathLab grade everything and then spit out a grade at the end of the semester. Though I'm the one paying $140 for a license code.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
sitkack 10y ago
If textbook companies are guaranteeing their rent seeking lockin via online codes, why not separate the book from the problem sets? Supply a separate service that just has problem sets and online grader-bots. Enable the profs and the schools to add their own problems, rotate problem sets, etc. Now a prof can teach from their own notes, book, etc and handroll homework as needed. edit, this will be somewhat difficult as there is no incentive for a school to adopt this service if they can offload the cost of the online grader to the students via expensive books.

sotojuan 10y ago

Are those more common in big universities? Mine had 15-25 average class size and we never had to do anything online.

killaken2000 10y ago
My "Chemistry for Scientists and Engineers" class had 600 people in it and my "Intro to Programming" had another 600 people. I've been told that with the amount of students it wouldn't be possible to grade stuff like that by hand. As far as the online grading goes it is mostly the early STEM classes that have the online grading. The non-STEM classes were mostly "read this and do an essay" and the tests were graded on scantrons. After you move past the courses with no pre-reqs and weed-out classes there are less people left and the professors don't really rely on the online grading as often.
- lostlogin 10y ago
  >I've been told that with the amount of students it wouldn't be possible to grade stuff like that by hand./< This is a pretty lame excuse. Far greater numbers of students have a far larger volume of work to submit at schools and yet that is all marked by humans, or at least it is where I am. Some could be very easily scripted. The rest (hand writing comes to mind) cannot be assessed by human or machine.
  - killaken2000 10y ago
    Well that is just what I was told. Another possible reason is that it is much easier to let MyMathLab grade everything and then spit out a grade at the end of the semester. Though I'm the one paying $140 for a license code.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

sitkack 10y ago

If textbook companies are guaranteeing their rent seeking lockin via online codes, why not separate the book from the problem sets? Supply a separate service that just has problem sets and online grader-bots. Enable the profs and the schools to add their own problems, rotate problem sets, etc. Now a prof can teach from their own notes, book, etc and handroll homework as needed. edit, this will be somewhat difficult as there is no incentive for a school to adopt this service if they can offload the cost of the online grader to the students via expensive books.