Since the project we are working on is so large and detailed and everyone seems to be investing so much in it what do you think about this suggestion:
instead of a final make this our final
a couple of my other classes are doing this too…They are giving large projects in exchange for the final
Thanks very much for your suggestion —
In designing this course, I considered giving a project-based final, but I decided against doing so. Here’s why:
First, in many other courses I teach, I define a common set of concepts that students are expected to learn, and I measure acquisition and application of that content with tests and quizzes throughout the semester (hoping as well, of course, that more is gained than what I can ever possibly measure).
In this Honors course, however, I anticipated that learning would vary, and I did not aim for shared learning outcomes, per se. Rather, DH was intentionally designed to promote individualized assimilation and/or rejection of concepts, methods, and applications. This class, because it is deliberately open-ended, has demanded that you synthesize, summarize, and apply what you’ve learned. To some extent, I see that being achieved in your blog posts and collaborative project, but I trust that you’ve acquired more understanding than your posts or project can convey, and I wish to grant you (as well as me) a formal occasion for examining, defining and summarizing what that is. And I’d like to honor that formal occasion by asking you to take it seriously, so I’ve linked it to your grade and have weighted it heavily.
In short, that you do learn and that you are consciously aware of what you’ve learned and why it matters are the overarching goals of this course.
I will share here, in light of the underlying concern about the final the no final suggestion betrays, that the final exam questions will be distributed to you in advance and that you will be encouraged to draw from notes, articles, blog posts, project (etc.) in composing your responses. I hope you will, therefore, frame the exam as a critically important opportunity to explore what you’ve learned (whatever that may be) and to begin to make sense of its significance.
[But... consistent with the spirit of this course and its emphasis on the importance of a collaborative as well as student-driven perspective, I acknowledge that there exist many competing, intriguing, final exam possibilities. So while I will not eliminate the final, if you wish to propose a re-definition of its format, I welcome specific, serious, and innovative suggestions.]