Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jobs_throwaway 1326 days ago
A professor I had had a pretty good solution. Give homework, but only make it 5% of the score for the class. A couple of quizzes are 5% each, and the midterm + final are the remaining 85%. That way, if a student needs the structure, they get it, and on the other hand if a student is able to ace the tests without doing the busywork, they can still get their A or A+. The instructor also then gets lots of input points throughout the term.

Some students (particularly those who spent lots of time on the HW but didn't do well on the tests) found this unfair, but I think it teaches an important lesson: that you don't get credit for trying. Your performance actually matters.