Joint Statement from CIT and CIT Students Union

Joint Statement from CIT and CIT Students Union re “Christmas Day”

Dear Colleagues/Students,

“Christmas Day”, the traditional pre-Christmas fundraising event has been a feature of the CIT student calendar for the last number of years, as both a social event for students and a fundraising opportunity for charity.

Arising from excesses following the 2007 event, “Christmas Day” will not be taking place this year. This decision, which has already been communicated by the CIT Students Union President, has been taken with regret. This is, unfortunately, the consequence of the actions of some, who may or may not have been members of the CIT student body.

It has come to our attention that alternative, off-campus functions may be organised in the coming days. These events have no sanction or support from either Cork Institute of Technology or the CIT Students Union. We would urge you to communicate this through your classes, in the interests of upholding the good name of CIT, CIT Students Union and CIT students, past and present. We are also very concerned that our neighbours within the community are not inconvenienced or discommoded in any way. Our reputation in the community should not be put in jeopardy by ill-advised support of functions targeting the CIT student body.

We would welcome your assistance in advising students that all classes, laboratories, continuous assessment deadlines, etc. continue as normal this week.



Yours sincerely,


Dr. Barry O’Connor, Acting Registrar
Gearóid Buckley, President, CIT Students Union

COM1 Exam Timetable

STAT6006 15/12/2008 13:30 Statistical Calculations Exhibition Centre D158
COMP6009 18/12/2008 13:30 Networking Fundamentals WEST ATRIUM
COMH6002 08/01/2009 18:30 Computer Architecture WEST ATRIUM

COM1-CMOD6001 35B & 36B

I demonstrated how TurnItIn works using a paper volunteered by a student. However he hadn't cheated enough to fully demonstrate how it worked.

I talked students through the free choice modules available for next semester.

I talked briefly about transfers to other courses.

Beautiful Web Design

I came across this free chapter from "The Principles of Beautiful Web Design" by Jason Beaird. Not bad for a freebie.

http://sitepoint.com/books/design1/design1-sample.pdf

Some other sample chapters currently available are:
http://sitepoint.com/books/jsant1/jsant1-sample.pdf
http://sitepoint.com/books/html1/html1-sample.pdf
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/phpant2/phpant2-sample.pdf
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/Kevs-php-mysql.pdf
http://sitepoint.com/books/javascript1/javascript1-sample.pdf
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/jsdesign1/jsdesign1-sample.pdf
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/cssref1/cssref1-sample.pdf
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/csswrong1/csswrong1-sample.pdf
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/cssant2/cssant2-sample.pdf
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/css2/css2-sample.pdf
http://www.sitepoint.com/books/dhtml1/dhtml1-sample.pdf
http://sitepoint.com/books/checklists1/checklists1-sample.pdf

And a whole book:
http://cssdesign.s3.sitepoint.com/Art_Science_Of_CSS_Giveaway.zip

COM1-CMOD6001 33

{Wednesday}

I met with what groups were present.

COM1-CMOD6001 34

There were very few students in class. There was a night out last night.

There didn't seem to be many people present who had groups in common so there was very little work being done.

I gave away some cards with envelopes (there might be some left in the classroom) and a biscuit tin.

I took attendance at 0920 and left soon after.

Web Publishing Essays

[These comments refer to students taking COMP6023. Not COM1 students]

A number of students lifted large chucks of their essays from various websites. As it stands these students will get zero. For a number of these this means they will definitely fail this module overall.

A smaller number of students lifted bits from websites here and there. They will loose some marks and that could put them at risk of failing.

Other students did not cheat.

I am prepared to accept new essays from any student that wants to submit it by noon on Friday 28 November. The maximum marks these new late essays can earn is 35%. But this might make the difference between a pass and a fail for some students.

This is not a recommendation to disguise your cheating better. The threshold for lifted content in these new essays will be set very very low. I strongly recommend that you start with a pencil and a sheet of blank paper and work from there.

For the small number of students who did not get zero I will award the higher of the two scores should they choose to resubmit.

Students who have not submitted anything at all yet are free to submit now for a possible 35%. Students are also free to change topic.

Last chance. Use it wisely.

Web Publishing 38

We had a discussion about the exam yesterday. Some students felt they had been told that FTP was not coming up. Students who joined the class late in the semester had not completed the FTP exercise. Others felt that the marks given for the FTP question were too high.

The projector wasn't working so we had a very short discussion on content management systems.

We also discussed how to get domain names and some students shared their experiences of different hosting companies.

Attendance was poor. But It's hard to imagine why students would come to class at this stage in the semester when there are no further exams and only one assessment remaining.

I encouraged students to get the assignment in as soon as possible because it's not worth doing it late in the semester when exams are approaching.

Web Publishing 37

Some students returned after the exam an did some work.

Web Publishing 36

We had an in-class exam with short questions.

I will try to have the results of the essay and this exam made available soon. It is difficult the balance the desire for quick feedback with student's privacy. I porpose to post the results online using the last for digits of each student's ID number as the key. If would would prefer not to have the results delivered liek this please let me know.

Web Publishing 35

The lab we had been squatting in up to now was occupied so we reverted to the timetabled classroom.

We took a quick look at the new CIT website.

I advised students that I had run a plagiarism check on their essays and outlined hte positions they might find themselves in numerically if they get zero for the essay as a result. The easy was worth 40%.

I outlined how the final marks would be calculated. The exam tomorrow is worth 30% and the project another 30%. There are no marks on the syllabus for a blog, but I will attempt to account for it somewhere.

Students who get zero for their essay and do not will in the exam will find things very difficult numerically.

Towards the end of class we looked at Google AdSense and Google Analytics. But we didn't spend much time on it. It might be worth taking another look some day.

Turn It In

www.TurnItIn.com is my new favourite toy. I used to spend hours before correcting assignments identifying those that were ripped off from web sites and the sites they were ripped off from. TurnItIn does all that for me.

The interface is poorly designed, but it does the job. And it's not terribly sophisticated. But the cheating strategy of the average CIT student is not terribly sophisticated either. A product like TurnItIn shifts the balance of effort so that the trouble a student has to go to to avoid detection is much closer to what it might take to actually do the work for real. And the effort the lecturer has to go to catch (and more importantly verify) cheating is greatly reduced.

I don't know what I'll do with all the time I'll save. Maybe real work!

Perhaps I should conserve my enegry for the "No one told me cheating was wrong" Appeals.

The Big Meeting

There's a big meeting on now about the state of affairs at CIT. Government cutbacks mean that the Institute of is few million short. Rumours have been circulating for two weeks now about what drastic measures will be taken. We shall see.

I'm not going to bother going. I'll wait for the bad news to arrive by e-mail.

ITS1 CMOD6001 11 & 12

There was one project group present in the class. I spoke with them about their project.

COM1-CMOD6001 31A & 32A

I got students to sign up to turnitin.com and submnit their recent essays.

I'd apprectiate if all students could do this. It will save me a good bit of hassle later on. The class ID is 2506113. The password was givin out in the Group A lab.

TurnItIn is designed to detect segments of student work that have been copied from websites and other sources. I will run each eassy through this process before correcting. If you do not submit your essay using this process it will be a lot of hassle for me. If you have copied large chucks of your paper from the web, annoying me will only compound the problem.

Some students allowed me to use their submissions to illustrate how TurnItIn works. I showed students the 2-window display with student submissions in one window and the source material on the other.

COM1-CMOD6001 31B & 32B

I met with students and discussed their projects.

COM1-CMOD6001 30

Less than half the students in the class were present. Students met in project groups. A few groups moved their meetings to the canteen.

I don't believe that many groups are at the stage they need to be at in order to complete the assignment well and on time. But hopefully it will start to come together soon.

COM1 Presentation Videos

I recorded video and audio of the in-class presentations in order to have a record to help me with assessment. However I have received a number of requests from students for copies of the audio and video. The audio recordings are of very high quality but I am in the middle of some jobs at home and the cables I need are in a mystery box somewhere in the house. I do not have the kit I need to digitize the audio at CIT. The quality of the video is very poor, but I have it handy. So I can provide the video very easily.

I believe that audio and video recordings of individuals constitute personal data that are covered by the Data Protection Act. Consequently I am not prepared to make the recordings widely available without the permission of those who appear in them.

If you would like to see the video recording of your group's presentation please e-mail me the names and ID numbers of all the members of the group. Since student's ID numbers are not generally known to anyone other than the student, I will accept the provision of a student's ID number as permission to release the video to all members of the group. I will e-mail the URL to one of the members of the group. If the members of the group choose to distribute the URL widely after that, that is their choice, not mine.

Each group will be provided with a single video clip. I am not prepared to chop the video into student-specific segments.

I will be happy to delete any group's presentation at the request of any member of the group (please supply ID number), but students should be aware that in the digital world it is very difficult to put the genie back in the bottle once it has been released. So students should think carefully before giving permission to post the clip in which they appear.

Web Publishing 34

We had a lab instead of a lecture.

The sites seem to be taking shape. Although I've really only see three.

Students seem to be under a bit of pressure, but I expect they'll get there.

COM1-CMOD6001 29

I was delighted to see today that some students are finally taking the murder mystery assignment seriously.

Some students discussed with me the firing of members from their group who are not pulling their weight. I've no problem with that. The number of members in the group will be considered when assigning a mark. However it is vital that I be advised of group membership. The latest information I have is at www.com2008blogs.tk. I should be informed of changes by e-mail.

The project is due on Friday 28 November at 0930.