Intellectual Property Book

Some students found our brief discussions on intellectual property interesting. These students might enjoy this free book by James Boyle

http://thepublicdomain.org/thepublicdomain1.pdf

Good Luck with your exams

Remember to just take them one at a time. And when one is over - forget about it and move on.

Well, all's well that ends

I spent most of the day correcting. I'm pretty pissed off actually, more than other times. The modules I was teaching this semester were really easy to pass. The subjects were not difficult and not complex. All people had to do was a bit of work. But a lot of students did not do that.

I'm actually looking forward to next semester because the subjects I have are more meaty and there's no waffle in them. It'll be good to be teaching real stuff.

COM1-CMOD6001 40

This morning I mostly just waited for students to arrive with pieces of projects.

While I was waiting I talked about recognition for prior learning (RPL) and the Erasmus programme.

The CIT contact for RPL is Phil O'Leary. You can e-mail her at phil.oleary@cit.ie

For information on Erasmus contact Margaret Mudderig. You can make an appointment to see her by call to her office. If the first on the right as you enter the admin building.

Web Pubishing CA Adjustments

During the semester I promised that I would find ways for students to get marks for various things that were not actually on the syllabus. Recall the 110% total we discussed. Well that was not in my gift and that is why that plan was abandoned and we went back to Plan A.

However I have made some adjustments so that studies who did that work can have it included in their marks. Students who didn't do it are at no loss because their marks is based on the course schedule anyway.

The Blog: I said I'd make that worth 10%. What I have done is calculated each students mark normally using the scheme set out in the course schedule.
Mark = (Essay * 40 + Exam * 30 + Project * 30)/100

However I awarded marks from 0 to 10 for the blog based on the number of weeks during which entries were made. I calculated a second mark
Mark2 = Mark *.9 + blog

The final marks awarded is the greater of the two. So everybody wins.

I had promised marks for the FTP lab. However when I looked I found that only two students had actually done it. SO I didn't bother with that.

I included questions from NewsU in the exam so I believe that covered that base.

Unfortunately these changes were not much use to the students that needed them most. Students who got 0 for their essays have a huge 40% sized hole in their mark and it's very hard to get around that.

Southpark Jumper

I left my Southpark jumper in B217/9 if anyone wants it. It might be a bit big for some of you seeing as how I'm big-boned and all. If it's still there next week I'll chuck it in the bin. I was going to give it to the charity shop but Isn't it enough that I pay taxes?! What about the poor houses that I pay for?!

Valuable Lessons

Bill Clinton: "No, thank you, Lisa. For teaching kids everywhere a valuable lesson: If things don't go your way, just keep complaining until your dreams come true."
Marge: "That's a pretty lousy lesson."
Bill Clinton: "Hey, I'm a pretty lousy president."

COM1-CMOD6001 2 weeks late?

If you submitted your project today with pieces missing you are free to supplement your submission next week. This will make the project 2 weeks late at a cost of 20%. But that might be better than projects with parts missing.

COM1-CMOD6001 Assignment Weightings

Here's an update on how I'm going to re-mark the blogs. If you made entries in 10 weeks you'll get 100%. 9 weeks 90% and so on.

I think that's a bad system since they were very easy marks anyway. If you are expected to something every week and you only do it half the time you shouldn't get 50%. 50% is a honours mark at CIT. 70% is first class honours.

But that's how I'm going to do it.

In addition I'm going to give either the job exercise mark or the blog mark for 10% overall. Which ever of the two is the higher. That should make a difference to quite a number of students.

So the bread down will be
final mark =
[(job or blog) * 10 + presentation * 15 + essay * 15 + project * 60] / 100

COM1-CMOD6001 Who goes there?

Please identify yourselves. I have all the murder mystery games now ready to correct, but I don't know which belongs to which students. There don't seem to be any names on them.

The sooner I get that information the sooner you'll get the marks.

Colin M

[Thanks for that guys. Although I've since been told that I am not allowed to give out the results of the final assessment. So it means ye won't get them any quicker for helping me out.]

COM1-CMOD6001 Blog marks

Jim O'Dwyer has persuaded me to change the way I marked the blogs. Details later when I figure it out exactly.

Web Publishing Results

Here are the results for the CA elements completed so far. I am sorry that they took so long. Dealing with plagiarism is a tricky business and this caused some delays.

The essay is worth 40%. The exam is worth 30%. The (yet to be decided) project is worth 30%.

All the results listed in the table are out of 100%.

Some students got zero for their essay because I believe that significant portions of their work was copied and pasted from various websites. I received submissions from all students to there is no need to contact me to make sure I got yours. Some students took up the offer to resubmit but didn't take it seriously. Those C & V keys were just too tempting.

Some students got low marks for the essay because some very small portions were lifted from the web, or because they were late.

The results are here indexed by the last 4 digits of ID number.

Stephen & Dade

Stephen P & Dade need to e-mail me about something. I have no proper way to contact you.

Web Publishing Deadline is 1600

I am still waiting on a number of submissions.

Did you e-mail me the URL and list of group members?

There's no good reason to delay sending that information.

So far (1600) I have
http://www.classicfilmcritic.com
http://irishtourist.tk
http://www.geocities.com/eisenhorn_66/
http://www.headz-up.net
www.cookingforstudents.info

Web Publishing Results

Letters will not now be sent to students after all. This is not because of a massive change of policy, just that it is taking too long.

I expect to post the results of the essay and exam on Wednesday 3 December. If students got zero because I believe they lifted material from websites, the result will appear as zero.

More later

Web Publishing Results & Deadline

I thought I had put the results of the exam online. I guess I didn't. The whole lot will be available soon enough anyway.

Some students took at the second shot at writing the essay. No student took my advice and started with a pencil and a blank sheet of paper.

A number of student will get zero and will get a letter from JimOD explaining that's why they got zero. I hope those letters will be organized on Monday or Tuesday. If you feel hard done by, there is a process you can trigger and some third parties will good at your essay and make a call. They also get to make a call on the punishment. That could be worse than just getting zero, but I've never heard of a penalty greater than that.

Some other students took a stab at second attempt. They got a mark that wasn't a whole lot better than zero (there was only 35% to play for anyway) but they won't be getting the letter home.

It won't take me too long to get the projects corrected one they are submitted. The module schedule says this is to be delivered in Week 12. Let's say Wednesday at 1600. After that will be considered late. But I really think you should get it done and dusted this weekend. Studying for exams is a better use of your time. This is only worth 30% of one module afterall.

COM1-CMOD6001 Results

I have updated my results for COM1 CMOD6001. Action is required on the part of some students, but if these students do nothing these marks will stand.

If you would like to know why you got a particular mark for any element please e-mail me to ask. I don't keep all of that information in my head, so please don't ask me in the hallway.

It is also possible that I have made a mistake. So please contact me if you think I may have.

COM1-CMOD6001 38

The group projects were due in today's class. A number of groups chose to submit late and take the 10% hit. This means that a project that might have got 50% will not get 40% (not 45%).

There will not be any more labs. In any event next week's lab time will be used for an exam in another subject.

I propose to have one more class. I would like to explain to students how recognition for prior learning (RPL) works and explain all about the Erasmus program.

Web Publishing 42

We had a lab in C125.

COM1-CMOD6001 37

Students met in their groups. I got to speak to every group but one. Most seem to be on schedule to deliver on Friday.

Some groups left to go to labs. I hope that wasn't a sign that they are behind schedule. I didn't get to speak to them.