Hi guys,
I was asked what the purpose of submissions is, when the class on Tuesdays give the solutions and in general the feedback is not so full of explanations.
Here is my answer:
Dear xxx
Thank you for reaching out and coming with the questions. I am happy to explain what I am trying to achieve with the submission. Then you can choose if you want to participate.
First of all, there is no point in us giving the same feedback to everyone first personally and then in the class, as you pointed out. But the submissions do give us a lot of advantages:
Obviously there is the statistics and the ability to compare your score with others. For some this may not matter much, but for those who find one week’s problems very difficult, it is useful to see that their 2 points on the mixed sheet were actually on par with 3 points the previous week, in terms of rating.
Then there is accountability. To know that someone will look at your solutions and grade you is a helpful tool for 90% of the students. I am sure there are some that it does not affect either way. I would not be one of these. People try harder. They actually get it done. And other side benefits.
Then there is individual feedback to some parts of your solutions that does not get the attention in the class.
Then there is the chance to redo the exercises before the class. If you get an exercise wrong, and you get feedback, it is my hope that will try some of the exercises again. You would not have that chance during the video class.
Finally, there is the biggest point, which is that our video class would be significantly worse if we did not have the feedback. Understanding what is difficult for the students and which options we should include in the analysis and explanations comes to a great extent from the homework.
So, the homework is graded. The feedback is based on helping you put in more effort.
Relating to exercise 10, where I said that rather than 1…g5, as you suggested, 1…Bg5! was a stronger move. This was me saving time. Yours and mine. I did not think that it would make sense for you to look at this exercise again, as your move was also decent, although 1…Bg5 was much stronger. Thus I just gave you the answer. I do not have 20 minutes for all 20 submissions. We are currently offering a real price of lesson under €1 per lesson – and we are spending time preparing this homework, opening analysis and others. For us to spend time on the homework, it has to have a function and not be repetitive.
Jacob