"Hot Town, summer in the city . . . "

I had both on-campus and online classes this summer. Having Summer on-campus students were much to my amazement and pleasure. There was a big push of enrollment in the last few weeks. So now I have a good way to compare and contrast things such as ungrading, peer review, and group work. 

It took a bit for these Summer students to get the hang of ungrading. More prompting, leading, and pushing than students in the long semesters. Not sure if it's because students have more time over a 15-week semester vs these five-week semesters or if it's because the students have different characteristics. I had more younger students and returning university students in the Summer than in the Fall and Spring. Not sure how that would translate into taking longer to get the hang of ungrading. But I have my ideas. 

Anyhow, by the second ungrading essay online students were on board and heading in the right direction, thinking holistically, and writing metacognitively. They were performing solid research with minimal assistance (such as help with providing a primary source document or a JSTOR article). Interestingly enough, on-campus students were behind. Normally that is reversed. Was it a question of preparation? Higher level of expectations? A rigor question? Maybe maturity had something to do with it. Some discipline issues. Falling behind. Not reaching out for help -not recognizing the need for help even when help was offered.

I spent lecture time holding office hours to give them time to work on their research essays, allowing them to see me if they needed help. Not one student took me up on my offer. I did that twice. 

The final ungrading essay asked all students to take a holistic look at what they learned this semester and how they would take that into their future studies. The online students got it. The on-campus students overwhelmingly did not succeed at the same level as the online students, even though they had more access to me and spent more time writing and evaluating drafts. This raises more questions than it answers.