🚀 go-pugleaf

   I just can't resist responding to this discussion.  My own experience
as a student (which was a very long time ago) was that the courses in
which I learned the most were the ones in which I was given the most
homework after the instructor showed us a few examples.  I continue
this practice in my own teaching.  In my introductory course, homework
counts as much as one exam (about 17% of the final grade).  In advanced
courses, homework is typically about 1/4 of the final grade.  I stress
to the students that homework is so important that I'll help everyone
in the class do it, and the homework score is always calculated in
such a way that it is possible to get a final homework average greater
than 100% (in effect giving extra credit).
   I have noticed certain things, however.  When I was a student about
30 years ago, we tended to get homework assignments of 10 problems or
more per class per week.  Nowadays my students simply will not even
attempt assignments larger than 3 - 4 problems, and they tend to quit
working on problems that they haven't solved in a few minutes.  In
my intro course, I changed from a weekly assignment of 4 - 5 problems
to assignments of 1 - 2 problems due for each class, but even then
a significant fraction of the students don't even attempt to do the
work.  I also give students a list of practice exercises to do on
their own, and I base most exam problems on those exercises.  It is
my impression (based on exam performance and the results of interviews
with students) that very few students do these practice exercises
because they aren't going to be collected and graded.  The fact that
the exams are based partly on the exercises seems to have little
impact; the students apparently regard exam scores as a matter of
luck having little connection with preparation.
   Some of my colleagues are trying to deal with this situation by
having the students do "homework" during class, but I feel this is
not an acceptable solution.  I'm going to continue assigning homework
and grading it.  The students who accept my challenge are the ones
who do the best in my classes and who seem to continue to do well
in other classes.

Steve Luzader
sluzader@fre.fsu.umd.edu