Content

Earlier in the afternoon today, I received an email from my lecturer. It was regarding her module's assignment which was due last week

Firstly, the title didn't really make sense. There was no link between the title and what she wrote in the email from my point of view

The main thing about this email was ranting, typing all those words to relieve herself from some unexpected and "backlashed" stress. Yes, she is indeed ranting because she bcc-ed the email to all her students

Now, the main topic about this ranting is the grading criteria. She mentioned that the assignment marking scheme was released a long time ago. And in the marking scheme, it was stated that the contents section is one of the highest weightage components

Our websites have to possess "enough" (don't how how elaborate is her standard of enough) content for her to enjoy reading. Here's the point, she said that many students placed little content in their websites

My take on this issue is that she was expecting to maybe get to know students more (or some of their secrets) through their assignments. She thought that she could easily "gain access" into the minds and worlds of her students

She believed that the websites will be filled with information so informative that she'll never know of. She was so eager to know the lives that her students were leading. She was indirectly trying to infringe their privacy through this "personal website" assignment

Obviously, with such high hopes, she was disappointed when she saw many people putting little content in their sites. She thought that she could be the one and only person enjoying the exclusive privilege of sitting comfortably in front of her computer knowing and understanding every detail about her students

Her only way to rant was to do it directly to the students who caused her disappointment. She wrote lots of stuff, some were written out of a little bit of anger. I study psychology and human being reactions

Now the question is, why did she set such a high weightage for content instead of other areas like technical skills or organization?

It is like assembling a team of basketball players who can dribble really well but none can shoot properly, all are poor at defending and there are no tactics. Is that practical?

My brain tells me that she is making use of this assignment to indirectly know more about her students. I didn't said that that was a bad thing. However, I don't think having such a marking scheme seem to be fair

Some students who are less creative (usually those who speak Mandarin instead of ang moh) might have good technical skills. But with this "biased" grading scheme, the more creative ones (usually those who suck at Chinese) might be able to turn around the tables and score better marks with their impressive writing

In the email, she said that she is the client in this scenario and we the sellers have to follow what she wants. Clearly, she is not happy with the lack of content and uses this as an excuse

Hello? I thought this assignment is called Personal Website? Who are the hell are we doing it for? For ourselves, not you! You are the teacher who is supposed to grade us on our work and not comment on how much details about our history should we disclose in order to pass the assignment

P.S. I am not ranting too, I am just stating a fact and I need lots of words to prove my stance