Hybrid Courses Is An Argument Predicated On Anxieties

By Author: mattleung
Total Articles: 2
Comment this article

Gouge constructed her analysis of objectivity solely from outdated sources; she argues that the hybrid system isn't as objective as it claims to be on the program website, pointing most specifically to the ability of the classroom instructor to override a grade assigned by a document instructor as evidence to that effect. She makes an extended claim that this aspect of the system "undermines its claims of Cheap Juicy Couture the value and preeminence of objectivity". She concludes that the "result is a program that propagates the myth that 'fairer grading' means that students should be evaluated objectively". Even in places where information is clearly lacking, when she notes that the problem log feature "is not explained" on the website, Gouge accepts the validity of her source.

More problematic is her choice to ignore the qualifiers and context of her discussion. For example, in a program document entitled "Reconfiguring Composition for the Fall 2002," Kemp writes, "All reading will be 'blind' and guided by specifically defined criteria for each assignment, thus objectifying ...
... the evaluation of student writing to what is probably the greatest degree possible for a writing class." After establishing the importance of criteria as the basis for this process, Kemp notes, "Those who manage the classrooms will not be grading their own students but mediating between the criteria of good writing that they teach and the grades and document commentary from the grading pool." The mediation referred to here does not simply elevate the classroom instructor to the top of the hierarchy, as Gouge concludes. If a student questions a grade, the student writes a note to the classroom instructor in which the student explains how she did, in fact, complete the assignment more effectively than her grade indicates. It is the classroom instructor's job to determine whether the student has made a valid case for the grade change. This decision is made with the assistance of the assignment grading criteria and the document instructor's commentary, and Juicy Couture Necklaces the instructor may approve or deny the change as she sees fit. Although Gouge sees this as a break with the purported goals of the program, our instructors have far more evidence to refer to than if they were both the assignor of the grade and arbiter of the grade, as they would be in a traditional classroom.

Given the deficiencies in Gouge's sources, her conclusion about the Texas Tech program, that the "result is a hybrid program structure that undermines what it purports to value and values what its structure is claimed to have been designed to prevent" must be rejected. Underlying much of Gouge's discussion of hybrid courses is an argument predicated on anxieties about factors that will lead to a mechanistic model of teaching composition: indeed, factors such as disassociated yet controlling administration, disaffected and disempowered compositionists, reduced funding levels, and a culture of efficiency seem strongly linked to the immovable and potentially threatening model of hybrid course delivery that, for Gouge, Texas Tech's program represents.