Btw, substitute #healthcare for learning & the post is just as valid. Commodifying some things ruins them

Tonight is a work night, as I try to finish giving students feedback on final projects--which is why I'm on Bluesky, bc staying focused in the middle of the night is difficult

This post captures so much post-election analysis: some voters don't like reality, so Dems need to better embrace fantasy in order to win their votes. Oh, and throw some minoritized folks under the bus while you're at it

Finally, I started No Homework Mondays last year bc students deserve weekends free from homework. We do activities on Mondays based on the previous week's content (e.g., "create your own religion" after a module on solidarity, or "create McPurdue" after a section on rationality)

some groups complete a module on implicit bias, while others focus on weathering. They discuss their module in groups, & we conclude the class sharing between groups that did different modules or discussing each module as a full class

I'm also experimenting with what I call "choose-your-own-adventure" modules. We all do the same prep work/discussion on Wednesdays, but for Fridays, students choose from bt similar modules. For instance, on a Friday focusing on how stereotypes get inside of us...

There's no final exam, but students do complete & share w/ classmates an open-ended self-learning project, where they choose both the topic and medium of presentation (paper, presentation, board game, sociological short story, musical analysis, podcast, etc.).

Instead of exams, students watch doc films at the end of each section, & we talk about them in light of theory/empirical stuff that we've covered in that section (e.g., Merchants of Doubt -> cultural hegemony, social identity theory, etc.). Students collaborate in turning in group responses

A few more thoughts on how the class runs: we spend most of our time in small groups discussing readings/podcasts/videos. I check in with as many groups as possible during each class period, after a brief intro/preview of next class period. In the last 10 mins, we share big takeaways as full class

Also, during the 1st week of classes, we critique the artificiality of "industrial education," reading @susandblum.bsky.social, watching a Ken Robinson talk, & discussing what a better learning system would look like. I do this to prime students for why our class is different from other courses

Here's what works 4 me instead: I (mostly) give students credit for completing activities (bc the U requires a grade), & I give individualized (or group, depending on class size) written feedback for most assignments. It takes a lot of time (about 2hrs after every class period), but it's worth it