Harvard University getting rid of final exams

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by emmzee, Aug 27, 2010.

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  1. emmzee

    emmzee New Member

    "Earlier this year, the university announced that it would no longer expect its courses to conclude with final examinations. In the past, professors were supposed to obtain approval if they did not intend to give a final exam; from now on, though, they will need to notify the university if they do wish to give one."

    Final exams at Harvard are so 20th-century - CSMonitor.com

    What do you think? If this was a distance / for-profit school people would no doubt be yelling foul (or "mill" ...) but since it's Harvard, everyone will just go along with it ...
     
  2. StefanM

    StefanM New Member

    I think it's a great idea for most subjects.
     
  3. AUTiger00

    AUTiger00 New Member

    It's a liberal arts school with heavy writing requirements. Beyond that, it is only at the College, not any of the graduate or professional schools. I would hazard to bet that the math and science courses will still have an exam component. I see no benefit in having a final exam for say, an english course. Hell, there is a course this semester on The History of the Vampire in Literature. How is an exam a better indication of a student's knowledge of the subject than a lengthy paper for a topic like that?
     
  4. Vincey37

    Vincey37 New Member

    Except almost all for-profits and I'm sure a few DL non-profits are already there.

    For-profits like to call downloading a problem set to be returned several days later an exam, but it's not. It's just another homework assignment. This is a terrible way to assess actual learning/mastery in subjects such as math.

    Call me when Harvard doesn't have a final exam in math classes, and I'll be critical of them as well. Too bad that'll never happen.
     
  5. Woho

    Woho New Member

    Absolutely agree. The most things I remember is from digging into subjects deep by myself. Not from hammering my head with a bunch of (mostly) random facts.
     
  6. NorCal

    NorCal Active Member



    If that was a distance learning school, your right that people would be screaming foul (mill) because Harvard has a much stronger reputation than all the DL colleges put together. Lets face facts and be real, although there are many great DL colleges, they are not Harvard; and any comparison would be foolish.
     
  7. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Although I scored quite well on my Psych CLEP, I feel like I learned nothing at all. A test only tests how well you take the test.
     
  8. Stadium

    Stadium New Member

    Thread title is misleading. Fail.
     
  9. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    I think this is the first time I have ever seen a declaration of "fail" on DegreeInfo. Win.
     
  10. emmzee

    emmzee New Member

    Fine ... MANDATORY final exams. :p

    For the record, I agree with a lot of the observations made here. I can see how for humanities subjects especially this will be a valuable change. I know that during my studies for my masters some of my courses did not have final exams and I probably did learn more in those classes. For something like math though I can see the value of keeping final exams.
     

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