John Henryism

 Sharing this guest post from Renton Technical College VPI Dr. Stephanie Delaney's February 12th newsletter, with her permission. You can find her at www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniedelaney 

Do you remember the legend of John Henry? He tried to out hammer a steam powered machine and he succeed! Unfortunately, he later dropped dead of exhaustion. I remember watching the Disney cartoon about John Henry when I was a kid (this isn't, of course, a link to the cartoon, but gives you the idea).

"Successful Black people tend to die much earlier than their white colleagues."

A couple of years ago I was at a conference where they talked about John Henryism, a term I had never heard of before. It referred to a situation where Black people worked incredibly hard to succeed in this white world. And they often did succeed. But at what cost? Mortality. Successful Black people tend to die much earlier than their white colleagues.

Being Black in the white workplace is really stressful and stress can be lethal. When we have conversations about white privilege and some white people say they don't have any privilege, they are not thinking about not bearing this incredible burden - the burden of simply being Black. You can think of being white as being the steam engine and Black as trying to do the same work with two hammers instead of steam power.

When we succeed, it is not accurate to say, "See, there is no racism because Black people hold positions of power or experience success." It is accurate to say that success can happen in spite of the racism in the workplace . . . or the college. And at what cost? Poor health outcomes? Early death?

We often celebrate when people succeed despite the odds against them (think every commencement ceremony you've been to). We need to change that narrative. There is no glory in suffering.

Trying to reduce and eliminate that pointless suffering is one of the key reasons our college needs to be laser focused on dismantling the systems of racism - the policies, procedures, and negotiated agreements that keep barriers in place that are designed to hold people back. Rather than celebrate when people manage, against all odds to succeed, let's get rid of the barriers and celebrate that instead.

On Un-Proctoring Exams, Unleashing Learning

In the current sudden expansion of online learning due ot COVID-19, many institutions are increasing spending on proctoring services for classes; some, for the first time.  The proctoring platforms are jumping at the chance to increase their sales, and are offering special discounts to new users.  

Proctored exams, it seems, are the ultimate way to prevent online cheating. Using a proctored exam system, students cannot navigate beyond their test to the Internet itself, and in many cases are actually watched - monitored by video feeds - to ensure that they do not look down to check notes or their phones, speak to another person, or - heaven forbid - take a bathroom break. In many cases they must pass through an airport security-like check-in; showing their ID cards, stating their name, and making sure their faces can be seen clearly.  Any student who is “flagged” is reported to the teacher, who can then - with complete and utter confidence - give the student a 0 on the exam.

Photo by Surface on Unsplash

This assumes that the students will be working on computers with built-in webcams or that one is purchased for exam use; some faculty require that students purchase a second webcam, to show their hands as well as their faces during an exam. Beyond the equipment purchases,  proctoring makes more unrealistic assumptions; it assumes that all students have a desk and chair in a quiet room where they can take the exam for 1-2 hours, uninterrupted.  No kids asking questions, no work calling to say you are needed. It assumes students are native speakers with academic backgrounds, and will never have to look up a word or phrase. And last but not least: It assumes that students are trying to cheat.  

Here's a tweet by an Instructional Designer Dale Coleman at Tacoma Community College (used with permission):

Accessibility score: Perfect Click to improve

The spy-like visuals of this experience are not only nerve-racking, but fly in the face of the culture of online learning,  where students and teachers not infrequently do their work from the comfort of their beds, back porches, or living room couches, laptops on laps or cellphones in hands. In my own experience as both an online student and teacher, working online means working in pajamas, working in the car, working while eating, and working while others are holding conversations in the same room. One of the main differences between the online experience and the face-to-face experience is the independent study opportunities they provide; we can interact on our own time, in our own way. 

Proctoring takes everyone's focus away from course content and puts it on a very big billboard-like message that says: Trust not Found here. Proceed with Caution.  It causes student discomfort even before it happens; taking a quiz is made into daunting experiences akin to airport security checks; Do I have my passport? Do I have my ticket? Where's my driver's license? Many of our students have stressful experiences in refugee camps and visa offices that still reverberate in their minds. Often this process results in - at the very least - a section in the course devoted to how to take an exam (which could have been used for actual course content); students spending time and often scant resources buying onetime use equipment and preparing to take exams (which could have been used for studying); and multiple, repeated tech issues and help desk requests that must be resolved by support offices (which have many other issues to take care of).  Proctoring - besides the actual high cost of the service - costs in many other ways as well. 

Un-proctoring exams can mean unleashing learning;  supporting lifelong learning involves skillfully utilizing our many free online tech tools, the Internet itself, and our own creativity and knowledge to enhance learning. The Learning Management systems already provide a secure login, and offer a wide array of assessment types that go beyond the proctored environment, from practice quizzes to video projects and everything in between. Combine these options with teaching strategies that chunk material and a UDL mindset that finds ways for students to show what they have learned by creating assessments that build learning, this is exactly the time that the costly add-on of proctored exams should be falling out of fashion, shifting the institutional funds instead towards better empowering faculty to teach online with the resources and professional development  they need to promote academic integrity and trust.