Ella: I can only speak for myself, but I, while being perfectly fine with anonymous grading in general and not opposed to the rule, am also fine with breaking it and with non-anonymous grading in this instance. Unlike apparently everyone posting on this thread, I do think teacher favoritism is a problem that you can't get around just by "hiring teachers you trust" as Moglen put it in class.

But, while I don't have some greatly higher level of trust in Professor Moglen than I do in other professors, I also see no reason to think I or anyone else will get a terrible grade that they otherwise wouldn't if he switches to non-anonymous grading. The same goes for an exceptionally good grade. I don't imagine for one moment that Prof. Moglen won't make assumptions about who the "anonymous" papers belong to, and let that influence his grading and his comments. So, from the viewpoint of influencing what grades people finally end up with, I think it's a wash.

And from the viewpoint of learning and developing, it's obvious to me that individualized comments are generally better. So I'm happy to go along with it if that's what everyone wants. To answer your question, Ella, probably some people are be scared to say anything against group consensus. But there also may be more like me who don't have strong opinions on one system versus the other, and who see the merits of what most people are clamoring for and so are okay with doing it.

-- AnjaliBhat - 05 Apr 2009

Ella: I can only speak for myself, but I, while being perfectly fine with anonymous grading in general and not opposed to the rule, am also fine with breaking it and with non-anonymous grading in this instance. Unlike apparently everyone posting on this thread, I do think teacher favoritism is a problem that you can't get around just by "hiring teachers you trust" as Moglen put it in class.

But, while I don't have some greatly higher level of trust in Professor Moglen than I do in other professors, I also see no reason to think I or anyone else will get a terrible grade that they otherwise wouldn't if he switches to non-anonymous grading. The same goes for an exceptionally good grade. I don't imagine for one moment that Prof. Moglen won't make assumptions about who the "anonymous" papers belong to, and let that influence his grading and his comments. So, from the viewpoint of influencing what grades people finally end up with, I think it's a wash.

And from the viewpoint of learning and developing, it's obvious to me that individualized comments are generally better. So I'm happy to go along with it if that's what everyone wants. To answer your question, Ella, probably some people are be scared to say anything against group consensus. But there also may be more like me who don't have strong opinions on one system versus the other, and who see the merits of what most people are clamoring for and so are okay with doing it.

Besides, there is that anonymous e-mail veto option for those who really hate it but don't want to say so.

-- AnjaliBhat - 05 Apr 2009