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How can I prevent students from writing answers on an assignment, then claiming I didn't see their answer?
What is a good way to prevent students from writing an answer after you hand back a graded assignment (exam/homework) and claiming that you did not see their answer?
It is clear to me that this particular student even used a different pen for their answer, and I am 100% sure that the answer was not there. I would have seen it, and I even remember double checking to see whether the answer was there.
This is the second time this has happened to me in this semester (different students), and both times I am sure that they wrote the answer afterwards and are trying to gain more points.

I was once told that such post edits are the reason why people write the valuta sign before the value (e.g. $ 200.15): such that one can not add digits before the valuta sign (and usually puting digits after the value is not very significant).

In the universities I attended and where I worked, anything important for final grading was kept by the university. Students could go and look up their exams in the secretary's office and make copies, notes, whatever - but the original was basically not allowed to leave that office.

What course? Are there any impediments to going paperless entirely and having your students submit via email or web portal?

I would always write the number of points for a given question on the right hand side of the "Question #" title and would strike through the title if a student did not enter an answer. This saves me considerable time for answers that were obviously correct or wrong and also prevented anyone from debating whether a $0$ was meant for an incorrect answer or a missing one.
It also feels less personal than a gigantic cross through the whole answer section.

Is it really necessary to prevent those claims? You can just say: "No, this answer was not there." and the student has no means to prove it was.

@J.FabianMeier: you would be surprised how bold some students are. I was recently involved as a witness in a cheating case, there were six exams with the same notation, the same nonsense, the same mistakes, the same correct answer after an incorrect procedure. Yet one of the guys appealed the faculty's decision and appeared in front of an all-university committee to defend his case.

@MartinArgerami Yes, but it very much depends on the number of bold students. In my experience, it was roughly 1 in a 1000 exams. You just have to estimate what causes you more work/trouble.

I don't really have a basis to challenge or accept your number. What I can say is that this case alone took a little more than four  hours of my time.

@J.FabianMeier It might be.  It seems in an highly honorable environment, when a student affirms that the answer was there previously, the instructor will just assume that s/he missed it.  In other environments, the exam paper must be physically secured against alteration.

This actually seems like the perfect use case for a blockchain. When the student submits their work, they get an undeniable receipt.

@emory I don't agree. The student has the burden of proof that the answer was really there when I marked the exam. This is nearly impossible to do. Of course, in a "highly honorable environment" or with a very trustworthy student, I might take his/her word.

@J.FabianMeier In some environments the student has the burden of proof and in others the instructor would.  One system is not necessarily better than another.

@emory I would be interested to here from a place where the instructor needs to prove that I marked correctly.

@J.FabianMeier I don't know that such a place is not purely hypothetical.  I do know that Dartmouth does not proctor exams https://students.dartmouth.edu/judicial-affairs/policy/academic-honor-principle  "The Faculty of Dartmouth College, in recognizing the responsibility of students for their own education, assumes intellectual honesty and integrity in the performance of academic assignments,"  It is conceivable to me that means faculty should assume the student is telling the truth in that situation.

@J.FabianMeier I think it also depends on the point of marking assignments.  If it is largely about generating a grade then you will want to be fair and not let some students have more time than others.  On the other hand, if it is primarily about educational feedback, then it does not make much sense to be a stickler on this.

@J.FabianMeier Your idea -- that the burden of proof is on the student to prove they had answered the question -- is without basis. The student handed in their exam in an exam room in which they are not allowed to photograph their test. So what proof could they have? If I am a student and the instructor loses my exam, is it fair for the instructor to say "prove you turned it in", when there is no realistic scenario under which I could have such proof? No, the burden of proof must lie with those who have the capacity to prove.

@6005 As an instructor you also cannot disprove the claim that you lost an exam. I think it is enough if the instructor shows that his procedure is sound,  and that the claim of the student is unlikely, given the procedure applied.

I'd just sort all the exams alphabetically and video-record all the graded exams with my phone. Maybe, have an assistant help you by flipping the pages. Best case scenario, you won't ever need that recording and you can just delete it after a few months. Worst case scenario, you've caught the student in a lie and you can prove it. And assuming the video recording is good enough to prove your case, now you can report him to the faculty as a cheater.

Are we talking about an assignment done under exam conditions?  Because if not, I don't understand why hand-written assignments are being submitted instead of the university using electronic submission via something like Blackboard.  It's 2017!

@J.FabianMeier What you suggest is a form a proof. What I am suggesting is things like scanning exams right afterwards, or taking a video in the testing room if you want to be really thorough. I don't disagree that what matters is the instructor's procedure is sound, but I would like you to rescind your claim that "The student has the burden of proof that the answer was really there when I marked the exam."

It's for a Quantitative Methods class and it was for a homework assignment, so they have to do the problems by hand. In this particular case it was a "ttest," and the student did not write the Null and Alternative Hypotheses. At the end of the class, after I had returned the HW, the student came up to me, and said I had marked off, but they were there all along...in slightly different pen color/brush, right above where I had marked it missing. I remember looking for it before marking it missing. It was NOT there. I ask bc this is the second occurrence at the new university I am working at now.

@6005 I dislike the concept of "burden of proof" in this setting.  There is no burden of proof.  Professor and student are supposed to be cooperating in a learning adventure not adversaries in a pseudo-legal system.

@emory that's fair, but a lot of the time proof exists to protect both sides. So I guess the burden of proof is on the system, not either party. I took an exam once where we programmed answers to some questions, and the system autograded it. My prof. didn't keep any copies. When I got my score back the next day and missed a question I knew I had right, the only thing I could do was show him it worked on my machine the next day, which would be trivial to cheat. He chose to believe me, but in a cooperative system there'd be a means to definitively prove what I said. Not hope he was on my side.

@emory This very much depends on the atmosphere that you have in your faculty. When I worked in mathematics, many students were genuinely interested in the subject and exams caused little trouble. When I worked in logistics (business and light engineering), a large number of students were just trying get good marks with little effort and cheating and all sorts of tricks were a regular experience.

Use placeholders
You can use

a sign or an indication that you would never use in any other circumstances (red cross, three question marks, etc.),
a short sentence ("No Answer Given", "I'm sure you knew it!", "You should have tried!"),
a sign that occupy the whole space (as suggested by Elizabeth Henning in the first place): slashes, X, Z,...

Don't try to catch the students that came back to you (supposedly) cheating, you just learned a lesson, and won't be caught again.

How does this help (or what is it that I don't get?). The student could simply put the correct answer in question 4, and claim that your cross is wrong since the correct answer is there (now).

This answer does not seem to work at all, for reasons @Mark described.

I put a line or large X through the entire blank space. I've never had anyone try to pull this particular crap.

Similar to Elizabeth, I just write a long horizontal slash when things have been omitted.  As this is the only circumstance in which I use such notation, I know exactly what it means, so a student would not be able to easily argue with me.
Also, if I know a student is untrustworthy/argumentative from past experience, I give extra care to protecting myself from potential complaints when grading their assignments.

@Mark Ok, student can argue with pretty much anything, but I believe Elizabeth and Aegis (and my edited answer) prove that it's easy to protect from this particular scenario.

Or three big question marks in the answer area works well too.

You could also just write "No Answer Given" in big red text in the blank space.

@Zibbobz  Writing anything at all takes a comparatively long time.  Like Elizabeth and others, I put a big X in every blank answer space.  I also scan a limited number of exams, including very low grades and borderline passing grades.  I've never needed one of those scans, but I know faculty who've had this tried.

My professor used to draw a giant red slash down a blank page (or section) to indicate that he acknowledged an empty page at the time of grading so students wouldn't put extra work there.

We did this for written exams (think 300 takers at a time) and found that a large "Z" was more efficient than a large "X".

I draw a red slash line on wrong answers and a red backslash line when the student didn't answer.

A high-school teacher of mine once tried to frame me for cheating writing a Z over my answers and claiming that I answered the questions later. My only recourse was the testimony of my classmates that I didn't cheat and that I got back my test like that. It was a hairy situtation...

@T.Sar You could probably prove the Z was after the text under it, as the ink would be "on top" of the other ink, and dimples from the text under it would "jar" the lines of the Z (making strait lines in the Z jag a bit), but the Z line would not "jar" the text.  But it would be forensic-difficult and expensive.

@TAR86 In Poland, we use big Ƶ to indicate that all space was empty. It is convenient because it is a sign we rarely use for other purposes.

This may be culture-specific, but I would find it totally weird if the instructor wrote "I'm sure you knew it" or "You should have tried!" The students are adults and it's their sole choice to write down answers or not. "You should have tried!" gives no information whatsoever - every student knows that they will not lose points for trying (if not stated otherwise, e.g. sometimes in multiple-choice questions). "I'm sure you knew it" is even more weird. If so, why didn't the student get the points?

@yupsi As a French I find it weird as well, as a prof. in the US, I feel like this is what the students want to see (I could be completely wrong, of course), so, yes, I would say that this is completely culture-specific.

(+1) I draw lines through the open spaces where answers should have been. But I once had a student bring their test back, with an answer now in place. They wanted me to think I messed up, but I simply stated that my mark was in ink, their answer was in pencil, and I had a seriously good microscopist colleague who was available to see what was at the bottom: my ink or their pencil lead. Said microscopist was also on the university’s Honor Board and had been around the block a few times. Student left with no higher grade.

I scan my student's assignments. There is a big printer with scanning function in our department where you can just put in the papers and it scans all of them at once.
Moreover, I do warn them beforehand that I will scan the papers and check if one makes a complaint. This has the advantage that the students will not cheat (in this way) and saves me the time from finding the student's scan in a huge pdf file and comparing the two versions.
Of course, to make scanning practical, you should tell the students not to staple their assignments (and only staple them afterwards), so as to be able to feed an entire pile of papers into the xerox.

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Consider using electronic submission for weekly assignments.  I have had success with asking my students to submit scanned PDFs of their handwritten homework assignments, via my college's course-management website.  (We use Moodle, but I assume that Blackboard & other equivalent software have similar functionality.)  Assignments are then graded directly on the PDF and uploaded as "feedback files".  Any change to the uploaded file is not allowed after the official due date, so it isn't possible for the student to add additional information after the graded assignment is returned.  In some sense, this is similar to the method advocated by user82630 above, but with the tedious work of scanning offloaded to the students.
The students have not generally had a problem scanning & uploading their files.  My institution has many "multi-function devices" scattered around campus that allow students to scan papers to e-mail (as PDFs) for free.  Many students also just take pictures of their assignment papers with their phones and upload those (though such submissions are admittedly harder for me to read, so I try to discourage that.)
This method might not be appropriate for a test, though, since it does require that the students be able to access the web to submit their assignment.

+1 I require that my students upload their assignments even when I intend on grading the paper assignments.  This also helps in those rare cases where I have lost a student's assignment.

As an instructor, I find dealing with it all electronically is just easier.  As the cms admin (Canvas in our case) and the guy the instructors and department chairs come to when students claim to have submitted work,etc. I can say that for sure it stops the BS.  Quickly.  This term I've invited 6 or 7 students to visit with their instructor or the department chair and I can show them  the clickpath they did at any time during that week or whatever - not a one has taken me up on it :)

In this time & age, this is the obvious answer. Surprised that it only comes third in number of upvotes.

Make a large red thick line through the empty space where the answer should have been. Do the same when students use only part of the space available. If a student adds/extends his answer afterwards, he/she would write over your line - proving that your line was there first, and thus, the answer was added afterwards.

‘Why did you draw this line through my answer?”

@WGroleau the trick is that the student would have to write over the line, which will show that the line came first

Never underestimate the cheater.  A clever one would arrange his letters so that none cross the line.  Or even retrace a line over some of them.  A less clever... well, I have heard of students obtaining a teacher’s edition of a textbook and copying “Answers may vary” on short-answer exercises!

@WGroleau it doesn't matter how clever the cheater is. The purpose here is to convince yourself that you didn't miss the answer. A really clever cheater could duplicate the entire exam, rewrite their answers exactly, then add back in my grading marks so my marks are over theirs. All that would prove to me is they're a cheater.

Neither have I.  But from what I have seen, I can surely imagine it!

@iheanyi: They could not duplicate my handwriting.

@Joshua Tracing over your already written text is sufficient to duplicate your handwriting. Or making a photocopy - that literally duplicates your handwriting.

@iheanyi: I don't know about you but I could never make a photocopy that makes handwritten ink still look like handwritten ink.

@Mehrdad I also couldn't come up with a mathematical explanation of the photoelectric effect while working as a patent clerk. . . but I'm sure it's possible.

Building off of user82630's suggestion to scan the tests (because I don't have enough rep here to comment):
In my department we have the TAs use a paper cutter to slice off the corner with the staples (addressing the key bottleneck in scanning), then batch scan them into a single PDF using an auto-feed scanner.
We then use Gradescope to separate the PDF pages back into individual tests, manage the marking process, and electronically return the tests. Gradescope (with which I am not affiliated) saves us enough time on the marking process to justify the scanning time, and as a side benefit we get a record of what was actually turned in.

I've been doing exactly this in 400-student classes with 8-page long-answer exams for a couple of years now.  The extra time to scan, upload, partition, and identify the exams (a few hours with a finicky scanner) is more than paid for by the efficiency of parallel online grading and on-the-fly rubric adjustment, with no worries about losing paper, recording or tabulation errors, or post-grading modification.  Highly recommended.  [I have no affiliation with Gradescope except as a satisfied customer.]

@NajibIdrissi You could do that, but it would be a way worse answer.  Providing specific products and details explains how you actually solved this problem in your professional experience, which is the platonic ideal of Stack Exchange answers, basically.  The fact it also happens to make a particular company or product or whatever look good is 1) a side effect and 2) not a bad thing.

When I worked as a teaching assistant for a large course, the course coordinator used to include the following notice on the cover page of the exams:

A random number of test papers will photocopied and kept in order to prevent cheating.

Just like warnings about security cameras or guard dogs, the notice provides the deterrent regardless of how many test papers are actually photocopied. I once asked him whether it was possible that the "random number" is zero, and I don't think he gave me a clear answer.

I have some reserves with the parallel with security cameras, but I must admit that's a clever and funny way to address the question.

@Clément Well, the parallel with security cameras is simply to emphasize how belief that a countermeasure may be in place deters undesirable behavior, even if the countermeasure isn't really active. That seems like a pretty innocuous thing to have reservations about. (Even if you have objections to the actual or pretended use of security cameras in real life.)

Upvoted for the "zero is also a number" thought. :)

What's the random chance that he did give a clear answer?  :-)

Relevant: https://xkcd.com/221/

Return a copy and hold on to the original (or vice versa, though holding on to the original prevents the student from accusing you of editing the copy).

I do exactly that, keeping the original. works fine. I did once give back work (where I had taken copies) and a student claimed I had missed the answer... I told them I would give their work and my photocopy to the Dean  and they would get the response by the end of the week. Suddenly the claim for an extra grade went away...

@SolarMike there should be a subreddit for stories like this...

I once ask for a re-evaluation of my grade, with an almost perfect cheated version. They use numbered paper for answer. The teacher agree to re-evaluate. But took my copy, and then told me: "Thanks but you do not have to bother. I have a copy of every submission". But it was too late the cheated copy was already in his bag. I didn't sleep well after that. He had a copy. But as it was not the original he din't see that the paper and the id number were fake. Allowing me to add numbered paper and claim they where not scan.

In my university professors often publish the solution right after the exam.
Then, they establish a "review day" in which only one-two students at a time are allowed to enter the professor's office to see the corrected exams in front of him/her.
In this way students can ask some questions but not allowed to leave with the orginal sheets.
The clear drawback is the time consuming management of the "review day" but for sure you will not have that problem anymore and (from my personal point of view as student) students are more encouraged to ask questions about errors.

How is this different from https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/98613/19627 ?

well, the main idea is the same, the implementation is a bit different, so it may be suitable one or the other depending on some factors. If the course have 100+ student is simpler to accept few students at a time in a small office insted of handling them all at the end of a class . I posted the answer to provide the OP a solution that I experienced from the student perspective.

This is not foolproof. I have heard stories of students working together. One distracts the professor and the other quickly adds an answer to the graded assignment.

This answer is in support of user82630's answer that, "I scan my student's assignments. There is a big printer with scanning function in our department where you can just put in the papers and it scans all of them at once." I have also done this for several years.
Previously there was some skepticism as to whether this was physically feasible or not, so I wanted to add some research data. Today I scanned the last cycle of tests in my courses this semester, and timed how long it took. I had 4 sections of math courses with a total of 69 tests; with answer sheets, this was 74 sheets (double-sided), for a total of 148 impressions. The scanning and processing on the bulk copier took 4 minutes and 21 seconds. This was done on a Canon ImageRunner Advance 6265, produced circa 2012, which has been the standard copier in all the offices at my community college for several years.
I highly recommend this method for documenting tests. In addition to clarifying any questions afterward, there have been numerous times when I wanted to extract statistics from old tests that I couldn't have done otherwise.

I mark papers for several classes. Many are permitted an opportunity to correct minor mistakes. This allows a student whose mastery and knowledge are on the borderline between two grades, to demonstrate whether they are above or below that boundary.
This is not an opportunity to edit and improve the submission by a significant margin, or to answer parts of the assignment/test/exam they avoidedd the first time through.
Indicating the complete absence of a response in any page is done with a full  diagonal line across the page, sometimes with a symbol personal to the marker, like a W or S or X or #.
Indicating the end of an answer is done with a horizontal line immediately beneath the end of the answer, followed by the same diagonal line in the remaining space, if any exists.
Where an answer takes up a small portion of the page, it may be boxed and the remaining space again slashed out.
Diagrams, charts and key statements may be circled, then ticked right or marked wrong, to prevent later alterations and improvements in that particular area.
Any text crossed out by the student is circled and annotated as such, to avoid claims of a marker having ignored it. Crossed-out responses that are correct and legible may be considered valid and marked like any other; this avoids the claim that the answer was legible and "someone else" changed it before marking.
Finally, marked papers are kept under supervision at all times when the student is fixing the minor errors. Any paper leaving the controlled space is no longer available to resubmit. Some papers are kept secure and only a copy is given, and only when requested, and only with the intent of deciding whether to appeal a grade.

Scanning is a good thing, but super tedious. For the class I TAd recently, we never given exams back to students. If you don't like your grade posted online, come to office hours and discuss the paper while I hold it in my hands.
Some off-campus students get their work scanned, of course.
One of the reasons we were not giving away work, is that in the past we saw students copy from senior students.

No so convenient to look back to a mid-term exam while studying for the final…

Scanning takes about 1 minute for me with a class of 30 students on a bulk-feed copier, so not sure where it gets "super tedious".

Downvoted. One of the purposes of exams (especially midterm exams) is to give students useful narrative feedback on their mastery of the course material. This protocol intentionally encourages students to ignore that feedback and just pay attention to their grade.

Students learning from senior students is great, you should encourage it. And also change the exam each year.

I've never had an exam returned to me, so agree for exams that having them returned is unnecessary. But this issue applies to other assignments.  E.g. If I submit a research paper on something and get told 'You should include test results'  I could send it back with "those are in Appendix C"

@DanielR.Collins i remember that worst thing is splitting work into PDFs per student, emailing each via our online thingy.

@SirAdelaide problem was that students would take work of senior students and resubmit and their own / slightly edited

@aaaaaa: But that has nothing to do with the current question. E.g., I just keep the single bulk PDF document and refer back to it in the rare case that there is a question afterward.

@DanielR.Collins uh okay i understand now

Besides all the technical solutions mentioned above  (that I do use), the marks in one question in one assignment aren't usually that significant on the overall grade; so, I usually let it go. But if I have the slightest suspicion that the student changed something, she/he will stay in my radar for the rest of the semester.

The way grading worked in my university (and probably all across Germany) is that there is one exam at the end of the semester and certain point values that will move you up to a better grade. Naturally, even half a point can be enough to move you up to a better grade — or even be the difference between fail and pass (I had the latter once, or so I thought).

@Jan: I understand that such a thing can happen. At all universities I have taught, however, exams and grading schemes were designed so as to avoid such situations (roughly, if the pass grade is 50, we would never assign a 49 or a 51, say).

But it seems hard to be avoided unless you discriminate what can earn a point and what does not. If one student has 52 and the other has exactly the same except for three key bits that would each give a single point, you either have to reshuffle the entire exam (hoping that something would work out) or mark discriminately.

@Jan: the first is always the case. Having marked exams for more than 30 years, I don't think anyone can grade "accurately" up to a 1% precision. It works ok overall, though (the few times I had to regrade someone else's exam, the grade was very close to the original, even if the individual question marking did not entirely agree).

Publish the grades somewhere beforehand, e.g., online or on some message board (often this will have to be done anyways). Announce a time when the papers will be returned (e.g., at the end of a class). During that session, students can review their paper or check some detail of the grade with you but only while the paper has not left your supervision. Make sure that the students understand that once they leave your supervision with their paper, they accept their grade. If there's something they wish to contest, either it is resolved there and then while the paper has not left anybody's sight, or you take the paper to review or make copies of as needed.

This is probably more suitable for exams since it requires setting aside some time to review papers, but is quite general (e.g., doesn't assume blank spaces that can be crossed out if the students use their own paper, doesn't require some sort of futuristic photocopier that your university could only dream of owning, etc.). Also in my experiences few students wish to contest grades and most just wander off with their papers; all grade contests have been resolved there and then in person. Also works well with TAs of course and they can escalate to you.

Downvoted. Students should be allowed to think about their solutions and  feedback from the graders carefully—which takes time—and then approach the instructor to correct legitimate grading mistakes.  Because there will be legitimate grading mistakes.  Also, I'm teaching several hundred students at a time, so even if I wanted to follow this protocol, I couldn't.

@JeffE, so what is the protocol you follow?

Rebutting your two main reasons for downvoting: (1) Because it will not work in your particular case where you have several hundred students. But I'm assuming there are many answers on this site that don't work in your particular case. Shall you downvote them all? I don't think there's any "perfect/universal" answer here (or often in the real world in general). Why not downvote all answers then? Shall I downvote the top answer because in all of my exams the students answer on their own paper and there's no blanks to cross? Shall we, in principle, downvote answers for not solving all cases?

(2) That the students have no time to think about their papers. If the students have doubts, I am there to discuss and usually I (and/or my TAs) can discuss the solution with them for as long as needed. If the case is not resolvable there and then, they simply leave the paper with me and if they want a copy, I will make one. The only restriction is that if they have a remaining doubt, or think they may have a doubt, they don't take the original paper. They can still ask for a copy if they want to review it in their own time.

So basically.. "Please check your change before leaving the store"

Well as a human being, I am capable of defeasible reasoning. If they were to return with an exam paper with some complicated solution that they realised in the shower some Saturday should probably work and it was clear to me that they hadn't changed it, I would of course still consider it. :) This has never happened though and doesn't seem like a likely circumstance (perhaps given the nature of my exams).

@badroit Recently I scan exams and grade them online. In the past, I’ve drawn X’s through blank ares of the page, written “No answer” in places with missing answers, and circled important parts of incorrect answers, with narrative comments. In 20 years, with thousands fo students, I’ve had only a couple of cases where students tried to modify their graded exams, and they were all easily detectable. (And by “time” I mean on the scale of days, not minutes.)

On the front page, require the students to enter how many questions they have answered and how many pages they handed in.

How does the solve the problem?

Some of my professors have a policy of not reviewing exams after they have left their office. This requires that students come into office hours to pick exams up, but also allows for a conversation over the material before it is reviewed.

Another option could be to ask students by their-selves to cross-out unused spaces on the answer sheet. This will make spaces crossed out by the same pen/ink that student was using, making the argument null that "teacher forgot to assess it (it as already crossed out by student)" as well as eliminating the option of overwriting that crossed space.
This has been a practice in my country where invigilators present in the classroom makes sure that extra pages / spaces on the answer sheet has been crossed out by student himself.  However if not done, original copies are never returned to students but are available for review upon request eliminating such claims.

Time after the actual exam ought to be used for this - what about if, several questions later, the candidate decided to add more - over his crossed-out space?

@Tim: yes extra time should be given for crossing out unused pages. Candidates that have finished their paper within stipulated time can be asked for it within exam time. For second point, if a candidate writes over his crossed out page, he can be asked why he did it? Why he wrote on page that he had already crossed. (If all of the pages of a copy has been crossed, he should have asked for extra papers.)

What is a good way to prevent students from writing an answer after you hand back a graded assignment(exam/homework) and claiming that you did not see their answer?

I think it helps to place the burden on the student for presenting a coherent, well-organized set of solutions to an assignment.
In the syllabi for my courses, I am very explicit about what student solutions to assignments should look like in order to receive any credit, partial or otherwise:

numerical answers must be placed in a box or underlined;
solutions to problems must be placed in numerical order;
solutions must be neat and easy to follow, etc.

The key takeaway here is that students are responsible for putting their solutions into a format which is conducive to accurate grading.
When I grade student submissions that are missing answers, I place a red X in the most logical place that one would expect to find an answer to let the student know why the credit points were not awarded; however, students who do not adhere to the above expectations on neatness and organization risk getting zero credit for either that particular problem or, in the case of a totally incomprehensible train wreck of a submission, zero credit for the entire assignment.
Although rare, students who claim that I did not see their answer don't have a leg to stand on: I simply point to my syllabus and tell them that their solutions weren't organized well enough. That's it. End of discussion.
TL;DR: You can scan student submissions until you are blue in the face, or you can take control of the classroom and let the students know that you aren't playing around. I leave it to the reader to decide which course of action is best suited to their needs.

I could think of many situations where many "most logical" places would be possible. Where would you put your X then? E. g. if a student writes some text, they could write "thus, solution=5" in a new line or in the same line as the text before. What if you put the X in the wrong spot and the student adds the answer afterwards?

@yupsi My solution is in my answer. I'll reiterate for you: I simply point to my syllabus and tell them that their solutions weren't organized well enough. That's it. End of discussion.

I don't see how you can avoid mistakes with this approach. One could simply overlook answers even if they are in a logical spot. But of course, just telling the students "I don't make mistakes" is a possible approach (which many teachers have), though possibly a not very satisfying one for the students..

The additude "I am always right" may be a solution, however, since most people are not always right, its not a perfect one.

There are a few ways to be creative about your teaching and grading methods that might give you some cover and allow you to continue engaging your students in the learning process.

If you have multiple sections / TAs, consider adopting a policy of team grading: each TA takes a single question or section and grades it across all classes, diminishing the chance that something is overlooked by any grader. It also helps manage the grade distribution across sections if that's a concern.
Consider adopting policies that don't penalize cheating on specific or low-value assignments but would instead diminish the utility of cheating in general. For example, if a student fails the final exam, she fails the course no matter what grades she achieved prior to the exam. Cheating on a homework to improve your grade won't prepare you adequately for the final. For high-value assignments, one of the methods recommended in other comments may also help.
Consider moving to low-value high-frequency in-class quizzes (in the U.S. we call them pop quizzes) that give you a good idea of how well your students understand the material you're teaching. Modify your material and methods as needed to ensure that they grasp the material effectively and review in the following class. Assign an overall course weight to the quizzes (e.g., 5-10%) that you have some freedom to distribute, like a participation grade, so that individual quizzes don't dramatically affect grades.
Ensure that questions on the exams differentiate students adequately. This is difficult and could be a little controversial. For example, you might consider asking questions that require a good understanding of material but that were not exampled in class. I took an astronomy course where the professor asked us a completely novel question that we had never seen before; while we had all of the tools to solve it, it required some inventive thinking to answer. Generally a student isn't going to be able to talk his way through this--more likely he'll complain that the test isn't fair (but of course everyone took the same test).

Students really need to understand two things:

Information is not the same as knowledge; knowledge is not the same as understanding; understanding is not the same as wisdom.
If you don't know what questions to ask, you don't understand the material.

In my experience, grades are an assessment, at best, of knowledge. Reward students who can ask penetrating questions that go beyond the surface level of the material. It's exciting for students and teachers alike when the lights go on and they begin to understand and grow beyond the course content. This, more than anything, tends to diminish cheating.

Welcome! Those are wise words, and definitely a collection of useful recommendations, but I don't see how this answer the specific question that was asked here. There might be a more general question that would correspond to what you wrote, but I can't find it now.

Thanks, Clement. I would hope they would solve the specific problem by reducing the opportunity and incentive to cheat.

I agree that this is the best way to solve this problem. But reducing the opportunity and incentive to cheat, as you write, does not prevent from protecting yourself and making cheating hard at the same time. I guess they need to walk and in hand, and the question was about one side of the question, not the other. I still think your reminder is a useful one :-).

You can laminate assignments before returning them. That way, a student can no longer write on the laminated assignment. Theoretically, a student can open, add an answer and relaminate, but he or she would probably destroy the page in the process.

That would be verx expensive and time-consuming. Do you know anyone actually doing that?

Create a new strain of virus that turns into a global pandemic, forcing educational institutions worldwide to conduct exams remotely, so that students must submit a scanned version of their exam/homework solutions rather than a physical copy.  Once the scanned copy has been received, there is no opportunity for the student to alter it.
In all seriousness... while the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the education system in many ways, this is one problem it seems to have solved.

Is there any live option for tests to be given via website, perhaps via Moodle?
I don't know that you personally are a computer programmer, but writing a test that students can answer via an (X)HTML TEXTAREA, could easily preserve original answers, plus any feedback / comments / grades you have. A good programmer using just CGI should be able to knock out something like this in scantly more than a day, if even that.

You don't have to actually scan or photocopy their works. Just tell your students that because of the problems mentionned, from now on you will scan their work to be able to check them afterwards. No need to actually do it, they will stop trying to cheat that way (at least 99% of students would).
In case somehow the problem still happens (unlikely), then be honest and tell them you were expecting that this announcement alone would be sufficient to stop this kind of issues, and then really start scanning them.

So you’re recommending lying to students to encourage them to be honest? Really?

Really the same answer as this, but the difference in presentation made people consider that one funny.

This is a nonsensical, non-problem.  If the student comes back and claims you didn't see the answer, you simply say "no, all unanswered questions are double-checked" and that is the end of it.
There is no argument.  The student is not a peer so does not have the option if discussing or arguing about it.
If the teacher does not have authority over the class, then the teacher's personality is not suited for the profession.  It is never the burden to persuade.

I've made grading errors, even errors that I missed after double checking my work. I'm not perfect, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. There is value in being able to verify your own (grading) work even after returning the assignment.


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Can I include another university's name in my SOP?
I am writing my SOP for MSc in computer science, in a paragraph, I'm explaining about things I did to learn more about the field of study I am interested in.
Is it alright to write that I watched a course from MIT to learn more about something? Or if you were in my place you would rather only tell that you watched a course about something without telling exactly what course of which university?
This course is available on YouTube and is kind of famous for learning deep learning, that's why I wrote from which university it is.

Leaving as a comment since it doesn't match your title question, but "I watched a YouTube video" is not interesting enough for your SOP.

@AzorAhai-him- It's not a youtube video; it's a complete course that has been shared on youtube. http://introtodeeplearning.com/

When applying to the University of Michigan, it's OK to mention other universities, except Ohio State.

There is no reason why you can't mention the name of whoever created such a course, but I caution you to write an SoP that is better aligned with its intention. It isn't about the past or your accomplishments. The CV is for those kinds of things.
The SoP is entirely future directed about your plans for study and thereafter. It is about answering the questions about what you want to do and why. It isn't a mistake to use some things from the past as "direction setters" but don't spend many words on that. "The X course offered by Y has led me to focus on Z and my current intention is to.... future stuff". Don't spend long sentences or especially paragraphs on such things, but some phrases can work showing motivation.
So, your first paragraph here is the right idea, just don't overdo that but focus on plans. Watching a video course isn't an accomplishment, of course, as mentioned in a comment, but if it is a motivator and you state it that way you should be fine.

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As a professor, what do you do when you are unable to answer a student's question?
As a PhD student, I want to be a professor in less than a decade, and I have a fear that I may never be able to learn enough to answer all kinds of questions you can get asked in a classroom you are teaching. Although I did not encounter a lot of situations like this when I attended classes, the ones that did occur were rare and the professor followed up the next days with some answers. But I also know they really spent a lot of time on that.
I have the fear that I am not clever enough to answer technical questions even after another decade of learning. The fear may be irrational. Would you advise me a path in Academia?

The analogous question for TAs that don't know the answer; I suspect the strategies will be the same.

How do you currently answer technical questions during/after talks that you give? Also, google impostor syndrome.

First, you are underestimating what knowledge and skills you will have in a decade.
Second, you aren't expected to know everything. Not by your peers, at least, but students sometimes have unreasonable expectations. You can't know everything, of course.
Third, it is fine to say "I don't know, but will try to find an answer". Then do that.
If you are asked a question that would be better answered by someone else, send the student to them. Sending a student to a colleague with a different specialty is fine.
You can also suggest where the answer might be found. This is often the best answer if it gets the student doing a bit of research. They learn about sources and methods that will serve them in other situations.
And, most of the questions you are most likely to get arise in situations in which you are probably the person with the most skill and experience to answer. As you have seen, most professors answer most of the questions fielded to them and do something "useful" about the others.
Let me emphasize again, though, that answering all questions may not be the best solution. Better to "guide the student to the answer" than to just "give the answer". That can even result in serious research at some levels.
In any case, don't fake it. If you have to speculate, say that you are speculating.

See this answer to a different question for a story about answering questions in class.

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Am I being taken advantage of as a teaching assistant?
I'm a valedictorian of a university and wanted to continue the research path by applying for a teaching assistant position at my faculty. After submitting the profile, the faculty announced that I must wait for the official position because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They let me teach a few classes and only signed a contract to lecture, pay by class (because they don't have enough lecturers), and promised to recruit me in the near future (it's been half a year since then).
But I have just realized that the other faculties are still recruiting full-time teaching assistants normally. So I may have lost a lot of benefits like salary per month, health insurance, fund, ... during a semester. Is this a trick to take advantage of fresh graduates? What things I can do right now? I have ignored a lot of opportunities because of these lies.

Just out of curiosity: what kind of advice do you expect from us? Have you tried to directly ask your department about the situation?

Thanks, Grey, I have asked them but the answers are still "waiting for an interview". I don't know that my department wants to hire me or keep me to make sure that all class has lecturer this semester and after that kick me for another reason. Hope that anyone in the same situation can advise me to keep waiting or give up.

...wanted to continue the research path... Have you read the Wellcome Trust's "What researchers think about the culture they work in"? Yes, very likely you're already being exploited from the start.

Thanks, I vaguely realized it but I still hope everything will turn out well.

Fig. 5: Barely two-thirds of late-career researchers were positive about research as a career choice. And AIUI that's after the statistical skewing of the ones who already baled out or were forced out not being included in the survey sample. Go read that report and make sure you're at least making an informed choice. I'd love to end on a positive note, but those are hard to find in this sector...

This could be entirely reasonable if there are different risks for students with different Faculties. The impact of COVID could be quite different for different things, depending on the way students come together or don't. Different faculties might also be constrained financially in different ways. This is, therefore, a local issue. They might be abusing you. They might be doing you a (career boosting) favor.

When you say teaching assistant do you mean assistant professor? In the US a lecturer position is higher pay and harder to get than a teaching assistant position… Here, a teaching assistant position is held by a student, while a lecturer position is the “instructor of record” for a class and may already have a masters or PhD.

Also, what country and type of university is this? It may help to sort out the terms.

When you say “classes” is this full courses (10 or 15 weeks) or is each class a session of 1-3 hours? When you say “contract to lecture” is this a contract for a semester or year?

Thanks, Dawn, I'm in Asia. In my university, classes are full courses (15 weeks). These courses include theory class (teach by Ph.D. or Prof) and practice class (teach by Master or Bs), I have taught a few practice classes. The contract that I signed is only for a semester (when over the semester, my faculty only pay base on the number of class, there is no more constraint).

I guess you could compare whether the "full-time teaching assistants" in other faculties are teaching on-line or in-person vs. yourself, as a measure of back-to-normal. And it could even be that the impact of COVID on your specific faculty has left it in financial difficulties, hence not allowed to hire. But none of that is an excuse not to be upfront with you about the situation. Either they have the money and should hire you, or they don't and should be honest with you.

the faculty announced that I must wait for the official position
because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They let me

"The faculty", "they" ... let's speak clearly: it is probably one very smart person not doing any decisions, because they can count on you being the dirty job. So for them you are Business as Usual. They may have the moral excuse that some regulations is preventing them from doing a direct call to hire you, although this seems not to be the case from what you refer about other faculties.
Not only you are harming yourself, you are also harming others, because you are setting a possible precedent for the next person taking over your role (please do not take this personally, I am just thinking from the system perspective).
It is well known that among CEOs there are more people prone to psychotic behavior and social disorder ... faculty head/department head are kind of CEO of the faculty.

Thank you for letting me know that. I don't know who give the decision that hires me or not, I only converse with the secretary of the faculty, another lecturer I knew can not give me any information. So sad when knowing that this is a dirty job, I worked as others and only have low salary per class.

"I don't know who give the decision that hires me or not" you can start defending your rights when you know your rights. Get in touch immediately with the student association, with the ombdusman, even with HR.
There may not be a direct person that decides to hire you, but there is for sure someone responsible for arranging and providing that all the bachelor and master courses your faculty is offering are covered by someone teaching them, so ...

This answer seems to not understand how university budgets work… often you have different pools of funds available to hire different types of staff. Different departments can also be given different allocations. Our department always has money for TAs and adjuncts and only rarely can hire more advanced positions.

@Dawn having to apply for external funds to hire more advanced position is not an acceptable excuse for the faculty to say  "that OP must wait for the official position because of the COVID-19 pandemic". Different budgets are different budgets as much as different persons have to apply to different budgets. Stop providing excuse for despicable behavior from "leaders" that (most likely) passed through the grinding machine themselves and learned nothing.

@Dawn OP states "the faculty promised to recruit me in the near future". It may be that OP is mixing up what he has been told by the department head,we do not know. Assuming you are OP, try to think a what-if scenario: your department head (DH) promises to recruit you in the near future. Either your DH is actually applying for money from the faculty to hire you as a more advanced position (and should state that, so DH cannot promise anything), or is playing you, because DH needs TA (always has the pocket money) but DH is not willing to change TAs every semester(for DH's own peace of mind &co).

@Dawn Either they have the money and should hire the OP, or they don't and should be honest with them about the situation, especially as the OP is turning down other options to stay on.

So I think this is attributing their behavior to malice (talking about honesty/lies) It is just as likely that the department head thinks they have clearly communicated to the OP, but it was not actually clear because the head thought that the info about the pots of money and their lack of control was obvious (because it is obvious to the head). The head may just have forgotten what sort of info a new grad needs and isn’t explaining as much as they need to.

@Dawn  OP's words "they promised to recruit me in the near future".
The DH may have been careless, sure, but you know, people depends on a job and a salary to get food and pay rent, sometimes even to confirm their visa, a promise which is just a speculation does not help. What if the promise does not materialize and OP gets in trouble with immigration offices? I actually prefer a DH acting with malice, rather than being so careless and so poorly understanding of the situation (paying someone cheap and promising a serious contract without actually being able to confirm it).


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Can I take pictures from posters and slide presentations in a conference?
If I do not ask for permission, is it acceptable to take pictures from posters and slide presentations in a conference by camera? Can I record a presentation?

Do you mean "take pictures from slides" (i.e., use the same pictures as were used in the slides; same grammatical construction as "take candy from babies") or "take pictures of slides" (i.e., produce your own photographs, where the subjects of those photographs are the slides)?

In the US, audio recording is legal in some states (one-party consent states) and illegal in others (all-party consent states) without permission of everyone involved, so I wouldn't do it without asking. Some conferences or universities may have rules against it (so you could be removed from the premises of a conference or thrown out of a lecture by the professor), or you may find that the speaker finds it rude and confronts you or stops speaking. Neither is particularly professional behavior by you. In other countries, the rules probably vary even more. Also, just because it is legal, that doesn't mean that it will be seen as acceptable by the speaker or the audience.
I see audience members taking photographs of every slide shown at conferences all the time, but I find that speakers and audience members are frequently annoyed. When it happens to me as the speaker, I usually stop and offer to share the slides after the talk with anyone that wants them. That usually stops the photography and settles everyone down a bit.
Also, someone other than you owns the copyright in the slides or poster. I would avoid what is likely a copyright violation by photographing a slide or poster.
Edited to summarize: I wouldn't. People do it all the time. That doesn't make it OK. Get permission if you can or don't do it.

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What differentiates Bioinformatics from Computational Biology?
I am a university level student of Computer Science. I like to know what really differentiates Bioinformatics from Computational Biology in terms of the core area of study and the nature of subjects and curriculum. In addition, which discipline is more Math/Stats oriented or in other words which one requires sound foundation and skills in Maths and Statistics and what level of Math/Stats is desired?
I am including these links here so that everyone can look into the right definitions of these interdisciplinary fields of study:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioinformatics
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_biology
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_and_theoretical_biology

Looking forward to professional academic information and advice. Thank you

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is too specific to the particular field.

@aparente001 - I think this is worth re-opening. This addresses the boundaries of fields that cross many different department/disciplinary areas, so it wouldn't necessarily be appropriate in any particular field's StackExchange. I think it also addresses "Requirements and expectations of academicians" pretty clearly - OP wants to know why something would be considered in one field or another, which seems like the culture questions academia.stackexchange is good for.

The distinction between the two is not really clear.
One popular way of describing the difference is that while both try to use computational tools to understand biology, in computational biology the focus is on the biological question, and in bioinformatics the focus is on the computational tool. So for computational biology research, the usefulness of a tool will be measured by the amount of insight it sheds on the biological problem at hand. In bioinformatic research, the usefulness of a tool will be measured by how broadly it is applicable, how efficient it is, and how well it solves the computational problem.
EDIT:
I just Googled computational biology vs bioinformatics and the first result says something along the same lines.

+1 and I retracted my close vote because of this useful answer.

I often see the word Bioinformatics more related to DNA and sequencing than Computational Biology. It is more descriptive.
Computational Biology seems more used when referring to proteins structure, interactions or drug design. It is usually more guided.
In Wikipedia both terms are synonymous.

Almost everyone agrees that Bioinformatics and Computational Biology have different definitions, but almost no one agrees on what those definitions are.

Why is that? Are these too disciplines quite overlapping over each other? If yes, then why do we have 2 different names for the same study discipline?

Because there are clearly different kinds of people who work on biological data, but categorisation is tough. Some are better at Biology, some are good at reading program manuals and stringing together pipelines, others are better at programming, others only can do the algorithm design but not the implementation. And obviously some fall into multiple categories. But at the end of the day, how dare you call me an X when i'm clearly a different, unique, and special Y.

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What guarantee the validity and relevance of "grand" social sciences' theories?
During my undergraduate years, I took a variety of courses in social sciences, and was exposed to writings by famous thinkers like Freud, Habermas, Foucault, Claude Lévi-Strauss, as well as lesser-known authors such as Lacan, Judith Butler, Erving Goffman, etc.
The majority of them offer some fascinating theories about humans and societies, yet I couldn't help but wondering how much of those theories were, or could be, verified by empirical studies and empirical evidences. I particularly couldn't shake off this concern when the authors go deeper in their analyses, making inferences and drawing conclusions based solely on the theoretical points they've raised previously.
An example of what I'm referring to is the following anecdote, by Althusser (cited in this article):

What I see here is a possible answer to the question being raised. No evidence was cited to support this argument, yet somehow it is treated as a proven theory, with further arguments presumably could be built based on it. The coherence of the argument is also not obvious (i.e. other inferences could be drawn from the same anecdote).
Although there are also empirical studies that were published, some of them I read and was convinced by their arguments, I notice that a large portion of social sciences writings (at least those shown in taught courses at universities) is of this sort.
I guess what I'm trying to ask are:
(1) Am I missing something here?
(2) What justify the method of building arguments utilized in these writing?
(3) Shouldn't taught courses in universities (at least those at the introductory level, aimed at first-years students) make an attempt to answer these questions before starting to explore the grand ideas of those thinkers?


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How should I select the correct path for doing my higher studies
I have already completed my four year degree in Computer Science. Now I'm working as a trainee software engineer.However I wish to continue my studies further, and want to do a MSc or phd as I am interesting on doing higher studies. But I'm afraid of applying for a phd because I feel I'm not good enough to do a phd yet.(I have a second upper class). Therefore I think to follow a MSc and I'm very interesting in data science field. But I have doubt, whether I am going to take a right decision or not when selecting the path for doing higher studies. Please could some one help me to understand the way of selecting the correct path for doing higher studies for a fresh graduate student. Highly appreciate your suggestions.

For physics PhDs in the UK, the minimum requirement is a 2:1 in your undergraduate degree, which you have (I say physics specifically because that is what I have experience with). However, applications are so competitive that you usually need above the bare minimum to be considered. This means either having a better grade in your undergrad or doing a Master's degree.
My suggestion to you is apply to both MScs and PhDs simultaneously. Then, if you get accepted to a PhD, great; if not, then do the MSc and apply for PhDs once you've done that. Good luck!

Thank you for your suggestion. I'll be applying for both MSc and phds. But I need some proper guidance to select the path for doing my higher studies. Thanks again

I don't understand what you mean by "selecting the correct path". Only you know what's exactly right for you, all we can do is tell you how to get where you want to be.

Yep, I understand that my path should decide by myself. But I just try to understand whether selecting data science as a path for doing higher studies is a good choice for a fresh graduate like my self.

Six months ago I too was a fresh graduate student, but data science would not have been a good choice for me. Similarly, how can we tell whether it's a good choice for you? It's lucrative, certainly, and my impression is that it's a very quickly growing field of research-- but you might still hate it. Maybe try to get some experience in the field before committing to a research degree.

Ok, now I've got the idea. Thank You for your time & consideration.


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How should I behave when my undergraduate research marks reduce without any reason in the evaluation process?
I'm an undergraduate IT students currently in 4th year. I am doing my individual research these days. My supervisor guides me well and under her supervision I'm doing my research well. But the research evaluation done by a professor and another senior lecturer where they always asked me to do lot of changes to my research. Once I do the changes and present it again, they said that the changes are inappropriate and out of my research scope. I am fed up with this process now. Apparently  they cutoff my marks or reduce the marks in each submission. I have to give my last  research submissions, but with this situation I feel afraid of presenting it. My supervisor doesn't aware of this issue as she is a best friend of that above mentioned senior lecturer. How should I behave in this kind of situation? Any answer would be highly appreciated.

Talk to your supervisor. Friends or not, she needs to know what the evaluators' criteria are!

@nengel, Thank you for your advice. But I'm afraid as I have two more submissions to do.

What are you afraid of?

@nengel, If my supervisor asks about this from evaluators'  and if they take this issue personally (I just imagine if something happen in that way). That's why I'm afraid of.

To some extent, evaluation of your research is also evaluation of your supervisor's supervision. Meaning: If she is delighted while others are unhappy with it, there is a problem somewhere that she needs to be made aware of. Best friend or not, they do not seem on the same page about your research and that is hard for you to solve without having input by both of them. (Also, it is not any better for their friendship if the "You brought my student down!" issue arises when it is too late to do anything about it.)

One of the first things I tell my graduate students is:

Let me know when there's a problem, not a crisis.

If you talk to your advisor now and let her know about the developing situation, she might be able to intervene and help you before the end of the process.
If you do nothing, and just hope for the best, you may find yourself in a situation where your advisor can't really help. (For example, if you are officially assigned a bad grade, it may be too late for her to do anything.


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Why do Reviewers behave like this?
Why do Reviewers intentionally delay or write negligent reports?
I submitted a manuscript to a SCI indexed journal 7 months back. It was under review for 5 months. I received a report which said
"The results are interesting but the paper is very long. Also it does not fit the aims and scopes of the journal. Hence rejected."
The report involved no constructive criticism, no ways to improve the manuscript.
Moreover if the manuscript was not under the aims and scopes why would the Editor even send  it for review?
Is it that the Reviewer was trying to find something in the manuscript for 5 months so that it could fit the aims and scopes but when he/she could not, he/she rejected it.
I don't think that's the case though.
My question is why do reviewers do these things.

If they are not willing to review a paper, why do they even accept the invitation for review?
Secondly  reviewers are authors themselves, why don't they value the time and effort of another author.
Thirdly, if they find that a paper is not within the aims and scopes, why don't they inform it early? It certainly does not take 5 months to decide it?

What can I do to avoid this kind of behaviour from the Reviewers side? Is there any solution?
Any help is appreciated.

We accept to review a paper because we thought the paper is interesting after reading the Title+Abstract.  2.  They do, but they also expect other authors to carry out the research processes properly. For example, if I find that authors didn't do a good job in the due diligence phase, I'll reject the paper.   Another example is a poorly written paper.  A reviewer's job is not to write a paper for the authors.  So a simple/terse feedback is to ask the authors to come back when the paper is up to standard.

A possible reason is that the editor didn't do a good job or the reviewers do not know the aim and scope of the journal.

Does this answer your question? What does the typical workflow of a journal look like?

@AnonymousPhysicist, No, I find my question different from the one linked

If you look at that question, you will see that the five months might not have been used by the reviewer.

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/115231/why-is-peer-review-so-random

"it does not fit the aims and scopes of the journal" sounds like something from the editor, not the reviewer. Yet, I agree that 5 months is a very long time.

Much of reasons could be under that 5 months delay. If you want to listen that the report was of no quality, well I agree. And even that referees inducing delay do exist as well. You can't avoid these things. In principle good journals should be evaluated also for these aspects.... I think it is more on their side.

Ideally the editor will decide if the paper is within the scope of the journal but that may not be clear cut or the editor may be overwhelmed. Most journals ask reviewers to comment on whether the paper is within scope, so this is not a fault with your reviewer and may or may not be the fault of the editor.
You have made several assumptions in your set up of this question that appear invalid. For example:

That the reviewer who ended up sending you the review had it for 5 months. I have had occasion where a reviewer agreed to do the review, then the journal never heard from them again. The editor had to find alternative reviewers who did not have 5 months. During COVID, many reviewers are also taking longer due to more demands on their time in other areas like online teaching. I had a journal take a long time just to find one reviewer who would say yes, because the first 10 people they asked said no. They ended up having to bring in a favour from another professor in their department.
That they don't respect your time or effort. You don't know their motivation - only what they sent you. Angry assumptions don't help you as an author. Go take a walk, have a coffee or beer with a friend, come back to it tomorrow when there is less sting to the rejection.

They have given you feedback - just not the detail or answers you wanted. They appear to be telling you to edit the paper to be more concise. They also gave you the feedback that the results are interesting - thus it is worth working on and submitting the paper elsewhere. Ask mentors or supervisors for advice on a well matched disciplinary journal and try again.
One day you too may be an overwhelmed academic with many demands on your time and several journals asking you to do reviews none of which are your top priority, which you aren't paid to do, and which isn't part of your KPIs. What you can do is write good papers, send them to well-matched journals, and be a good reviewer yourself. You cannot control other people.
Good luck with your edits and resubmission.

No one is forcing anyone to do reviews. Someone who is overwhelmed shouldn't accept a review in the first place.

In the above case, as I eluded to, it may have been many reviewers being approached by the editor and saying no that took up a great deal of the time between submission and receipt of the review, and not that the final reviewer took 5 months due to overwhelm.
In an ideal world, we wouldn't take on more when already too busy, but given academic workloads, if we applied this rule, the peer-review system would likely fail. I have only ever said no to reviews I do not have the expertise to complete. That means a lot of unpaid overtime reviewing. Its worth keeping in mind that review is service.


text:
Do reviewers get a deadline for reviewing a Paper, if yes, how much?
Do reviewers/editors receive a deadline for reviewing a paper?
I wanted to know that whether reviewers/editors receive any kind of deadline for reviewing a manuscript for a journal or they are allowed to submit their reviews any time they wish since they are not paid for this service.
If they do receive a deadline what is the average time the reviewers get for evaluating the following in journals owned by Elsevier, Springer, World Scientic, Taylor & Francis etc.

Round 1 revision or first review of a paper
Major Revision
Minor Revision

I find that if a major revision is required then the authors receive a time  of 2 months for fixing it.
For a minor revision the authors get a time of 1 month.
What is the time given by the journal authorities to the Editors/Reviewers for checking a major revision and a minor revision?
Can someone please let me know as one of my manuscript is in major and other in minor revision?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

This highly depends on the field and journal and cannot generally be answered. I have performed reviews on deadlines between two weeks and three months. I think your underlying question is answered by: Is my paper under review (or similar) for too long and if yes, how should I react?

@Wrzlprmft; my field is mathematics, i wanted to know if the reviewers receive a deadline not about how I should react

Then please [edit] your question to mention the field (also, whether you are in applied or pure mathematics) and remove any mention of how much, because we cannot answer that. As for the linked Q&A, mind that you may find answers to more than just the titular question.

Do the reviewers get lower grades if they are slower than their colleagues?

3-4 weeks usually. When I am the author though it takes months for each round somehow.

@dusa There are say 3 weeks for the reviewers, and often they take a bit longer than that. Your waiting time as author additionally includes the time it takes the editor to receive your paper and find reviewers, the time it takes the reviewers to "accept", time it takes the editor to go through the reviews and to take a decision and write a decision letter. Hence, a lot more steps than just reviewing.

I know but a reviewer's invitation also usually have a time of -1 week- then the editor does a meta-review of course and then the results would be emailed etc etc. but 4 months after a revision when I am asked to review in 3 weeks for the same journal is crazy.

Peer review is broken.

Do reviewers/editors receive a deadline for reviewing a paper?

Typically yes. But, many reviewers seemingly wait until they receive a reminder or the deadline is near, before starting their review, for various reasons: I have reviews to do, so I can't accept more. Ultimately, reviews have to be written, so why delay? That's not always possible, of course. Reviewers are busy people, they don't always have the time, everything is last minute, and many are simply overloaded.
Personally, I should avoid overloading myself for more than a month-or-so at a time, which means I can (usually) review within two months. If I can't commit to that, then I'll decline to review, because I can't deliver in what I consider a reasonable time (which is typically less than permitted). (Beyond two months, I try to avoid making commitments, where possible.) Sometimes editors come back to me and ask if I'll just get to it when I can, and I typically agree. Sometimes I accept with the proviso that I'll take far longer than normal.
Reviewing doesn't always get my best cycles, those are reserved for duties that I get more credit for. Since there are always lesser cycles, when I can't get the return I'm after for the aforementioned duties, that's when duties with less credit get done. Such duties can be numerous, so I don't always have the time for reviewing.
Peer review is broken: Better incentives are needed.

What is the time given by the journal authorities to the Editors/Reviewers for checking a major revision and a minor revision?

That'll vary between journals, but is somewhat irrelevant: Reviews are regularly submitted late. There's a website that provides averages, try searching for it, add a comment below when you find it. (I can't remember the name.)

Can someone please let me know as one of my manuscript is in major and other in minor revision?

No, every situation is different. Try looking up the aforementioned website for a rough guide.

Thank you very much for your answer+1

" I don't know what causes this mindset" Really? ", reviews have to be written, so why delay?" Because if I did the review now, rather than later, my postdoc would loose their job because they had no funding, or my student wouldn't make their thesis deadline because I hadn't reviewed their chapter, or the departments exams results would be later being published. Most academics only ever do things where the sky would fall in if they didn't do it right now.

@IanSudbery You seem to have taken those sentences out of context, I also write: That's not always possible, of course. Regardless, some reviewers seem to have time management issues, which you seemingly hint at: Most academics only ever do things where the sky would fall in if they didn't do it right now.

Sorry. I was in a bad mood and out of order. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I agree with out some (most?) reviewers have time management issues, but I believe that issue is not having enough time, rather than organizing it poorly. When there is more to do that time to do it, good time management it to prioritize. And reviewing is always going to be a lower priority than things that affect people in front of you - that is it will always have the lowest priority.

@IanSudbery No problem, I've certainly done the same! You're right and I've edited my answer to bring in some more details.

I should perhaps confess that my answer is written at a time when I've just waited six-months for a second-round accept. Another two submissions have been under review for nine months each. Peer-review is frustrating

Agreed. Taking 3 weeks to return a review that was supposed to be due in two is one thing. Not returning it after 6 months is a different thing entirely.

Wow! I usually only get two weeks, which everyone agrees doesn't happen. Idk why they keep asking

In general when journals contact potential reviewers, they do tend to give a time frame they expect those who accept to receive a review back in. The more enlightened ones also give a time limit to accept the review. As has been noted in the comments, the length of these windows varies by subject and by journal, with mathematics journals noted as being at the long end, and some disreputable science and engineering journals at the short end. In practice, these are soft targets, and editors tend to be happy if they get any response at all, even a late one. My experience is that these windows tend to be the same for initial and subsequent reviews, but I definitely won´t claim that is universal.
Note that for resubmissions there is a strong preference to reuse the original reviewers, since they are in the best position to check that their criticisms have been addressed. Having a strict deadline for review would be likely to slow the process further, since new reviewers would have to be found (and given a new block of time to respond in), who might easily raise points ignored under the original review.
One misapprehension in your question is in assuming that these targets are set by the publisher. In general it will be the senior editors making the decision based on the volume of submissions they have available, and the standard of impact they are aiming to maintain. The exceptions are at the predatory end of the market, and no reputable journal is going to publish an article unreviewed, just because all the reviewers were late responding. Modern editional systems have made life a bit easier by automating reminder emails, but these are often treated as spam messages by the recipient. Your principal solace is that many of these systems track review times and quality, and push editors to request reviews from fast, high quality reviewers.
As an author, your most useful data is average time from submission to publication, which many journals now advertise to win custom. Note that tis is a figure which can be manipulated however, by techniques such as forcing revisions to be treated as a new submission, or by giving up of articles which have sat for a long time.

Really a nice and insightful answer +1


text:
How to get students engaged in more basic topics in programming?
I have been teaching various subjects in programming for a couple years. What I struggle with most is getting the students engaged in the basics - the first few lectures.
For example, it's simpler to come up with a design pattern or a hands-on project when you are talking about intermediate or advanced subjects like database connectivity, security, networking, and so on. There's so much more to work with in those later topics. Where I have trouble is with the absolute basics - the data types and basic logic statements. It's hard to think of a sample project that is simple enough to build without getting too advanced too quickly, but still enough of a challenge to get them experience with the basics.
I get a lot of comments from students saying that they learn the material better when there is a hands-on project to do, yet for something as simple as data types, this is difficult to come up with.
Class Setup: It is a professional setting and I have been given two different formats to use. One format is an hour lecture with an hour lab or coding exercise afterwards, once a week, and the other is a condensed workshop format where students watch videos on their own about the material and then they come to a workshop for Q&A about the video content, and then we spend most of the time on a lab or exercise. The videos take the place of lectures, that way we have more time in class for in-person interaction and Q&A during hands-on project work. The workshops are two hours long, and take place every three weeks, and the videos they watch cover material from three of the subject units from the standard format.
Class Scope: As for the class topics, the class is on Java and we go from the very beginning, primitive data types and logic, for those who have never used Java or even studied programming, then we move on to object oriented design, logging and string processing, collections and streams, working with input/output, exception handling, working with tools like Eclipse and Maven, writing test code, and by the end of the class we go through database operations, security and threading, web services, and more advanced language topics like generics and lambda expressions.
Audience: The audience varies pretty widely but everyone has at least a bachelor's degree in a technical field, most of them in computer science or CIS. It is as varied as your average IT workplace would be.
Does anyone have any ideas, or know of a coding project (of any size) that would be effective at helping students grasp the more basic subjects (like data types, language syntax, and logic), and yet interesting enough to keep them engaged and want to finish it?
EDIT: As suggested by eykanal, I reverted this question to its original form which is specific to computer science. I understand that when a question concerns graduate level pedagogy as this does, it is still on-topic.
EDIT2: I've added more information about the class setup and audience that I typically work with.

We basically made a one dimensional battleship game just to start with, then converted it to 2D and talked about data types and arrays and such, then converted it to an object oriented design, then upgraded it to have saved games (for I/O and exception handling material), etc.

Perhaps generalize it to how to ensure active classroom engagement. Student engagement in a subject is likely to impact further academic performance.

As an aside, you might be interested in Karel

Thanks all for the suggestions - I've updated the question to be more on-topic.

Tim - Thanks for the edits. Unfortunately, I disagree with @DavidRicherby... our FAQ clearly states that questions about "university-level pedagogy" are on-topic. Your original question, assuming it was about university-level teaching, was acceptable as-is. I recommend reverting the edits, as the current version of the question is so broad as to be unanswerable.

I expected something different. "Basic topics" to me is the fundamentals and students don't get engaged there. You don't usually work hands-on with Hamiltonian mechanics, you work only with some special cases which doesn't seem basic at all. However, if you wanna talk about introductory stuff, I can tell/remind that physics courses are usually started with measurement and students are asked to do direct measurements of length or something like that - you can certainly take a deeper look if that's the kind you're looking for.

"You don't usually work hands-on with Hamiltonian mechanics" This is one of the strangest things I have ever heard.  It's hard to think of an activity which is not an example of Hamiltonian mechanics.

What field are you teaching in?

@WolfgangBangerth Computer science

@eykanal I teach at work and basically everyone I work with is a graduate of at least bachelor level. My tutoring is more on the secondary level, but the original question applied more to my students at work. I'll revert the edits.

@Džuris "Students don't get engaged there" - that's exactly the problem I'm trying to solve. For example, how do you give them a hands on project which involves only primitive data types? If I want to put anything into a collection or data structure, well now we have to talk about generics/templates or pointers and those are generally too advanced to talk about in the first few class sessions.

"Everyone has at least a bachelor's degree in a technical field, most of them in computer science or CIS."  Does this mean that most of them have programmed already, but in some other language than Java? How many have never programmed in any language?  Those people would be a completely different type of student. Could you work with the neophytes separately? // Hmm, your outline sounds like the standard college course outline.  Wouldn't it be better to set things up as a bunch of tutorials for your students to go through at their own pace, with you helping as needed?

@aparente001 Now we're getting into class design as a whole. I am only interested in coming up with project ideas for the first one or two class sessions, not redesigning the whole class format. We could debate all day which design is better, but what it boils down to is I am not in charge of the class structure. So it is moot to discuss anyway. All I can do is come up with exercises and try to make the actual content more interesting for the students. To answer your question, yes most of the students have programmed already, some in Java, some not. Some have no prior programming experience.

@aparente001 This year we are trying out a whole different format that actually matches up to your suggestion of working with the neophytes separately. We split the class topics into beginner and intermediate, and are doing separate enrollments for each, though students who complete the beginner class and score high enough can opt in to continue with the intermediate one.

@tim - Thanks for the update.  Let us know how the new set-up works out.

Create games that apply some basic concepts.  You'll need a progressive set of games.  Start out by setting up your game board (homemade is fine) and your paraphernalia.  Your student will prick up his ears right away.  Explain the basic concepts needed to play the first game.  The game should be exciting but quick.
Each set of paraphernalia should have a number of variant games that can be played with that set.
Suppose a game involves converting a decimal number to Base 2.  You don't need to explain in detail, prior to playing the game, WHY computer scientists are interested in Base 2.
Many games will involve rolling one or more dice and then doing something that requires applying some technique.
Example: each player will, on his turn, roll five 0-1 dice (each side shows either a zero or a one).  These five digits define a five-digit binary number.  Write down the number you've rolled.  Now figure out what that number is in Base 10.  Say the answer is 12.  Move your guy 12 spaces on the game board.  Set up your game board like a simplified Chutes and Ladders, to make it exciting.
Edit #1:
Responding to the new version of the question.  It is tempting to want to give students the background information needed before giving them a hands-on project, because from a teacher's point of view, that is the most efficient way for the learning to take place; but sometimes it's useful to throw something at the students and let them flounder a little.  Then you'll have their attention when you explain why something didn't work, and what's really going on behind the scenes.  Have you ever tried that?
Edit #2:
You could ask the students to program a simple game, and then have them try out their neighbor's program.

Thanks, that's a good idea. I honestly hadn't considered games just due to the audience. I would probably get about half the students thinking "this is stupid, I am 40 years old and not in first grade anymore" and the other half would probably be more engaged and really enjoy the game.

@Tim - I've used games as programming projects, and, 40 years old or not, I'd be surprised if "half" your students think it's stupid. Most find it fun. Many games prove to be meaningful domains for the concepts you're trying to teach: (Think "Battleship" for two-dimensional arrays, or "Hangman" for string and character manipulation, e.g.) Some very rudimentary concepts can be taught with a game; one of my first projects to teach elementary conditionals and loops was "I'm thinking of a number, 1 through 100" (the user would input a guess, and the program would respond "Higher" or "Lower").

@J.R. As I said, it's a good idea and I may even use it. I just don't believe it will prove 100% effective based on knowledge of my audience.

@Tim - Maybe it would be best to take tutoring out of the question.  (You could pose that separately at math educators.)  For the teaching you do in the workplace, could you tell us more about the set-up?  What are you teaching, how many students per group, how long does a session last, how much do they know before you start?  Also, I wonder if your question might get more useful answers on http://cs.stackexchange.com.

@aparente001 Thanks for the suggestions. I looked over CS.SE before posting this, and they don't even have a [teaching] tag. I will add more detail about the setup and audience. This is more related to programming than to math. As to your edited question, yes that is also a common technique that does prove effective. My question is more around a specific project that works well for basic stuff like data types. JR's suggestion of Battleship actually gave me several more ideas of my own.

@Tim - Okay, great, glad to hear you have a place to start.  I hope you'll post an update later after you've tried some of your new ideas.

This answer gives a really good approach. Additionally, you could help the students to escape the catches of Excel or handle their daily student life problems with small programs, e.g. a program holding all their grades and giving some feedback: Which grades are still missing, what is the averege grade of the semester or course, what are the deadlines, ...

@aparente001 Your idea has worked out well, so I've accepted this answer. We built a Battleship game application that follows the content as we teach it, and it has proved very effective at getting the students more engaged. It definitely helps with the basics because the project scope can grow naturally in complexity along with the class material.

@Tim - I hope you'll write it up online for others to benefit.  Sounds like a lot of fun.

@aparente001 Hmm is there a particular format or platform you had in mind? I would have some work cut out to make it a little more generic for any audience (less specific to my company). Also I am not the sole designer of the material so that's another factor. We basically made a one dimensional battleship game just to start with, then converted it to 2D and talked about data types and arrays and such, then converted it to an object oriented design, then upgraded it to have saved games (for I/O and exception handling material), etc.

@Tim - I put the info from your comment into the question for posterity.  I'm curious to know if half of them said, "This is stupid, I'm 40 years old"?

@aparente001 They did not, actually - however, this group is different than previous ones we've had. They are more technical and actually asked us to skip the basic content covering logic, loops, and syntax.

The core problem is that programs that are simple enough for your beginning students are really very dull. I was able to get excited about printing a simple series, but that was in 1967 and I had not grown up with computers.
Much of real world programming is modifying existing programs to add or change features, rather than programming from scratch. I suggest writing a simple GUI program, such as a calculator or game. Each exercise takes the form of a new requirement that is best implemented using whatever has just been taught.
The first exercise would be to add to an existing statistics reporting facility, so that the hooks for collecting the data are already in place, and they just have to calculate e.g. mean and standard deviation.

Oh, just printing something sounds boring only as long as you can use your standard library. I remember is was not dull at all, doing that without printf - and without operating system.

@VolkerSiegel I agree that bare machine programming makes even basic actions interesting, but it is rather specialized.

After gaining more experience tutoring, both privately and professionally, I’ve come to understand that most beginner students struggle with the same basic concepts, concepts which are very simple but which manifest themselves in difficult and complex ways when applied to a specific problem.
I’ve seen that the most effective technique personally (on an individual scale, not so much a classroom setting as the accepted answer addresses) is to hit the two basic building blocks of all code hard, and breeze over the rest, as the syntax varies wildly from one language to another anyway. The two basic building blocks are logic and loops. Coming in as close third would be functions. Students which can put these basic parts together to solve problems tend to do well, while students who cannot tend to struggle with even the simplest problems.
Declarations and assignments are the next most important bits, but they are simpler to learn and don’t seem to cause continual trouble.
One of the most well-received analogies I’ve found for explaining loops is a washing machine: controls at the top, and the load (code) in the middle. It seems to click quickly with students that it spins through the same code over and over.
For basic logic I just show them simple if statements and explain in terms of language and logic: if you say, “It’s raining” that statement can be either true or false. Computers can easily test this same basic logic to make decisions.
Then I tie it all together with why we use computers in the first place: automating tedious and repetitive tasks (using loops) and making small decisions quickly (using logic).
For functions, the most often misunderstood concept, I explain that a function is like a chapter of a book, and main is like the table of contents. I relate passing by value versus passing by reference using an airplane analogy. Passing by reference means the airline takes your checked bag and when you get it back, it (should ideally) be the exact same bag. While passing by value is like them making an exact replica of your bag and its contents, and upon your return, the copy is destroyed and your original bag returned.


text:
No reply from the professor after the follow up email
There is a PhD position at a university. I have sent an email and also a follow-up email (after one week from my first email) to the corresponding professor and I haven't got any reply yet (it has been 4 days from the follow up email!).
somewhere at the personal webpage of the professor it is stated that to apply or if you are interested to postdoc please first email your CV to Prof. X. On the other hand, the "Apply online" button in the open position list is active. What should I do now? send another email to the professor?

My answer will be general -- not specific to the particular institution you want to apply to.

You could contact the department and ask, "I sent my CV to Prof. X, as suggested at the application instructions page (provide link), on [date], but have not heard back yet.  May I go ahead and submit my application, or do I need to wait for a response from the professor?"
Note that four days is not very long.  Depending on the application deadline, you may want to give this a bit more patience.
You have submitted your CV as instructed; unless the instructions say you must hear back from the professor before submitting your application, I suppose you could go ahead and submit your application.

It is said in the Prof's page that if you are interested first email your C.V. to me. However, I didn't attached according to the internet search I have done, many people say that it is better to not attach your C.V. for the first email. I think I have to send an email to the department as you said and give that a try.

@user3482383 - Oh dear, I misunderstood.  Okay, please send the CV to Prof. X at this time, and then follow up after a reasonable interval with the department.  (Unless you get guidance otherwise when you contact the department.)

I emailed the department and they said go ahead. However, I would send the professor an email with my CV attached and give it some days before going to apply process.