Unfiltered Story #32690

(I teach a graduate course and provide students with guidelines for completing an assignment. Most of the students, who are allowed to work with a classmate on the assignment, do not follow one of my hints. I think maybe I should improve the hint. I allow the students to re-submit for additional credit if they gave me feedback on why the hint was not effective. These are the responses:)

Response #1: “We believe that there is nothing wrong with the wording of your hint.”

Response #2: “I made more of a judgment call, instead of following the hint.”

Response #3: “I wouldn’t change the hint. It makes sense. We just missed it in the midst of trying to figure it all out.”

(I don’t have a better way of explaining the hint, but it would be helpful to underline or bold the important details within the hint description. In my case I normally skimmed over the hints, but nothing triggered me. I will not be changing the hint.)