ACT
INFORMATION
OFFICIAL
THE
UNDER
RELEASED
From:
>
Sent: Friday, 26 June 2020 9:19 AM
To: Law Undergraduate <[email address]>
Subject: LAWS 211 Results
Good morning
ACT
Can you confirm when grades will be released for Contract law, given a very dire and,
frankly, terrifying podcast has been released by the course lecturer saying some of us
should consider dropping out, most of us failed and that today is the last day to pull out,
meaning time is of the essence?
I am disappointed that this podcast was released (1) in "stress free" hand in week and (2)
right on the same day as the last chance to pull out.
Many students will be handing in other assessments and will come across the news that
INFORMATION
most of us have failed. I would hope the law school would have a long hard look at the
test and wonder why so many have failed, rather than just writing us all off as not doing a
good enough job. It's frankly made me consider why I have given three years of my life to
law school.
yours sincerely
OFFICIAL
THE
UNDER
RELEASED
ACT
INFORMATION
OFFICIAL
THE
UNDER
RELEASED
1. "Giving straight 0s on questions without giving feedback is unacceptable. He claims this
was supposed to be helpful when he has done zero critique on my individual answer."
2. "The fact that he gave us no feedback completely contradicts the reason for this test as a
whole. How are we supposed to see where we are at if it's not possible to figure out
where we went wrong? Is each and every one of us expected to go and have a one on one
with D Mac?"
3. "He literally called it a "feedback assignment" but gave us no feedback that we can
ACT
actually apply and learn from. The model answer is actually kind of useless when we
weren't provided with any kind of marking guideline rubric, and I worry we will run into
the same pitfalls in the final exam."
4. "I am extremely unhappy with my result for this exam. I appear to have answered each of
the questions correctly, but still failed. This is astonishing to me!"
5. "I thought I had gotten a fairly decent mark based on the feedback provided but only just
passed! It was a bit surprising because I seem to have done worse of the questions I
thought I had nailed and gotten some marks on the ones I thought I had gotten marked?
Very weird marking and so confusing"
6. "How can we emphasise concern that this is content that we are going to be reassessed
on at the end of the year, in an exam written by the same person? Other than listening to
INFORMATION
the podcasts again (which were clearly not effective in the first place), how are we meant
to learn this material?"
7. "The nerve of the guy to justify failing half the class because the test was for 'feedback'
and then not actually giving any feedback"
8. "imagine not feeling embarrassed to admit that you're giving 90% of the class 0 marks on
some questions, when you are the only teacher who could have helped them"
9. "I mean sure, I'd drop it all if it wasn't going to cost me $7k in fees etc plus a year out of
OFFICIAL
the workplace - I don't think any of them quite get that. Not to mention the cost of an
extra year of study on your psyche!"
10. "He genuinely needs to go! I'm sick of the implication that everyone who he fails didn't
THE
understand the content or is stupid - everyone knows that his entire self worth is tied to
failing students and the idea that his course is somehow better because he isn't PC. Some
solidarity from law students or faculty would be ideal." -
this comment in particular was
liked or shared by 97 other students, including more comments like "this!!" "so true" and
"nothing but the truth!"
UNDER
11. "with a pass rate like that surely his teaching quality is the common denominator?"
12. "Failing 44% of the class during the pandemic with no reflection on the difficulty of
understanding the podcasts and the ad-hoc teaching method to me is unacceptable!"
13. "In his podcast he said something along the lines of "not one of you referred to this
case/point X which I expected you to" and kept bringing up points that many missed. In
such a big class maybe it indicates it's a bigger problem that the students and their
learning capabilities in light of Covid-19? With his chosen time to release feedback I feel
like we're headed back to square one pre the investigation that was done last year."
RELEASED
14. "This is now the second time a lecturer has brought up during the Covid pandemic that
students should consider dropping out, which I find appalling. It's a complete failure to
take into account the circumstances, show compassion and it is completely out of touch
with the reality that students will be financially impacted (lose studylink, course fees and
have to find full time work during a recession). It flies in the face of the Universities
assurances that there are measures in place in lieu of the 5 point grade increase at other
universities. The lack of oversight on the faculty is also concerning. It seems as though D
Mac's tenure and academic weight have made him a force unto himself."
15. "It's pretty dusty to have lecturers during these trying times telling us to consider
dropping out if we don't meet his standards when he's lectured contract for decades and
us 211 students had a test after a few weeks of being introduced to contract all while
during a pandemic. How we studied for this was listening to long convoluted podcasts
where he talks at a blank screen with no slides. Not ideal."
16. "If so many people failed, did it occur to him that maybe it wasn't our fault? Or Covid-19?
A large part of our poor grades across the board can be attributed to Covid. But if all of us
ACT
are failing, maybe it's because his podcasts were ineffective. Or something else. Not trying
to make out that he's no good, but if that many students are failing.... it's not the
student's fault."
17. "A lot of people received 0/10 marks for questions where they answered seemingly
correctly, and the fact that he didn't provide any actual feedback is sub-par."
18. "I feel like it's so inappropriate for him to be releasing feedback and posting about how
many people have failed before actually giving us access to grades. Contract law is not our
lives and we have other things going on, why is there a need to cause stress and anxiety
like this? It's not like anyone can actually use his feedback constructively!"
19. "Isn't this an example of the traditional torturous style of law school though? I mean I
don't blame David for maybe not understanding that that's not healthy anymore but this
INFORMATION
is just an example of why the attitude needs to go"
20. "There's nothing traditional about the situation that we are all in this year so it's a little bit
tone deaf to ignore how additional stress, anxiety and guilt is not really appropriate, given
the kind of s*** students have had to put up with this trimester."
21. "The language of the test was atrocious. There were questions which were difficult to
understand and if we had written like that in the exam the marker would have taken
OFFICIAL
points off. Double negatives and bizarre phrasing made the entire thing a complete
nightmare."
22. "I didn't appreciate him suggesting that a fail grade in the course could affect us applying
or enrolling in future law courses... not exactly what you'd call constructive criticism."
THE
23. "Worth noting that almost 50% of the class struggled to learn the content. How much
does that reflect on his ability to teach and our ability to learn especially when you don't
see these numbers from other 200 level courses"
24. "Especially given the university's commitment to ensuring scaling would be fair and take
into account the circumstances. I found the podcasts extremely difficult to understand
UNDER
and follow along with. The fact that David has not reflected on his own ability to deliver
good teaching may have impacted the quality of work is so frustrating."
RELEASED
From:
>
Date: Tuesday, 30 June 2020 at 7:26 PM
To:
>
Subject: Re: Laws 211
One last thing - many students (myself included) have seen they've been graded 0/10 for
answers which were at least partly, if not mostly, correct. This is in accordance with the sparse
feedback given by Professor McLauchlan on voice recording/the model answer uploaded to
BB. It makes no sense at all why students have been so heavily penalised - if the goal was to
ACT
get the answer 100% correct or nothing, the marks should have been awarded as true/false
instead of on a points scale. Considering there's no actual written feedback on any student
scripts nor anything individual available, there's very little students can learn from a 0 or 1
mark. It makes the logic of the marking difficult to understand and reduces the value of the
model answer (given that writing something very similar will still get you a 0 mark). Finally,
it makes students extremely anxious about the exam, given that the same content will be
reassessed and there is no further opportunity to learn or understand where they have gone
wrong in their answers.
Thanks
INFORMATION
OFFICIAL
THE
UNDER
RELEASED
On Tue, Jun 30, 2020 at 6:29 PM
wrote:
Kia ora
(hope it's okay that I'm using your first name),
I'm writing to you because I'm extremely frustrated and upset over the way that the
contract law (211) test, and course content generally, has been handled by Professor
McLauchlan. I know academic grievances are normally handled by approaching the
course lecturer/co-ordinator directly, but I am no longer confident that this would be
helpful and see it as potentially detrimental to my performance in the course. Given
Professor McLaughlan is writing and grading the end of year assessment and reassessing
the same content from the test, I feel it is imperative the faculty steps in so students can
feel confident they will be assessed fairly.
ACT
As I'm sure you're aware, the test originally had an extremely high failure rate of 44%, which
was made known to students late at night well before the results were actually released.
This was not only incredibly unhelpful given students couldn't make use of the feedback
without their results, it added a huge amount of unnecessary stress and anxiety to students
already busy with other assessments and courses. Posting things late at night like this
reinforces to students the mentality that to do well in law school, they need to be
constantly working and never take breaks. It's beyond inappropriate and caused many
students to lose sleep and energy worrying over something that they couldn't do anything
about.
INFORMATION
Further than that, the feedback itself was condescending and unhelpful. The first 10 or so
minutes were spent berating students on things like their inability to write in English or
string sentences together, or suggesting that perhaps some should consider dropping out if
their post-COVID circumstances were not going to change and would likely impact their
performance in the course. This completely undermines the narrative that both the
university as a whole and the law faculty have been perpetuating, which is that they're
OFFICIAL
supposedly here for us as students and able to provide support.
The handling of this feedback was hugely unprofessional and inappropriate - no
THE
apology was made to students for this, except just to tell them that the grades were being
re-evaluated. Professor McLauchlan himself made an announcement which insinuated
students were upset over nothing and he was the victim, that the test was intended as a
"learning experience" and students should basically harden up and be grateful to
receive this kind of feedback at all. This perspective is completely out of touch with how
assessments and grades affect students. Grades are a literally a numerical reflection on a
UNDER
students performance and are viewed as an evaluation on how intelligent and competent
they are. They have a huge impact on students' sense of self-worth, let alone their impact
on transcripts, scholarship opportunities, honours positions or employment.
Professor McLauchlan appeared to think that since the test was only worth 10% of final
grades and double chance, that would mean almost failing half the class wouldn't be such a
RELEASED
big deal. However, if his intention was truly to provide a learning experience, he should
have made the assessment an ungraded one, or a tutorial assignment, or possibly even
provided comments on the answer scripts for students to view. Instead, he seemed proud
to (in his own words) mark 90% of students a 0 for several questions while only providing
one generic source of feedback in the voice recording. Students have found this extremely
confusing and disheartening as it's incredibly difficult to source any value or feedback from
a 0% grade on a question and no personal comments on how they could have done better.
Professor McLauchlan has also taken absolutely no responsibility for his role in this
performance. Any other lecturer would probably see a 44% fail rate as a reflection on their
inability to teach adequately, albeit in difficult circumstances. Professor McLauchlan instead
ACT
seems to get some kind of twisted sense of satisfaction from failing his students - this is
clear in the well-documented history of student feedback in previous years, including in the
LAWS 214 investigation conducted by VUWLSS last year. Frankly, the fact that there was
even a need for such an investigation is a disgusting reflection on the course and has made
many students believe that they'd be better off studying law elsewhere. At 200 level
students are more than competent and should be treated as such. Failing more students
than any other paper should not be a source of pride - it should be a sign that something is
clearly not working and needs to change.
Despite the faculty intervention in raising the pass rate to 80% (which Professor McLauchlan
INFORMATION
made clear he did not support), I do not feel confident that I or other students will be given
a fair opportunity during the rest of the year to be graded reasonably on our understanding
of contract law. It is not enough to simply hope things improve or that scaling/the bell-curve
will raise grades for some students. Students need reassurance and proper intervention
from the law faculty to feel any confidence in this course. This would look like:
1. Improvements in teaching quality, as there is obviously some serious gaps in students
knowledge according to Professor McLauchlan's standards;
OFFICIAL
2. Assessments going forward will be handled fairly and provide students an actual
opportunity for displaying their knowledge and receiving genuine and helpful
feedback
THE
3. Real action will be taken to making sure Professor McLauchlan understands the
impact his actions and conduct have had on his students and this is seriously
considered going forward
4. No more suggesting students drop out or accept poor grades because of the
pandemic. This is an extremely privileged perspective as the majority of students do
not have the financial means to drop out and stop receiving StudyLink payments. The
UNDER
idea of looking for a full time job in the middle of a recession instead, just to retake
the course next year, is a slap in the face.
I personally would like to appeal my grade and know many other students are planning on
doing so. If this test is anything to go by, the faculty is clearly not equipped to take care of
students following the pandemic and it has made me seriously question whether I have
made the right choice studying at Victoria. After almost 3 years studying here and never
receiving a grade below a B, let alone a fail, it's hard to see how this is anything but a
RELEASED
reflection of the Professor's teaching and attitude.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
From:
Sent: Wednesday, 1 July 2020 1:38 PM
To:
Mark Bennett <[email address]>
Subject: LAWS211 Assessment Concerns
Kia ora Mark and
,
(I was unable to find confirmation about which of you is now the Associate Dean
for Learning and Teaching)
ACT
As you may already know, the LAWS211 paper recently released results for our
10% mid-year exam. Based on the raw marks, 44% of our class failed. Our
lecturer released this news late at night, without our actual results, and it was
accompanied by (in my opinion) insensitive comments saying that if we had been
impacted by Covid, we should withdraw from the course, and the due date for this
was the next day. The teaching of the course during lockdown was very difficult,
with our lecturer releasing only mp4 recordings of his voice with no visual
supplement, and these recordings varied in length from 20 minutes to an hour or
more, making it impossible to plan study. When visual supplements were
provided, they were impossible to edit for me to make readable, and they were not
INFORMATION
formatted in accordance with my disability requirements, which the lecturer was
aware of. I did not complain of this to him due to other personal circumstances that
were taking precedence at the time.
Our class complained to VUWSA, VUWLSS and Law Faculty management, and
our lecturer was forced to adjust his results in accordance with law faculty policy,
to only 20% failure.
Results were released yesterday, and my raw mark was
, scaled up to
. I
was very surprised by this. When we were informed that the failure rate was 44%,
OFFICIAL
it was accompanied by general feedback to the class, which I went through
alongside my test, and I was expecting a much higher grade, as all of my answers
were correct except for 2 (20%). When our tests were returned, we were given our
THE
marks for each question, with no individual feedback. I was especially confused,
since I was given some marks for the questions that I thought I had gotten wrong,
and 0/10 for another question that I thought I had gotten correct. I know that it
wasn't a perfect test, but I spent an entire day working on it carefully, and it seems
to me almost as if marks were randomly assigned without any justification, due to
the lack of feedback.
UNDER
Our lecturer is David McLauchlan, who was investigated by VUWLSS last year,
though the results were stopped from being published, and therefore acted upon,
because he allegedly threatened a defamation suit. The failure rate for his course
is usually 15%, as compared to the other 200 Level LAWS courses which average
at 5%.
I feel in general as if an injustice has been done to our entire class in the marking
RELEASED
of this test, as many of my classmates have similar comments. I have contacted
my tutor asking if I could meet with her next semester to go over some of the
questions I got poor marks on. I have also now appealed my grade to David
McLauchlan, who has agreed to meet with me after re-reading my test.
While this addresses my personal concerns about my own test results, I believe
that this is symptomatic of a wider systemic issue with the LAWS211 course,
which has not been adequately addressed thus far. The way that David
McLauchlan has addressed our class, particularly around the circumstances of
lockdown, is very concerning to me. In a BlackBoard announcement, he has
accused our class of misconstruing his comments, so I have attached the
ACT
recording for you to have a listen to if you wish. I find the first few minutes most
concerning. I also find it very inconsiderate that this recording was released at
9:49 PM, without our actual results. I am sure that you can imagine the anxiety
caused by the knowledge that 44% of the class has failed, without knowing your
actual results.
This attitude towards students who have had to learn very complicated material
through only inconsistent voice recordings during a global pandemic, is worrying to
me, particularly going into a 70-80% final exam set by the same lecturer, partially
on the same material. I would also like to emphasise that this assessment was
intended by David McLauchlan to be a learning exercise, yet no feedback or
justification for marks was given. I personally do not believe that it is appropriate to
INFORMATION
give anyone a 0/10 on a question unless they have not written anything, or given a
very incorrect answer.
I appeal to you for wider change, beyond simply the scaling of the results for one
assessment. Within these circumstances, it is not enough, and I hope that the law
faculty management can share my concerns on the above matters. I am not
concerned for my individual results, but more for the collective welfare of my class.
The actions of David McLauchlan have had a detrimental impact on the welfare of
OFFICIAL
our class as a whole, and are not in line with the university's policy regarding the
circumstances of lockdown and Covid-19. I am deeply concerned that this
behaviour will continue throughout the year, so I appeal to you for deeper
THE
intervention and supervision of this course.
These are the primary concerns that I have:
The quality of teaching of the course, particularly during lockdown. If 44% of
the class do not understand the content to the lecturer's satisfaction, then
that is a symptom of the teaching, rather than the learning.
UNDER
The quality of assessment and the marking thereof. Assessment should
provide a fair chance to demonstrate learning and be given productive
feedback. Genuine effort and understanding of the content should be
acknowledged, consistent with other LAWS 200 Level courses.
The comments and general attitude of David McLauchlan towards the
students in his class. He needs to understand the impact that these are
having and how they are inappropriate.
The consideration that this course, and this exam, has occurred in the
RELEASED
middle of a global pandemic, where students have been adversely impacted
in general, by job losses, change in teaching style and content, and learning
in a home environment, which is not always supportive.
I acknowledge that this is a difficult circumstance for the law faculty management,
but we as your students appeal for your support and advocacy. We as students do
not have the power to make wider systemic changes, but you as the faculty do.
I appreciate your consideration of this issue. Please let me know if you would like
anything further from me.
Kind regard.
ACT
INFORMATION
OFFICIAL
THE
UNDER
RELEASED
ACT
INFORMATION
OFFICIAL
THE
UNDER
RELEASED
feel that same support from Professor Mclauchlan.
This is just one example of the many confusions brought about by the marking of this test, and I
personally would like to appeal my grade. I and my fellow classmates would appreciate some
more relevant feedback from the marker at the very least. I recognise that Professor Mclauchlan
has provided some general critiques already, but his feedback has obviously not settled anyone's
mind about their grades.
Once again, this course is largely comprised of third-year law students. Given the nature of
ACT
studying law at Victoria University and the harsh competition at 100-level, one cannot imagine
that students who make it into second year are simply not clever enough to understand contract
law. The raw grade of the LAWS211 test and even the scaled grades are not a fair or accurate
representation of the intelligence of the cohort, but rather a reflection on the course structure
and method of teaching. Regrettably, this is not a new phenomenon in contract law, as students
regularly perform 'worse' in LAWS211 than in other 200-level courses at Victoria. I understand
the shift to online learning was a challenge for all of us, but as students we look to the faculty
and teaching staff for support to ensure we are on the road to success in our studies. With the
legal industry being as competitive as it is, instances like this put us at a disadvantage compared
to students from other law schools. This can take a great toll on a student's wellbeing, enforcing
the perception that studying law is only ever painful and frustrating. Surely, this is not the way
INFORMATION
you or any of the faculty want Victoria to be viewed.
I look forward to hearing your response on this matter.
Kind regards,
OFFICIAL
THE
UNDER
RELEASED
ACT
INFORMATION
OFFICIAL
THE
UNDER
RELEASED
I look forward to hearing from you,
Ngā mihi
ACT
INFORMATION
OFFICIAL
THE
UNDER
RELEASED
From:
Sent: Monday, 6 July 2020 11:22 AM
To: Mark Hickford <[email address]>
Subject: Appeal Grade LAWS211 & Complaint
Dear Professor Mark Hickford Pro Vice Chancellor, Dean of Law and Head of School.
I believe that the lecturer and course coordinator of LAWS211 provided unduly critical marking.
Due to the unreasonable marking of the assessment and his already expressed reluctance to
ACT
scale grades following a poor performance from a significant proportion of the class, I do not feel
that I am able to discuss my results with the course coordinator.
No meaningful feedback was provided to students’ seemingly correct answers to unnecessarily
obscure questions. Students were given inexplicably low or failing marks and in my opinion, it is
unacceptable that individual feedback was not given to students who received zero marks on
particular questions. This is not conducive to learning.
It is also discouraging that a lecturer would suggest to students within the 30% grade range
(which I am) to consider dropping out of the course.
INFORMATION
I cannot reconcile the fact that 44% of the class failed a piece of assessment that was said to
have been designed primarily to give students feedback as to their performance within the
course.
I do not believe that the grade of
I have received accurately reflects my understanding of
the course material. I was assessed as having less than “some evidence of learning” and my
OFFICIAL
performance considered “well below the standard required” - Assessment Handbook Appendix
B.
THE
The outcome of the test appears more greatly to reflect the delivery of the course as opposed to
expressing an indication of student performance/competence.
I believe that the answers I provided are akin to those within the marking guide and would like to
request that my grade be reassessed by someone other than Professor McLauchlan.
UNDER
I would appreciate the opportunity for a third party to review the grade I have received so that I
can confidently assess my performance within the course.
In light of the model answers, it is my opinion that I have expressed adequate evidence of
learning and I was confident of receiving a passing grade without my grade being scaled.
The reason I am writing to you is that I wish to openly express my dissatisfaction and bring to
RELEASED
your attention what I (and a significant number of students) perceive to be unduly critical
marking.
I am truly unhappy and do not feel comfortable discussing this with the course coordinator for
the reasons I have given.
If it is required that I must liaise with the course coordinator I would appreciate the opportunity
to contact him directly and rephrase my appeal as I suspect that my letter may offend him.
I would also like to point out that there has been some discussion between law students online
which you may already be aware of, but I thought it would be worth bringing to your attention as
there appears to be a shared sense of dissatisfaction among students:
“He genuinely needs to go ! I'm sick of the implication that everyone who he fails didnt understand the content
or is stupid - everyone knows that his entire self worth is tied to failing students and the idea that his course is
somehow better because he isnt PC. Some solidarity from law students would be ideal”
ACT
· “Liked” by 98 students 3/7/20
“In his podcast he said something along the lines of “not one of you referred to this case/point X which I
expected you to” and kept bringing up points that many missed. In such a big class maybe it indicates it’s a
bigger problem than the students and their learning capabilities in light of Covid-19? With his chosen time to
release feedback I feel like we’re headed back to square one pre the investigation that was done last year.”
· “Liked” by 24 students 3/7/20
“ … I Was planning on writing him a letter. This is now the second time a lecturer has brought up during the
INFORMATION
Covid pandemic that students should consider dropping out, which I find appalling. It's a complete failure to
take into account the circumstances, show compassion and it is completely out of touch with the reality that
students will be financially impacted (lose studylink, course fees and have to find full time work during a
recession). It flys in the face of the Universities assurances that we would there are measures in place in lieu of
the 5 point grade increase at other universities. The lack of oversight on the faculty is also concerning. It seems
as though D Mac's tenure and academic weight have made him a force unto himself.”
· “Liked” by 46 students 3/7/20
OFFICIAL
“For those not in Contract this year, who have done it in the past, I want you to imagine learning Contract via
DMac podcast. Just... imagine. I actually have no negative opinion of him per se, although I definitely don’t
THE
understand what I am being taught, but learning this course via podcast is... impossible.”
· “Liked” by 19 students 3/7/20
“It was pretty dusty to have lecturer during these trying times telling us to consider dropping out if we don't
meet his standards when he's lectured contract for decades and us 211 students had a test after a few weeks of
UNDER
being introduced to contract all while during a pandemic. How we studied for this was listening to luggage
convoluted podcasts where he talks at a blank screen with no slides. Not ideal.”
· “Liked” by 17 students 3/7/20
I have attached three PDF below containing the original test submission, model answers and a
separate document containing the original submission alongside the model answers and my
comments.
Kind regards,
RELEASED
