Maybe it could be done across different schools, different classes or different years. For example, in year 1 teach subject focusing on quality and subject 2 focusing on quantity. Then in year 2 reverse the roles. But then you also need to be careful with the order of the subjects.
Just splitting the students into two groups would be better though, aside from the complaints. This is a problem with A/B testing in general: people want to be treated fairly. Are there good ways to reduce (the risk of) such complaints?
To me, the simplest solution that comes to mind is to grade on a curve at the end of the course, based on the quality of the work (or some other subjective measure—I’m not familiar with university art courses, but I assume there’s some kind of widely-accepted grading methodology). That is to say—tell the students before the course they will be graded on quality or quantity depending on the group, but grade each student on a curve relative to their own section for their permanent grade once the course has finished. This would obviously still require lying to the students (at the very least by omission, arguably), however.
Maybe it could be done across different schools, different classes or different years. For example, in year 1 teach subject focusing on quality and subject 2 focusing on quantity. Then in year 2 reverse the roles. But then you also need to be careful with the order of the subjects.
Just splitting the students into two groups would be better though, aside from the complaints. This is a problem with A/B testing in general: people want to be treated fairly. Are there good ways to reduce (the risk of) such complaints?
To me, the simplest solution that comes to mind is to grade on a curve at the end of the course, based on the quality of the work (or some other subjective measure—I’m not familiar with university art courses, but I assume there’s some kind of widely-accepted grading methodology). That is to say—tell the students before the course they will be graded on quality or quantity depending on the group, but grade each student on a curve relative to their own section for their permanent grade once the course has finished. This would obviously still require lying to the students (at the very least by omission, arguably), however.