How much can we allow students to take control of things that ultimately go in our grade book? How much can we abdicate the responsibility for evaluation?

In a discussion prompt for the course, Jesse Stommel related creative, participation-driven learning with the time-limited, arbitrary challenges of reality cooking shows. According to Stommel, the shows are a microcosm of what effective assignments and assessment could be if we relaxed the institutionalization of education. He makes excellent points, most relating to the authenticity of...