Juan,
I find staying claose to the course objectives and studentlearning outcomes help me measure only what is taught. Of course, I have to make sure that I teach to the objectives and SLO's. Assuming I do, then the next challenge is finding the right balance of weight, so that the more important information receives more weight than less important information.
Barry Westling
Juan,
Grading rubrics are generally a good way to assure objectivity, consistency, and fairness in the grading process. The more specific and detailed the better they will reflect how close the student came to meeting the teachers expectations, and thus, assigning an appropriate grade.
Barry Westling
My biggest challenge is not having much control over the grading system. We are given an easy to use 1000 point system, but there is very little play to customize.
The biggest challenges that I see are:
Making sure that all class material is graded correctly and fairly. Making sure that all areas covered in the class are reflected in the grading system.
I use grading rubrics for all the assignments and test in my courses. The biggest challenge is making sure the rubrics have the correct weight for each question and for the lesson material covered.
Lisa,
I think you are smart to base your grading on course obsjectives. In the end, that is how you can best measure the degree of learning. Also, using outside resources can really assist struggling students. To me, it seems the fairest grading system is one the puts the most emphasis on the most important elements of the course. So for instance, if learning how to read and interpret a financial speadsheet is important, somehow, more weight should go to that component. Up front, if students know where the grading emphasis will be, as the teacher we can put the emphasis of instruction on the areas of grading that have the most weight.
Barry Westling
The biggest challenge I am experiencing is that I am teaching an elective course that is fairly complicated to students that have no prior knowledge of the topic yet the course is a higher level course. I am teaching managerial accounting to medical students. While the topic is important the students don't come from accounting or business backgrounds and I have to literally teach from the ground up. Developing tests and then a fair grading system has been a challenge.
I broke it down into the course objectives and taught specifically to those objectives. The text provided was a much higher level text than they should have had so I had to go to outside resources to make the objectives understandable. Grading from that perspective becomes pretty hard.
Christopher,
When the weights are fixed, it does limit individual merit and scholarship to some degree. I think the component weights out to be proportional to the amount of learning that is expected from the assignment (or group of assignments). The idea of "weight" should represent empahasis in relation to time, effort, and contribution to knowledge obtained.
Barry Westling
It would be nice if I could vary the weight from class to class depending on the course objectives, but at some schools the weight of each area is detemined centrally and for simplicity the school will keep the weight the various areas the same regardless of the class giving projects 25% regardless of the course. I don't think this type of uniformity benifits the students. Many times when this decision is made instructors and subject matter experts are not consulted which again may not benifit the student nor does it give the instructor the flexibility sometimes necessary to optomize the learning environment.
Christopher,
Another way to look at this is what contribution the weighted components have to the students learning? I don't too much weight on a component that reflects little about the degree of learning the student obtained (or too little weight on an extremely important principle). Sometimes, it's trial and error until we find the right balance. I also find this varies from class to class.
Barry Westling
Nancy,
Super! When students can see their teacher is open to reasonable discussion, that adds to credibility, respect, and appreciation for the teacher's efforts. It's a fact, our best efforts (or those of others) can have flaws. It is only fair to make adjustments for legitmate errors. I review tests immedietely following and this gives an opportunity find errors, or appreciate the unintended ambiguity in a question the student may see but I missed. Bad question - revise it or throw it out for next time.
Barry Westling
We use a weighted system. As an example Participation is 10% of their grade, Homework 10%, Quizzes 10%, Examinations 40%, Projects 25% and Portfolio 5%. So regardless of how many points I assign to a test or group of tests 10 points or 1000 it is still only worth 40% of their grade. For me I think the hardest part is making sure the assignment is in keeping with the overall objective of the course and worthy of the emphasis placed upon it by our weighted grading system and making the assignment something the student isn’t going to just blow off because it’s only worth 5% of their total grade In this case if you only have one project and it’s worth 25% of the student’s grade it had better be a very worthwhile project that really demonstrates their mastery in the application of the course material.
I am fortunate in that the grading system that I work under in the courses I instruct is standardized and computerized. Still, there are challenges to grading students; mainly, keeping the grading system fair, without flaws (test often have poorly worded questions that can be disputed), and not too cumbersome for the instructor. Some of the classes taught are already grading intensive, such as English, and subjective as well - English fits this category too. I have found keeping an open door policy with the students to discuss my grading of their papers is important; discussions often clarify both the students' intentions and my perception of the work. I have misread students papers, and I have been open-minded to changing points credited. I feel the students see this policy as my willingness to be fair, and they are not reluctant to bring issues to my attention. They don't always win, but they always learn. Thanks, Nancy
Qadar,
Even with the best grading systems, adult students will find some issue with the way they received a grade. Having it laid out in advance will help. And if it's institutional policy, that will help as well. Even so, trying to be fair and objective is sometimes a challenge. Being flexible, sticking to the policy, and conveying sincerity with honest concern for the students success also helps.
Barry Westling
Our grading system is setup by our school and it is part of the syllabus. It is also part of our school policy to go over the grading system with the students the first day of the class. This way, it takes the mystery out of the grading system. Almost, all students like this policy and I do too.
Douglas,
While rubrics tend to be objectivity, it seems there is still a degree of subjectivity that remains in any grading system. This is probably a good thing, so as to allow for those gray areas that a teacher knows (regarding student learning) but is difficult to measure.
Barry Westling
I think that the hardest part is making th grading rubric valid and generalizable. It should evaluate the student against the learning objectives and not be based on personality or situation. We are required to create a grading rubric in writing for assignments that if two people graded the same paper, they should receive a very similar grade.
Hi Jeanie,
Electronic grading systems are great! The instantaneous nature of always having current information is a real boost to students wanting to know their status. We use electroonic grading too, and I've found I still need to remind students to look at their status (in the egradebook)to keep current. So it helps, but individula instructor attention is still required.
Barry Westling
I use a system called engrade, electronic. I enter my assignments in and weight them as the course described. I update these at the end of each class that way if the student wants to see their progress I am able to bring it up on the computer individually. I also alert my students to their grades prior to the final so they are aware of the need to study hard in order to pass the course.
Hi Debra,
Yes, I agree "well written rubrics" are great, because, as you sated, they help provide guidelines and are good for grading evenly, fairly, and consistently for all participants.
Barry Westling
