The biggest challenge is to work within the system that the school has determined. This standard is in place to insure consistant grading accross many and varied instructors with unique levels of knowledge and experiance. In an effort to standardise these processes some of the qualities of a good student/future worker have been minimalized. I have had to deal with students who have calculated the minimum work required and will not proceed beyond that minimum standing. Unfortunatly this can bite and drop the scores of students who are actually putting forth the effort to learn as much as possible.
Hi Flavio:
Our purpose in developing quizzes and tests is to assess to what degree the student has mastered the course material prresented to them. Learning is the process the student goes through, while knowledge is the hoped for outcome.
It's true, the student/graduate does reflect on the school and instructor reputation to the employer. We should strive that all students leave feeling satisfied the instructor cared about their learning and successfulness.
Regards, Barry
The challenge lies in the balance of increasing learning versus defining how good students are.
When students get to their field, the reputation of the school is at stake. A student that earned a high grade, should reflect his abilities. Fairness is also due to the employers.
the biggest challenges in setting up a grading system is consitancy and fairness because some students are not test takers but do exalent in lab activaties. and you dont wont them to be discourage because they did bad on a test. when they show they have the knowage.
Hi Andrew:
All of the components you've listed are appropriate.
I would comment that you, as the instructor, is best able to determine if a students has completed or mastered a topic area. Some students may not agree that the criteria you use is fair.
A key to help remedy misconceptions is to provide a clear and specific grading criteria at the outset of the course. In this manner students may not agree but they'll understand how they're to be graded.
Regards, Barry
Hi Victoria:
I have a suggestion. Many instructors will use a rubric (table of categories) that allocates points based on the degree to which a student has met or not met certain criteria. A well constructed rubric would not need to evaluate the art itself, but would allow you to grade the assignment based upon points earned by predetermined characteristics you expect from the assignment. In this manner, all students are graded according to an "objective and consistent" measuring tool. Good luck!
Regards, Barry
I teach makeup artistry and although there are certain expectations... art is subjective! This is very hard for me to evaluate their work some times. Any suggestions?
I think that some of the biggest challenges are choosing a system that the majority of the students would percieve as fair and equitable;
Setting up a system that will challenge the students but insure that it is not too harsh;
Finally, choosing a system that will echo the sentiments of the college's philosophies and standards.
The scale system and it is questionable by some students.
To me, the biggest challenge is to ensure that that grading system is fair to all students.
I am caught between Scylla and Charybdis in my current career college, where I am teaching ESOL. There are no grades and it isn't even pass/fail. This is a pull-out from a skills course, whereby my only recourse for evaluation is to deduct points from the skills course. It really isn't fair for the students, but I am lucky in that most of my students see the long-term and career-oriented benefits of my classes and are very motivated to learn. Therefore, I really have no evaluations where I provide points. What I do is every three weeks, I assign a task (in-class or homework) whereby I can determine whether my students have mastered and/or understood what I have taught. Since my classes are focused on cooperative learning, all of my students are also peer teachers. Learning happens ... and I evaluate it through assignments.
My students have a placement test (kind of pre-test) to determine their levels. At the end of the course, there will be a final exam (quantitative) to determine whether or not they have made progress during the course. Other than that, it is very difficult to evaluate when there are no 'carrots to dangle.'
I see the biggest challenges as being maintaining the fairness and consistency across all students while ensuring each component of the grade is properly weighted against the total.
Hi Steve:
Good idea, splitting lecture and lab. Adult attention span is not long. Even short bursts of change during a lecture can help. For instance, stating: "everyone stand up and reach high into the air". Then go back to your lesson. I suppose there are hundreds of examples you could think of.
Regards, Barry
Cynthia:
Some classes lend themselves to one sort of testing better than another. An important consideration is asking yourself "am I evaluating student performance accurately?". As long as you can answer in the affirmative, then you're doing fine.
Regards, Barry
Paul:
You've got a point. Something I've done is scan through all of the projects, essays, papers, or assignments before I assign any grades. It helps me get a sense about being fair and consistent when grading.
Regards, Barry
Consistency between students. Even with a rubric in place does the first student get graded the same as the last student with work that is exactly the same?
The thing I find most challenging is the grading itself. In addition to the many other duties I have outside of teaching, grading 60 student's work is very time consuming. It makes it difficult to fully look over every student's work. Therefore I have to use mostly multiple choice, true/false, fill in the blank exams since they are easier to grade. I limit the class to one paper a quarter to minimize the more intensive grading needed throughout the quarter.
I believe the biggest challenges of developing an evaluation system is determining the weight of the academic work. I find that even though some assignments are very important, giving them too much weight can hurt the student.
Being fair and consistent to our student is an ongoing challenge. Most make up and extra credit work is subjective. If a students tugs at the heart and provides a scenario that the instructor can relate to, an instructor would naturally be more inclined to accomodate that student. Therefore it is important to be consistent
Identifing the tasks to be tought and then breaking down each task into a numerical value that more instructor can follow.
