Hi Tim:
Part of the key is to rely on the student learning outcomes (SLO's) and the the daily course objectives. If these have been written well, then the creative components can be developed to make the course fair, balanced, and accurate as to the learning that is going to measured.
Regards, Barry
Yes, I agree. Rubrics are very important in that they offer clarity and transparancy before, throughout and after the assignment. Students have a clear idea of the point value of different components of the assignment. This also clarifies any potential ambiguity in the grading process.
The challenge is to make the process as fair as possible for a wide variety of learning styles. I think it's important to include enough different aspects of grading to allow students to use the individual strengths they have to prove they know the subject. Some students may be poor test takers but good at hands on projects. The goal is to prepare them to succeed in the field they have chosen
Hi Julie:
RE: rubrics. They offer a fair and objective way to assess learning outcomes.
---Barry
Hi Julie:
Establishing a fair and accurate grading system takes some thought and consideration. It's true, more weight should be given to more difficult assignments. In some ways, it's a balancing act because not all students learn or test well in the same way.
So, I try to plan for fairness, and a collection of grading criteria that, in the end, truely measures student learning, in a way that can be justified and objective. I want students to earn the grade they've earned, but just as import, regardless of thye grade, my focus is on the instructional strategies and learning that occurs, with measuring that as a secondary (but important and necessary) second.
Regards, Barry
Hi Barry and class,
You are correct, Barry, rubrics are an excellent tool. Students know exactly what is expected and how many points/or percentage will be awarded for each segment of the assignment by using a rubric. I use a rubric for all research papers. The rubric is an excellent "checklist" for students to refer to when they develop and write their research paper. This is also a tool for the instructor to defend/support her/his grade if the grade is ever challenged.
Regards,
Julie
Hi Barry and class,
The biggest challenge is ensuring that the number of points assigned to an assignment is worth its true value -- since there are several assignments for the course, we need to ensure that greater points are assigned to more difficult assignments. Otherwise, students will prefer to do the "easy" assignments and forego the more difficult ones.
Regards,
Julie
Hi Tracy:
THe component system works well for many teachers. Using components, differents types of assignments are grouped together to form categories, such as homework, quizzes, lab assignments, discussions, tests, projects, etc. Then percent weight is applied to the category.
Deciding how much weight is kind of a trial and error, but my experience has been to guage factors such as how much time is spent, to what degree does the component contribute to grasping the core concepts, and a fair distribution of weight, to avoid what you identified, having a large percentage ofthe grade come from a single test.
Regards, Barry
I beleive the biggest challenge in setting up a grading system is trying to figure out how many points to assign to different areas in the course. As we went over in the readings, I do not think it is fair to have the final exam worth half of the students grade. Some students do not take tests well or they may be having a bad day. I think one test should not make or break their final grade.
Hi Rich:
I can see both sides of the coin in regards to keeping your daily quiz point score low, I presume to reduce the impact of absences on their grade.
Since this discussion forum is focused on grading systems, I'll comment that when deciding on the weight of each component, our interest should be "how can I best survey or assess if my students learned the material?". The goal is is providing instruction that leads to appropriate knowledge that can be applied in the workplace. The grading system is simply a measure of that learning.
I don't think any system is ever going to be perfect (unless we had only one student) becasue everyone learns and tests at different speed and levels. Some teachers base components (tests, quizzes, assignment, homework, etc) on percentage of time spent. This might work, but we really should come back to what our purpose is.
In your case, if you have daily quizzes and it's assessing what you covered the previous day, it seems like this would contribute to a greater portion of the grade. And, maybe those in-class assignments should have a greater weight than other components too. I don't know, you have to decide. My point is to try to measure how well a student learned. Points and grades aren't as important if the learning has occurred.
We've heard of the "A" student who is useless in the workplace. "Booksmart" or "grade-smart". Ultimately, that doesn't really help anyone, least of all the student.
Regards, Barry
I try to keep it as simple as possible for both me and the students. Our college has eliminated both extra credit and attendance points which I think make it easier for me as an instructor. The only challenging thing is to make sure that students are earning points by coming to class. I do that by doing in class assignments or quiz’s that are minimal in points but cannot be made up.
Hi Penelope:
You've got the mechanics down - that's good. A question might be is the the breakdown of various components and assignment weights appropriate? Maybe they once were, but are they still? I find what was working great a couple of years ago begins to lose relevance over time.
At any rate, we do want to make sure that what we're assessing adequately mesaures the learning that occured.
Regards, Barry
I see no challenges as I have been allocating and breaking down grades into an Excel sheet for many years. All that needs to be done is write your formulas and fill in the cells.
Hi Dixie:
Electronic grading can be great because it's instaneous, but students can still have questions or misunderstandings. Taking time to (repeatedly) explain may get frustrating, but students will appreciate the effort, and recognize you care enough to assist them to understand their grades.
Regards, Barry
Hi Gregg:
In principle, "one cannot learn if they're not present". Insitutional policies sometimes seem like they interfere with assigning the most accurate grade, especially if they have a set grading scale and cannot account for class participation or attendence status. So, As creative workers we are, we learn to adapt to our criteria given us and make due. I can say this: if a teacher is prepared and doing their best, the grades will less importnat than the learning that occurs.
Regards, Barry
I work at a school where the grading system is designed by the syllabus writer, our Education Director. The biggest challenge I see in this particular situation is applying the attendance policy to the grade. Since I am the one who issues the grades the students earn, I have to know the value of attendance according to the school. In my book, attendance is important, since the classes are 5 weeks long. I have not heard a definitive answer regarding this. Classroom participation is not possible if a student is not present...lectures cannot be heard either.
Student math skills. This unit has convinced me to try to set up all assignment point values to be easily equated to percentage. My current system has everything adding up to 100 points. But when students look at their grades (we have an electronic gradebook which is available to students for immediate and total feedback) and see they have 17 out of 20 points, they don't do the math (I did explain to them how to do it) to realize what that means in terms of their grade.
Hi Anis:
There's yet been a perfect grading system. Using a grading rubric should help keep most grading within a fairly accurate range. Besides grades, as a teacher, I always ask myself "has the student learned what they should have? This kind of goes beyond grades, but really, this should be what teaching is about: Learning and Knowledge. Grades and points are really secondary methods we use to measure performance. An "A" student who doesn't know their course material makes me question if they really learned as expected.
Regards, Barry
I think that the most challenging part is a consistence "grading sheet" from instructional point view. Using and a rubric system for example.
Same answer may be grade an A- by an instructor an a B by another one.
Hi Faylee:
I agree, and I think most teachers would agree we want to be as objective as possible when assessing student performance.
One way to help assure objectivity is to develop a grading rubric. This will allow both teacher and student to know exactly how and why specific points will be earned on the different components of an assignment or assessment.
The teacher can even discuss how the different categories will be graded, with examples of past student's errors or why they didn't earn all the points they thought they had coming. So, a rubric can be quite helpful assuring objectivity and conveying to your students you want them to earn as many points as possible. They will appreciate your caring approach.
Regards, Barry
