All Questions
61 questions
15
votes
7
answers
8k
views
How Can I Ethically Adjust Grading Without Violating My 'No Grade Curving' Policy?
I always tell my students that I don't curve their grades, and that their final exam and quiz scores will directly determine their letter grades. I do this to avoid giving them false hope that they ...
- 995
14
votes
8
answers
7k
views
Is there any ethical problem with a tiered grading system?
I am currently teaching undergraduate level courses in mathematics and engineering in a university in the United States.
My university requires us to go through some training on how to make our ...
- 2,275
15
votes
6
answers
5k
views
Adjust grading policy mid-course to improve attendance?
I'm teaching a math course and have traditionally not enforced attendance, instead allocating 5% of the course grade to in-class participation (questions and answers), which maintained satisfactory ...
user11584
4
votes
0
answers
95
views
Department head has requested I lower student grades [duplicate]
I’ve been teaching a 4th year business elective for the past 8-years. Grades for my class generally range from about 57% - 94%, with the average at 86%. This current teaching year, the chair of my ...
- 41
19
votes
6
answers
8k
views
How to not feel guilty when reporting possible misconduct during exam/coursework as a teacher?
I am teaching a small class in my university. This is my first time, and as I am still a PhD student and the university was missing a teacher, I ended being selected to present it.
It is a programming ...
- 935
22
votes
10
answers
11k
views
In the U.S., is it appropriate for math professors to ask students to rewrite their messy (poorly handwritten) homework to be graded?
Many students write their math homework assignments in a messy, barely readable way. When I was a student TA/grader, I didn't have the right to ask them to rewrite them. But as a math instructor, I ...
- 4,246
1
vote
2
answers
93
views
What useful teaching/administrative practices do lecturers disclose as additions to the course outline?
There have been a few answers and comments on this site where lecturers have noted some useful practices they implement in their teaching, which they disclose in the course outline. Usually this ...
- 73k
4
votes
7
answers
795
views
Group Versus Individual Assignments
Every spring (including the spring about to start), I teach an honors course that normally has an enrollment of about 25, with 15 to 20 of those coming from the top few percent of our students and the ...
- 160
5
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Amount of Grading Done By Professors at Teaching-Focused Universities [closed]
In the future, I'm thinking about applying for tenure-track positions in Computer Science at teaching/undergraduate focused institutions. The kinds of places that usually have 3-3 teaching loads and ...
- 487
5
votes
5
answers
2k
views
What is it called in academia when a teacher grades low scoring students more leniently than those who score well?
For example, in a classroom, if a group of students score 45%, the teacher tries to help these students by allowing them to take a second attempt exam. At the same time, a student with 70% can't ...
- 209
1
vote
3
answers
478
views
How to discourage constant queries for re-evaluation of answer scripts
I do not know if this is one of the unpleasant consequences of online classes. Here is a typical scenario that plays out:
Students take an exam.
They complain if it is a multiple choice question or ...
user9734
15
votes
2
answers
5k
views
How to give feedback to students after bad grades
I realize that I have some difficulty giving feedback to students when they have expected to have a good grade and/or they have invested a lot of time. My impression is that there is a trade-off ...
- 512
5
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Funny 5th option in multiple choice exam?
I came across a multiple choice exam paper where the professor had included a funny fifth option in almost every question. There was also a bonus question at the end, where students can earn 0.5 extra ...
- 235
38
votes
5
answers
16k
views
How to reply to students' emails that show anger about their mark?
I always find myself in a difficult situation on the rage of students who are upset about their marks they just received. I feel it is kind of difficult to reply to students' emails that sound very ...
- 2,588
1
vote
3
answers
5k
views
How many marks should I take off for a student using an incorrect value? [closed]
I am marking tests and a student wrote down 64 instead of -64 for one of the questions. This obviously changed the entire question and they would have gotten full marks otherwise, (i.e. all their ...
7
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Should my class be more rigorous, and how?
I just finished my first semester teaching. The class average was about 88% +/- 9. This seems high to me. The class is normally taken by third and fourth year students. I don't want to push the ...
- 479
12
votes
4
answers
11k
views
Do students have the right to see how their papers were graded?
Note: You may refer previous revisions for more context.
I read Academia varies more than you think it does, but in any school or university I've been to or heard of, students can always see how they ...
- 3,133
26
votes
9
answers
7k
views
Is it appropriate to share the distribution of grades for a small class?
It is common practice to share a histogram of grades with a class after a quiz or exam. However, my institute has very small classes. This year I have 6 students in my class, and in previous years I ...
- 3,055
4
votes
6
answers
3k
views
How to regrade an exam that was too difficult?
Our multiple choice exam was clearly too difficult.
N questions.
N + 10 total duration (in minutes).
All questions have the same value (100 / N).
Wrong answers have a penalty of 25% (25 / N).
Only ...
2
votes
3
answers
676
views
Is there an efficient way to give a large class of students feedback about their assignments?
I am the course lecturer of a large undergraduate course
with about 700 students in the course.
One of the challenges of teaching such a large course
is grading the assignments and giving students ...
- 19.6k
188
votes
13
answers
48k
views
Grades are too high for the department - what should I do?
I recently taught an undergraduate seminar course, in which each student has to read a research paper, summarize it and present it to the class. In the first lesson I explained to the students the ...
- 17.2k
6
votes
3
answers
553
views
Student essay feedback for a large class
I am teaching a large Humanities class (150+ students) in the US this semester and am in the process of grading midterm essays. This is my first time teaching a class this large and I'm not sure how ...
- 267
1
vote
3
answers
304
views
Should I report students that hand in similar reports (up to small permutations) in an assignment?
I am currently correcting assignments (pass/fail) for a Bachelor's course in which I am a TA. Students write some code and then discuss their results and approach in a report (in groups of two). My ...
- 1,095
2
votes
1
answer
303
views
Weighting Grades based on group size
I am having students complete a presentation as a group project. Each student's grade will have two components: an instructor grade, from me, and a group grade from their group.
The group grade is ...
- 23
20
votes
2
answers
4k
views
How to write side-note reviews on assignments without sounding testy?
I'm an undergrad teaching assistant of a physic BSc student's lab. My job is reviewing the (usually 8-10 pages long) reports the students make, arriving in electronic format. During the review, I add ...
- 2,380
3
votes
3
answers
557
views
Is it okay to assign free marks for students assignments?
Regarding to a course for undergraduates (especially in computer science, but i would love to hear opinions from others too):
Is it okay to assign free marks for assignments? Meaning, the students ...
- 769
64
votes
19
answers
29k
views
What's a good way to prevent students from saying I lost their paper?
As a teacher, I've often had students say that they turned in an assignment, but that because I don't see it, grade it, and return it back to them, that I must have lost their papers/assignments. I ...
- 5,147
6
votes
6
answers
1k
views
Should grading take all students' performance into account?
This question is partially related to this question.
By trying to understand which one is the correct way to grade an exam I came out with this doubt. Should each exam be considered as independent or ...
user21043
6
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How do I reconcile with a vindictive professor, or at least protect my grade?
I (foolishly) corrected my physics professor as he was about to teach fifty students a blatantly wrong simplification, and since then he's been out to get me. I get grades of 20% or lower on tests ...
- 521
3
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Does a significant participation weight on the final grade increase classroom discussion?
Currently at the institution that I study, we have class participation which is enforced (more or less) by making it a significant percentage of the final grade.
For instance, one of my classes has ...
- 481
1
vote
2
answers
649
views
Is my professor being unfair? [closed]
She is sweet and helpful whenever I go to her office to ask questions about the problem sets or discuss my exam results. I have always felt like she is very picky when grading the worksheets or exams, ...
- 27
36
votes
7
answers
14k
views
What to do when majority of the students do not bother to do peer grading assignment?
I'm trying a new type of essay in the community college class that I teach. Once a week the students write a 700 word analysis of a topic I choose. It's worth a regular essay (a measly 10 points) but ...
- 548
10
votes
1
answer
216
views
Is there data or research on the tradeoffs associated with revealing how a student's grade on an assessment compares to the rest of the class?
We're building a teaching platform for projects, and one of the goals is to provide rich feedback to students concerning their performance.
I'm fairly data-driven as a student and always appreciate ...
- 846
1
vote
1
answer
141
views
design student assignments
In a recent interview, I have been asked how to design assignments for an undergraduate course on computer science. Based on my previous TA experience, I did help my supervisor to design students ...
- 208
2
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Why do educators use curve to adjust the performance?
It bothers me when I tries to remember how many highschools or universities use curve to adjust the final grade for their student based on the class average.
I know failing the entire class would be ...
- 231
24
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Why are (university-) teachers also examiners at the same time?
For most university classes I have come across, the professor teaching the class is also responsible for making (and usually grading) the exam, or holding an oral exam. As far as I can tell this is ...
- 371
5
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Why would new teachers' grade distribution consist of more As and Fs than more experienced teachers'?
Three students came to my office hours and told me that they are straight As but for some reason are failing my class. I have 14 students who got A- and A. 11 are in 80s range, 9 got 70-77, and 9 in ...
- 1,431
4
votes
3
answers
285
views
Have you used such grading policy in your teaching?
I have seen a grading policy for a course with two midterms. Under this policy, if a student scores better in the second midterm than in the first one, the first test will be "forgiven" and the weight ...
- 41
3
votes
1
answer
316
views
What proportion of course material mastery should we consider is "passing?" [closed]
What proportion of course material mastery should we consider is "passing?"
In the US a typical grading rubric is
A = 90%-100%
B = 80%-89%
C = 70%-79%
D = 60%-69%
F = below 59%
As a professor I ...
- 709
151
votes
23
answers
103k
views
A student in my course does well on exams, but doesn't do the homework: Go easy on them, or make them "pay the price?"
I have a student in my course that does well on the exams, and his answers to the exam questions show a deep understanding of the material. However, this student has not been handing in the assigned ...
- 12.7k
4
votes
3
answers
827
views
How to create a grading rubric that properly incentivizes and challenges students
Since I haven't do much TA duty (only 1 semester so far, starting 2nd one), I have struggled to come up with a good way to grade homework. My last grading rubric ended up creating strange incentive ...
- 51
160
votes
15
answers
43k
views
How to deal with failing a student?
I supervise a student who is working on her bachelor's thesis. The problem is that she has not delivered anything, never asks for any help, and when I offer her some help she claims that she ...
- 1,935
5
votes
2
answers
292
views
Electronic Assessment / Submission for questions where each student should have a different correct answer
I am looking for software that will automatically assess the output of student assignments, or at least the numerical parts of them. This is for a large class of >100 students and multiple assignments....
- 417
3
votes
2
answers
583
views
Optimize lab report grading rubric to minimize grading time
I will be teaching a new course with a new grading rubric. All of my students will write a lab report at the end of each 3 hour lab session. Each lab report will have an abstract, introduction, data, ...
- 363
31
votes
8
answers
17k
views
How to deal with a student who insists on getting a higher grade?
Student presentations were a part of my grading policy in one of my classes. I had a student who tried hard to get a higher grade in the class. But after his poor presentation, he persistently asked ...
- 3,405
16
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Does it make sense to make exam grading very transparent?
Is it advisable (in terms of the benefit for the students and the work it causes) to make the grading completely transparent to students? I think for instance of publishing the sample solutions for ...
- 371
45
votes
6
answers
11k
views
Is it unfair to regrade prior work after detecting cheating?
I teach various undergraduate courses. I make the cheating policies clear on the first day of lectures, check the student's understanding of this with an on-line quiz, and remind students of the ...
- 12.6k
4
votes
2
answers
29k
views
Are bibliographies/reference lists generally included in page/word counts?
I regularly assign my undergraduate students papers with a range of expected page/word length (e.g. 10-12 pages or 2500-3000 words). Is there any sort of rule as to whether or not to count a works ...
user25050
33
votes
5
answers
11k
views
Assessing students in exams with negative points?
I've seen that some math teachers design tests which punish errors with negative points.
Why do they assign negative points? What are some pedagogical reasons why teachers might do this?
- 571
8
votes
2
answers
459
views
How to encourage students to seek alternate citations for an assignment?
I am teaching at a relatively large, public institution in the United States. I have assigned my students a research paper related to the thermodynamics of human biology. I have asked the students for ...
- 1,459