MAILING LISTS

Martin,

I also teach accounting courses and my students typically have control over the skill development component of the course.  For the fall semester, this amounts to 200 points out of 1,000 and includes the RATs, team application exercises, and individual homework submissions.  The other components of my grade are individual exams (44%), a group case analysis (15%) and an individual case analysis (12%) and individual "learning to learn" assignments (9%).  The discussion on allocating the skill development points is lively and often carries in the spring semester over from the first to second day as students want to look more closely at options.  In the fall semester, it is a little easier as most students took my course in the spring and are aware of the process -- however, it is still a lively conversation.  A caveat is that I don't explicitly discuss the point that its only 20% of their course grade that we are discussing point allocations for -- they surprised and glad that I'm ceding some of my "power" in establishing the course grade.

Frank


Hello all,

I am one class into my first TBL experience and I have hit my first roadblock.  I am very excited about using the grade weights as our first group discussion, but I am getting some pushback from other folks in my department that, I believe, might hinder the group discussion.  

I am teaching a Financial Accounting course that is taught in 30-35 other sections on campus.  In ALL of those other sections, the individual exams are 70% of the student's grade.  While I am OK with ending up at that percentage, I doubt that, left to their own devices, the groups will end up at the same %.  So, I am stuck either letting the groups decide how to "spend" the other 30% or, ending up with a lower (or potentially much lower) % of the student's grade being a reflection of their individual exam work.  

Any advice on how to deal with the potentially lower stakes group discussion or the faculty ire that I will get if I end up with a lower % would be MUCH appreciated.

Martin