Vance and others,
Let me suggest an alternative perspective on setting up your grading
system, and one other activity to consider.
One of the reasons Larry used the system he did for determining letter
grades, was that he was getting pressure from his department over
"grade inflation." So he had to make sure his final set
of grades had something of a bell curve to them.
I myself
was in a different situation: I was never pressured about grade
inflation. But philosophically I am also uncomfortable with the idea of
using break points to decide which scores get particular letter
grades. That seems awfully arbitrary.
As a
result, I did use a predetermined scale for the course letter grades, and
I put this scale on the course syllabus. However, my scale was
usually 92/85/78/etc. - in part to keep a set of standards that argued
against the idea that I was "giving away high grades."
Were my grades on the high side?
Somewhat,
yes. But I don't mind giving high grades - IF I am convinced that I
have kept the standards high and that students really did learn
well. Then they are simply getting the grade they earned.
Do poor
students end up with high grades? No, not really. Their group
grades were high, yes. But their individually graded work (usually
worth collectively about 60-70% of the course grade) balanced that out,
and poor students not always but often had low peer evaluation
scores. And that brought the impact of the high group scores down
into balance with the rest of their work.
Two Problems
But I also did have one problem that you mentioned, Vance: many
students did not know from all the numbers, what their going-grade was at
any given time in the course. I could sort of tell that, but
they didn't know how to translate multiple numbers into an A, B,
or C.
I also had
a second problem related to the way I do peer evaluation scores. I
use them to create a number that is used as a percentage multiplier of
what the group earns. (See Appendix B of the basic TBL book for a
description of this procedure.) Because it is a "percentage
multiplier" rather than an added figure, it can have a major impact
on their group scores. And some people were blind-sided at the end
of the course by low peer evaluation scores. I don't mind them
getting low peer evaluation scores, if they deserve it; but I didn't like
them being blind-sided by it.
Solution
Therefore I came up with an activity that was effective in solving
both these problems: a mid-semester grade calculation.
Sometime
around mid-semester, I gave them a sheet of paper onto which they entered
both their individual grades and their group grades. They would
then add the numbers up and that sheet would tell them what the
letter-grade equivalent of their total score was, at mid-semester.
But I also
wanted this calculation to show how the final grade would be
calculated. Therefore we had to do a mid-semester peer evaluation,
and they had to calculate the effect of that on their group scores.
This activity was very effective in addressing the several problems
described above:
- Students had a better understanding of how their various number
grades translated into letter grades.
- They understood the impact of the peer evaluation scores on their
overall course grade, given the way I set it up in my courses.
- The people who were surprised by a low mid-semester, peer evaluation
score almost always came to talk to me about this during office hours, a
visit that resulted in some very powerful and positive "teaching
moments." These individuals almost always turned their peer
evaluation scores around by the end of the course - and gained some
powerful lessons about how to interact more positively with their peers
in the process.
Hope these thoughts offer some new options for you to
consider! Dee Fink
At 11:23 AM 7/24/2008, Fried, Vance wrote:
I’ve used TBL the past couple of
years and am quite happy with it. My only major unresolved problem
is the procedure for determining final grades.
In the past I have used the system that Larry suggests in the book—rank
ordering everyone by score and then subjectively determining letter grade
break points. I think this approach results in fair grades for
students. However, it is hard for many students to understand where
they stand in class until the end of the semester. Of course the
90/80/70 doesn’t work because so much of the score is from group
grades. As a result often poor students can end up with a
score over 80.
Any suggestions?
Vance H. Fried
Brattain Professor of Entrepreneurship
Spears School of Business
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, OK 74078
405.744.8633
405.744.5110 fax
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*
L. Dee
Fink
Phone:
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234 Foreman
Ave
Email:
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Norman, OK
73069
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Website:
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**National Project Director, Teaching & Curriculum Assessment
Project
**Senior Associate, Dee Fink & Associates Consulting Services
**Author of: Creating Significant Learning Experiences
(Jossey-Bass, 2003)
**Former President of the POD Network [Professional and Organizational
Development] in Higher Education (2004-2005)