Tools for Grades
Notes for Instructors
- There's not one right way to do this.
- We have found that it's best to be flexible and try one assignment or type of assignment at a time.
- If you want to drop a certain number of assignments, Canvas will drop the grade when a student has completed one of the assignments within the group.
- We recommend the "reassign" option in Canvas for revision work because it reappears on the student "to-do" list without impacting their final grade and because it requires instructors to provide text feedback.
- If you're using the "complete/incomplete" option in Canvas, "incomplete" grades calculate as "0" in the Canvas gradebook. For this reason, we often hold off on posting grades until students have had time to revise.
- We have struggled to implement these strategies with outside publisher content such as Cengage Unlimited.
- We imagine the language below being useful in a syllabus.
Recommended Reading
Grades
Your voice matters. I am here to support you and share my expertise, and I expect that you will do the same in this course by participating in discussions, revising assignments when necessary, and providing commentary about your own work and the work of other students. Most assignments will receive feedback, which means that we will talk about your work and work together to enhance it.
I urge you to focus on learning and your chosen profession this quarter instead of grades and points, and I’m going to do a few things to help you:
- Grades may look a little different in this class than others. To help you focus on the course’s content, your assignments will be evaluated with the goals of continued learning, simplicity, fairness, and clarity. I will use a variety of grading strategies throughout our course:
- Complete ✅ or incomplete 🆇 marks.
- Student-directed assignments. For certain assignments, you can choose which assignment to tackle, or if you find that an assignment doesn’t feel productive, the two of us will work together to make it meaningful.
- Revision options with reflection.
- Self-assessment. You will help evaluate your work.
While you will earn a final grade at the end of the quarter, many of your assignments will receive written feedback instead of points or traditional grades. I do this to mirror professional feedback in the workplace and to allow you to focus on learning instead of grades.
2. We’ll get to know each other. I will ask you to think about how you learn and what barriers you face. We all face barriers, and it’s important that you recognize them so that you can continue to learn and take charge of your education. I will help support you in any way possible.
I’m excited to partner with you this quarter!