SCHOOL AFFILIATION: Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
EMAIL: neunzert@uw.edu
No more worrying about tiny point increments on regular assignments
Want to increase quality of written work from students
Make every assignment a learning experience / make feedback into something that students actually use
Enforce tiers of content, with basic calculations coming first, and advanced or self-guided work next.
Quantum:
Assignments are pass/fail
4 course-scale grading bins (may be altered by late penalties) arranged in tiers. Grading bins are pass/fail.
Instructor sets the requirements
Intro labs
Assignments are three-level (Proficient, sufficient, and incomplete), but there are only 4
No grading bins at the course level; uses percentages
Instructor sets requirements
Intro physics (2nd term)
Assignments are pass/fail
No grading bins at course level; uses percentages
Instructor sets requirements
Lessons learned:
Framing and reminding is 90% of the battle. Students are not used to this system.
The ones who are paying close attention to grades often get worried about coarse-grained grading without proper framing.
The ones who pay less close attention to grades may simply assume there is a point system and proceed accordingly.
Multiple re-submission opportunities are critical for learning & stress reduction.
Students usually want to know that they will get at least 3 total submissions.
In actuality, most students don’t need to re-submit very much, and only a tiny handful need to re-submit more than once.
Re-submission grading is usually much (much) easier than first submission grading.
Can add a required meeting with an instructor before the 3rd submission as a failsafe for students whose work is missing significant pieces.
Canvas gradebook is a major barrier to doing course bundles.
Continuing experiments with: MasteryPaths, custom python code
Tokens or “late passes” are good for keeping track of late work, and can turn into score modifications at the end of the course.
Future modifications / things to consider
Consider drafting rubrics in partnership with upper-division students
Majors are usually familiar with field-standard practices on how to write homework problems; can generally articulate them
These students already successfully co-construct teamwork norms.
Lower division course involves teaching “how to” skills that students generally aren’t familiar with, but could attempt guided co-construction after testing it out with upper-division.
Could start out by introducing key skills and discussing how to demonstrate them.
Consider incorporating peer reviews
Full BPHYS 324 course available on Commons
For python people - (poorly documented) repository for my custom Canvas tools