SCHOOL AFFILIATION: Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
EMAIL: beccap@uw.edu
To increase student’s ability to assess the quality of their own work
To avoid the assumption that every students wants to earn an A, and to allow students to indicate to me their idea of acceptable work
To increase the clarity of each assignment for students AND to decrease grading time for me
To ensure that the feedback students receive from me is valuable
To increase flexibility for students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Everyone who completes (passes) the required assignments receives a 3.5.
Two additional components are also required to achieve a 4.0.
Given the small class sizes of 24, students could resubmit assignments as many times as they wanted.
IAS requires a 2.5 in the course for graduation.
To complete an assignment, students need to meet each of the assignment criteria. I was looking for students meeting the bar, not necessarily exceeding the bar. That was a challenge for me to remember.
The flexibility in the course really helped students given the complexity of their lives during the pandemic.
Some students chose not to complete some assignments. That meant their grade was lower than 3.5, but they were still higher than the 2.5 required for graduation.
I will continue to use this approach, and I hope to incorporate it into other courses.
http://faculty.washington.edu/beccap/bis499b2021w/