Thanks for addressing this important, and in my corner of academia, much discussed topic! One area that I think warrants further consideration is the use of Quizzes in Canvas. Years ago, before I adopted standards-based grading, I converted a lot of my Canvas activities to Quizzes, which are set at multiple attempts and unlimited time, and function largely as work interactive sheets. Quizzes largely obviate the need for uploading work as a file, among other benefits. However, there seems to be no way to have Canvas grade Quizzes as Complete/Incomplete.
I have experimented with making the points in a Quiz add up to 1, however, this is not always practical. In many cases, I simply enter the final grade in Canvas (using Fudge points) as 0 (revise) or 1 (satisfactory). Unfortunately, students consistently interpret internal points in a Quiz as meaningful, or interpret the 1 or 0 as points rather than symbols (and insist it is not fair to get a zero when they did get some points). I have recently begun looking into Grading Schemes (which can display EMRN letters but are based on points system. Any thoughts on this?
The bigger issue here may be a manifestation of student perceptions of standards-based grading. In those cases where internal points are warranted (or are they?) or necessary such as in Quizzes, how do we manage students' tendency to think in points rather than in terms of meeting standards?
Interesting post. Why are Participation and preparedness included in grade determination? Those are behaviors and they should be reported separately. Grades should be based entirely on academic achievement.
The one "hack" I want to share is that when using a 4-category rubric (Robert's EMPX, actually), I assigned points as 5, 4, 1, 0.
That way, when Canvas calculated percentages, there was a very obvious distinction between Meets Expectations and Progressing.
Were these percentages actually used in final grading? No, but it helped prevent students from thinking that E's and P's averaged together could get them a good-enough grade.
Thanks for addressing this important, and in my corner of academia, much discussed topic! One area that I think warrants further consideration is the use of Quizzes in Canvas. Years ago, before I adopted standards-based grading, I converted a lot of my Canvas activities to Quizzes, which are set at multiple attempts and unlimited time, and function largely as work interactive sheets. Quizzes largely obviate the need for uploading work as a file, among other benefits. However, there seems to be no way to have Canvas grade Quizzes as Complete/Incomplete.
I have experimented with making the points in a Quiz add up to 1, however, this is not always practical. In many cases, I simply enter the final grade in Canvas (using Fudge points) as 0 (revise) or 1 (satisfactory). Unfortunately, students consistently interpret internal points in a Quiz as meaningful, or interpret the 1 or 0 as points rather than symbols (and insist it is not fair to get a zero when they did get some points). I have recently begun looking into Grading Schemes (which can display EMRN letters but are based on points system. Any thoughts on this?
The bigger issue here may be a manifestation of student perceptions of standards-based grading. In those cases where internal points are warranted (or are they?) or necessary such as in Quizzes, how do we manage students' tendency to think in points rather than in terms of meeting standards?
I'm not derailing the post, I'm asking a legitimate question about the ingredients in and the purpose of grades.
When will your book be published?
Interesting post. Why are Participation and preparedness included in grade determination? Those are behaviors and they should be reported separately. Grades should be based entirely on academic achievement.
Thanks for the very practical post!
The one "hack" I want to share is that when using a 4-category rubric (Robert's EMPX, actually), I assigned points as 5, 4, 1, 0.
That way, when Canvas calculated percentages, there was a very obvious distinction between Meets Expectations and Progressing.
Were these percentages actually used in final grading? No, but it helped prevent students from thinking that E's and P's averaged together could get them a good-enough grade.