Practices related to grading—both as an assessment of student performance and as a mechanism through which students receive feedback on their work—vary widely across disciplines, course levels, departments, institutions, and instructors. However, there are several strategies that most instructors agree contribute to successful grading: creating clear grading criteria, communicating these criteria to students, giving constructive feedback, and employing time management strategies when grading large amounts of student work.
“It is essential to have multiple evaluation or perspectives to gauge different facets of learning.
Prof. Katie Adamson, Nursing and Healthcare Leadership Program
“…make sure your assessment is actually assessing what you want, i.e. it’s testing for actual knowledge and not how well their memory works. Also, that the form that the assessments take are used frequently throughout the course, and potentially built up to, e.g. if you have the students give a presentation as a final, teach them effective ways of presenting throughout the quarter in smaller assignments.”
Erin Hill, Director, Quantitative Skills Center
Additional Resources
CIDR Teaching and Learning Bulletins
A collection of short papers on pertinent teaching and learning topics with practical suggestions and resources. Search for a topic of interest HERE.
UW Resources
- Faculty Resource On Grading (FROG). Office of Educational Assessment, University of Washington
- Grades. Office of Educational Assessment, University of Washington
- University of Washington grading system
Bibliography
- Brookhard, S. (1999). The art and science of classroom assessment: The missing part of pedagogy. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report, 27(1).
- Davis, B. G. (1993). Informally assessing student learning. In Tools for teaching (pp. 290-297). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
- Maznevski, M. (1996). Grading class participation. Teaching Concerns: A Newsletter for Faculty and Teaching Assistants.
- Speck, B. (2000). Grading students’ classroom writing: Issues and strategies. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report, 27(3).
- Svinicki, M. D., & McKeachie, W. J. (2011). The ABCs of assigning grades. In McKeachie’s teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (pp. 125-136). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.