- to help the students in the bottom; the Academic Affairs committee has asked each professor to identify at risk students (note: some classes, particularly smaller classes, may not have any at risk students, which is fine). Not all students are in situations that impact their learning & many students are working hard to improve their skills; professors have no way to know if a student’s situation is impacted by the ability to study when assessing exams. By identifying at risk students, you are providing information that then allows Matt and Skylar to have a conversation with the students where they can find out if circumstances/conditions were the root cause or if the student needs academic support.
- to help provide recommendations for students (more important now than ever).
- to help students who will want writing samples (practical writing classes/seminars/LW classes/smaller classes with writing).
- to help prepare for providing feedback during meetings/calls with students or when responding to emails from students about their performance; now that they have no grade measurements, students may seek additional feedback from professors after exams.
There is no one way to assess our students’ work and provide feedback. Using descriptive categories for our assessment, which will vary by professor and course, is most helpful. As an example, here are some possible descriptive categories:
- outstanding (standout exams/papers that demonstrate high quality work/understanding of material);
- satisfactory (good exams/papers that had some strong elements but were missing some key information; specific identification of strengths and weaknesses is helpful);
- poor (missing much of the basic understanding of law/skills & should be reported for academic support – see below); and
- failures (F) (didn’t understand the basics of the course/didn’t complete required work needed to pass).
There are other terms that you can use; the categories above are just examples.
Professors can continue to provide feedback as per their usual practice in writing courses, skills courses, and smaller classes (although no “grade” is given, comments on work/skills should still be communicated and is important for student learning).
