Advice for Grading Blogs and Hopefully Discussion Posts:

This week I discovered an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education with advice about grading classroom blog posts.  This topic interested me because currently, as a Graduate Assistant Grader, twenty hours of my week are consumed with grading and commenting on online discussion posts, which often elicits similar grading issues as blogs.  The online component of higher education does not seem to be disappearing any time soon; this blog is actually another testament to increasing presence of the classroom space moving into the internet.  Therefore, it would make sense that practices and strategies for grading in this new universe should further develop and even become standardized.  However, from personal experience, the expectations and grading in the online environment parallel the nation trend of in-class grading, which means that techniques differs greatly according to professors.

I wonder to myself, “How do I find a solid set of online grading practices for discussion posts?”  the Chronicle article, “‘How are You Going to Grade This?’: Evaluating Classroom Blogs,” by Jeff McClurken and Julie Meloni offered advice for grading blogs based on their personal experiences.  I was relieved to find out that it is normal for students to repeatedly ask how online blogs will be graded.  I find there are also many questions about online discussions and how they will be evaluated.  I believe this is because the online class experience is relatively new to education.  It seems that students are unsure about its seriousness as an assignment, or they simply have not encountered it before and want to clarify expectations.  I have already spent at least two hours this semester answering e-mails and composing clarifying e-mails about the instructions for my discussions posts.  It is comforting to know that I am not alone, this is a common issue, and my syllabus, rubric and instructions are not directly at fault. 

McClurken suggests that teachers first establish their goals for the online assignment and then establish their grading method.  These goals range from creating an online research project to a simple reading journal, but the basic grounds for assessment include: “thoughtful responses, good writing, original ideas,” use of various media, and timeliness.  Suggestions for grading class blogs also vary from grading a student prepared final portfolio of selected entries or each post graded individually ( McClurken and Meleoni n.p.).

  I have already established my online discussion post grading criteria by assigning a numerical grade to each individual post.  However, I liked the suggestion of giving an overall grade for participation and a second grade for posts that are expanded and used to build a portfolio.  I think the portfolio idea would transfer nicely to the discussion post environment, especially because some of my students have written brilliant discussion posts and it would be a shame if they never explored their ideas any further.              

Other general suggestions for successful student blogging that I found in this Chronicle article include: discussing what students think is a good blog, showing examples of excellent student blogs, giving feedback in the beginning of the blogging process, and having students read each others’ blogs ( McClurken and Meleoni n.p.).  As far as discussion posts are concerned, I can certainly graft the suggestion to give feedback early into my process.  Actually, last week I spent five more hours than I was supposed to commenting on student discussions.  This resonates with McClurken’s and Meleoni’s caution to teachers to not become consumed with grading blogs.

Blogs in general when compared to class discussion posts are certainly more versatile.  They are excellent for showcasing research and for expressive student writing and discovery (My own research blog: http://fightinglikeaman.blogspot.com/2010_09_08_archive.html ).  However, as far as grading blogs in comparison to their less creative counter parts, the online discussion, I feel that there are infinite ways to assess blogs.  However, after reading this article, I would most likely assign one grade to a blog as a portfolio in its entirety.  I am also glad that I was able to garner form this article a few creative suggestions for grading online discussion in the future.

Work Cited

McClurkin, Jeff, and Julie Meloni.  Editorial. “‘How are You

        Going to Grade This?’: Evaluating Classroom Blogs.”

        The Chronicle of Higher Education. 21 June 2010.

        Web. 19 Jan. 2011.

Link to article: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/how-are-you-going-to-grade-this-evaluating-classroom-blogs/24935

Issue One: Grade Inflation

I need to begin this blog by admitting that I am not well-informed on the issue of grade inflation but that my goal is to learn through this experience.  As an undergraduate, I heard rumors that our “As” were not truly ours and that our professors were too lax in their grading of our performance.  One night, I did come across an article on grade inflation on the internet; after spending seven hours working a paper on the evolution of Beat poetry, I certainly did not agree that college students are increasingly lazy and handed their grades.    

In Mark King’s scholarly journal article, “Voluntary Conscription: Enlisting the Children of Lake Wobegone in the Battle against Grade Inflation,” he covers the history of  the debate about grade inflation, concludes that the negative tone of administrators, professors and journalists is less than productive, and proposes a concrete solution (129-130). 

  It seems that the solution would be for universities to honestly assess the impact of grade inflation on their campuses instead of denying it (131).  Unfortunately, grade inflation is a slippery thing to assess and a university admitting grade inflation might injure its reputation.  Some academics even suggest that higher grades encourage students to perform better and that grade inflation is good for student self-esteem. 

In this blame game student evaluations, plummeting education standards, a society too quick to hand out praise to children, and even the humanities are examples of the vast array of explanations for grade inflation (King 131-134).   I find it horrific that Harvey C. Mansfield believes that African-Americans attending college created grade inflation (132).  Personally, I do not believe that a student’s race should have any influence on academic performance.  I think a combination of the other aforementioned factors is most likely to blame. 

King shows that educators, academics, and journalists all believe that grade inflation is certainly a problem in America; however, these same people tend to overlook the students who also feel this is a problem (135). I agreed with this point that contrary to popular assumption, students do not want everyone to automatically receive good grades.  Easy “As” show students that they do not have to stretch themselves and that a medium effort is worth an excellent grade.  This is especially harmful to graduating collage seniors; if they all have perfect G.P.A.’s, then how do employers know who the worthy future employees are? 

King suggests that once educated about the grading process and the “scarcity of human excellence” students will welcome less-inflated grades (129).  King says that because universities generally deny that grade inflation occurs on their campuses, the problem needs to be addressed at the classroom level (131). A professor’s fear of poor student evaluations seems a reasonable explanation for grade inflation, but it does not justify the practice.  Though student evaluations should not be used as the only means to evaluate a professor, they sometimes are the only assessment they will receive. 

King’s believes that fostering mutual understanding about the grading process will keep students from rating teachers poorly on evaluations solely on the fact that they distribute lower grades than other professors.  I completely agree with him, especially because he speaks from personal experience.  I find that Mark King’s classroom exercise, where he puts excellence in context and gives students the chance to distribute grades on a class assignment, is definitely one of the many ways professors can enlighten students about grade inflation and teach the valuable life lesson that poor work is not rewarded favorably (137-142).  When I have the honor of teaching a class, I will certainly work with my class to explain the grading process and directly combat grade inflation.  I want my students to succeed but I also want them to be assessed fairly.

  

Work Cited

King, Mark. “Voluntary Conscription: Enlisting the Children of Lake

Wobegone in the Battle against Grade Inflation.” College

Literature 32.1 (2005): 127-145. MLA

International Bibliography. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.