Hi TeachLingers,
(Apologies for what has turned out to be a bit of an essay...)
What are the collective's thoughts on the marking range for undergraduate work? In
the UK the standard mark scheme is putatively a percentage, with 40 as the pass/fail
boundary, then 50, 60, and 70 the totemic boundaries between 'classes' of mark (and
then overall class of degree). (More info on the UK scheme, and a US/UK comparison,
here: https://goo.gl/hf5FFR.)
I said 'putatively' above because I've always understood there to be a convention in
the UK that we don't in practice award marks over 80. However, I've recently learned
this might vary between disciplines. I've also heard whispers of encouragements at
some universities to begin doing away with that convention and start routinely
awarding above 80 - not artificially, but just beginning to think of that space above
80 as routinely usable, and considering exceptional work in those terms.
Although I've never graded above 80 myself, I don't in principle have an issue with
it - I can think of plenty of examples from my students that would warrant it - but a
few concerns do spring to mind...
The first and most obvious is consistency. If I routinely award above 80 but my
colleagues don't, does that make them look mean and me over-generous? Does that
undermine the idea of standard assessment criteria? Partly this would be addressed by
the moderation process in the UK (where a second party independently marks a sample
of the assignments) though I know that isn't used in many other countries (when I
lectured in Finland my decision was ultimate!).
Then even if all my colleagues begin marking above 80, what about when our students
talk to their friends at other universities and compare grades for similar
assignments? Would that cause issues for the staff there, if those students started
grumbling? Moreover, as I'm at a 'less prestigious' university, would this exacerbate
a sense of our standards being generally low?
To complicate matters further (!) there is currently serious consideration being
given to complementing/replacing the whole UK structure with a US-style grade point
average: https://goo.gl/GdeC00, https://goo.gl/fXl5d2. That would do away with the
whole notion of degree classes. Perhaps this conversation will seem dated quite soon.
But for now... any thoughts?
Dave
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Dr. Dave Sayers
Senior Lecturer, Dept Humanities, Sheffield Hallam University | www.shu.ac.uk
Honorary Research Fellow, Cardiff University & WISERD | www.wiserd.ac.uk
[log in to unmask] | http://shu.academia.edu/DaveSayers
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