Matt Leathen, Rick Mullins, & Ian Rhile

June 18, 1:00 – 4:30 PM, EDT

Alternative Grading

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Organic Education Resources

www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Reimagining Assessment – Specifications Grading

Alternative Grading

Motivation:

• Improve focus on mastery, transparency, and engagement

- Bulk assessments can obscure what students know

- Organic Chemistry is heavily cumulative and skills-based

- Emphasizes focus on core skills

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General Features:

• Small assessments with clearly defined, narrow, pass/fail criteria (“specs”)
• Token System

- Assessment retakes earned from defined activities

(visit instructor at office hours, work # of problems, …)

- Bundles of assessments impact grade

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Reimagining Assessment – Specifications Grading

Alternative Grading

Advantages:

• Students empowered to study each narrow topic
• Encourages intrinsic motivation
• Efficient grading time

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Challenges:

• Time

- Writing multiple quizzes, student engagement

• Communication

- Unfamiliar, complex system

• Tracking

- Tokens, multiple assessments, grade impacts

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

My Experience – Initial Course Design

Alternative Grading

Fall 2022 – OChem 1 – Flipped class

• Enrollment – 12-24 students
• 3 Credit Lecture class – 2 x 75 minutes for 15 weeks

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Framework

• Before class
• Video Lecture – notes outline
• Individual Quiz – Multiple Choice
• Just-in-Time (JIT) reflection
• During class
• 5 – 20 min – JIT Topic lecture
• 5 – 15 min – Group Quiz – MC + short answer
• 35 – 65 min – Small group work / Discussion / Lecture cycle
• After class
• Finish ‘Class Activity’ problems – upload pdf
• OpenOChem OER online homework

www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Motivation

Alternative Grading

• Unstable foundation => Difficulty with Advanced Topics

Photo by Si Moran on Unsplash

Photo by Si Moran on Unsplash

www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Challenge

Alternative Grading

Emphasize Foundational Topics?

Normal Exam Schedule?

• Many don’t go back
• Too many misconceptions

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Overweight First Assignments or Exam?

• Final grade set before later topics

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Mastery Quizzing – Specifications Grading – Personalized System of Instruction (PSI)?

Photo by Kristin O Karlsen on Unsplash

www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Example Course Design – ALOC 2022

Alternative Grading

Personalized System of Instruction for the Foundational Knowledge of Organic Chemistry

Gidget C. Tay, Journal of Chemical Education 2024 101 (6), 2381-2388 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c01089

Gidget Tay Plan – 2020 – 2024 – OChem

• Self-paced first 5 weeks – Class time = study hall
• Video lectures, Skeleton notes, Practice problems, Text reading
• Must pass 42 ‘Exit Ticket’ Canvas Quizzes to take Exam 1
• Otherwise encouraged to withdraw and re-enroll when they had more time to learn the material and thrive in the class.
• If persisted, overweight Final (Exam 1 + Final).
• Remaining 11 weeks – Semi-flipped class

Barriers to entry

• Preparation
• Grading
• Non-traditional Design (grades)

www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Course Design

Alternative Grading

Gidget Tay Plan – 2020 to 2024

• Self-paced first 5 weeks – Class time = study hall
• Must pass 42 ‘Exit Ticket’ Quizzes to take Exam 1

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Barriers to Entry

• Preparation (Generously shared quizzes)
• Grading Canvas Autograded
• Non-traditional design

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My Plan – Fall 2023

• Layer ‘Exit Tickets’ on top of current Flipped course
• Rebrand as ‘Topic Learning Checks (TLCs)’
• TLC completion rate => Exam score modifier
• Unit 1 and 2

www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Course Design

Alternative Grading

TLC completion rate => Exam score modifier

• Complete all TLCs for 1.05x adjustment to exam score
• Complete all-but-two TLCs for 1.00x adjustment to exam score
• Incomplete TLCs thereafter for adjustment based on percentage of (all-but-two) complete.

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Examples – If Unit has 12 TLCs and student exam score 80%

12/12 completed TLCs = 1.05 x 80% = 84% scaled exam score

10/12 completed TLCs = 1.00 x 80% = 80% scaled exam score

9/12 completed TLCs = 0.90 x 80% = 72% scaled exam score

5/12 completed TLCs = 0.50 x 80% = 40% scaled exam score

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Unit 1 – 18 TLCs

Unit 2 – 24 TLCs

www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Exit Tickets / Topic Learning Checks (TLCs)

Alternative Grading

Personalized System of Instruction for the Foundational Knowledge of Organic Chemistry

Gidget C. Tay,Journal of Chemical Education 2024 101 (6), 2381-2388 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c01089

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Autograded Digitial Quizzes (Canvas)

• 100% required to pass
• 3 initial attempts
• Consult instructor for more (unlimited)
• 1 – 4 questions from pool of 10 – 40
• Time restricted (2 – 10 minutes)
• Types
• T / F
• Fill in the blank
• MC
• Type IUPAC name
• Numerical entry
• Draw structure in free external tool, copy/paste SMILES code
• Feedback
• Shows score on each Q (once)
• Never show correct Answer

www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Example Exit Tickets / Topic Learning Checks (TLCs)

Alternative Grading

Personalized System of Instruction for the Foundational Knowledge of Organic Chemistry

Gidget C. Tay,Journal of Chemical Education 2024 101 (6), 2381-2388 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c01089

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Example Exit Tickets / Topic Learning Checks (TLCs)

Alternative Grading

https://www.cheminfo.org/flavor/malaria/Utilities/SMILES_generator___checker/index.html

Personalized System of Instruction for the Foundational Knowledge of Organic Chemistry

Gidget C. Tay,Journal of Chemical Education 2024 101 (6), 2381-2388 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c01089

​

www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Alternative Grading

www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Break Down of Exit Ticket Topics

Alternative Grading

www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Results – Classroom Dynamic

Alternative Grading

Misconceptions revealed and emphasized (early)

• Excellent quiz quality
• 100% threshold is demanding

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Rewarded (required) student effort

• Focused on micro-proficiency
• Challenging but achievable task
• Required to meet with instructor
• Unplanned student collaboration

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Increased instructor demand

• Office hours fully attended
• Post-class study seasons well attended

www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Student Performance

Alternative Grading

Final Exam

• 41 Multiple Choice Questions
• Identical Assessment F21, F22, F23, F24

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Course Grades

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Student Feedback

Alternative Grading

Midterm Survey

• Please rate the value of the TLCs (1 – 10)
• Waste of time 🡨🡪 Very Helpful
• Average 8.3

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• Sample comments
• Helps me stay on track and identify particular subject I need to work on.
• I like the nuances of some of the TLCs because they are challenging and can’t simple be treated as busywork.
• They force you to practice quick identification of concepts.
• I like the accountability. They’re a little stressful, but that too is good.
• TLC’s force us students to check in with the professor if we are struggling with certain material
• The TLC’s are very good for testing your knowledge.

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• Many wished correct answers were shown

www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Specs Grading – Conclusions

Alternative Grading

• Strong positive impact on classroom dynamic

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• Increased faculty workload

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• Student performance improved
• Lower DFW (Drop / Fail / Withdraw)
• Improved Final exam and course grades

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• Statistically significant results seen by Dr Tay

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• Excited to see future impact
• OChem 2 continuation
• Next OChem 1 cohort

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Specs Grading – Conclusions

Alternative Grading

Communication, Communication, Communication

• Design and Student progress
• Emailed progress reports (Mail Merge?)

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Overwhelming list of deadlines in LMS

• When to set deadlines?
• Plan – Unit Exam
• Practice – Extended makeup work to erase penalty (0.80x -> 1.00x)

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Top students with >100% on Unit 1 + 2 Exams

• Future – Hard cap score at 100% ?

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Upcoming FLC

Alternative Grading

Formative Assessment and Specifications Grading Preparation

• Facilitators: Matt Leathen and David Quist
• Fridays 2 pm (ET) – about once a month for the Academic Year

www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Let’s discuss in Topic Teams…

Alternative Grading

• Write one question in your subject area that could be easily iterated. Potentially create multiple iterations.

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• Highlight challenges or questions for discussion about implementing an alternative grading scheme.

15 minutes

Discuss with your group and update your Topic Google Slide

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jOQPC4wuHsEcj1YKlIOQpXjEgKfiCaLC5kAQhmZwbvU/edit?slide=id.g35ce164b94b_0_0#slide=id.g35ce164b94b_0_0