Welcome back to the

2024 Grading Conference

Higher Education focus

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Resources, schedule, Zoom: thegradingconference.com �Slack community: bit.ly/join-alt-grading

Recording and posting

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The Grading Conference is partly funded this year by

National Science Foundation, DUE #2304776

Community Expectations

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Today: Getting started with?

Now Welcome Back

10:30 - 12:00 Keynote - Jeff Schinske

12:00 - 1:00 Lunch break (offline)

1:00 - 2:00 Parallel sessions

2:00 - 2:30 Stretch break (offline)

2:30 - 3:30 Parallel sessions

3:30 - 4:00 Coffee break (offline)

4:00 - 5:00 Parallel sessions

5:00 - 6:00 Closing out day 2

6:00 - ? Wrap-up and optional social events

Content Coverage as a Potential Barrier to Innovation in Grading

Jeff Schinske

Biology Instructor

1. Introductions & Engaging With the Grading Conference Community
2. Considering Barriers to Innovation in Teaching
3. Regarding the Volume and Pace of Course Content
4. Evidence from a Study with Working Professionals
5. One Example of Alternative Grading in a Pre-Health Profession Course
6. Reflection & Discussion

Agenda

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9

1. Introductions & Engaging With the Grading Conference Community
2. Considering Barriers to Innovation in Teaching
3. Regarding the Volume and Pace of Course Content
4. Evidence from a Study with Working Professionals
5. One Example of Alternative Grading in a Pre-Health Profession Course
6. Reflection & Discussion

Agenda

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10

Introductions & Audience Engagement

A little about me…

Co-Editor-in-Chief

Ideas that drive our efforts in education...

• Talented individuals continue to leave and feel excluded from our fields.

• Personal characteristics often predict who leaves, which is unacceptable.

• Great work in our fields requires diverse perspectives.

• There is great power to effect change in education by addressing issues of grading and evaluation.

1. Introductions & Engaging With the Grading Conference Community
2. Considering Barriers to Innovation in Teaching
3. Regarding the Volume and Pace of Course Content
4. Evidence from a Study with Working Professionals
5. One Example of Alternative Grading in a Pre-Health Profession Course
6. Reflection & Discussion

Agenda

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14

Reflecting On Barriers to Innovation

Some Common Barriers

Shadle et al., 2017

Responding to Barriers

https://www.lifescied.org/doi/epdf/10.1187/cbe.cbe-14-03-0054

Responding to Barriers

• A Very Brief History of Grading
• Does Grading Provide Feedback to Help Students Understand and Improve upon Their Deficiencies?
• Does Grading Motivate Students to Learn?
• Is Grading on a Curve the Fairest Way to Grade?
• Do Grades Provide Reliable Information about Student Learning?
• Some Recommendations from the Literature On How to Move Forward

The Special Dilemma of Course Content Expectations

Shadle et al., 2017

“65% of life science educators identified “time constraints due to the need to cover content” as a major barrier to teaching science process skills to students. Likewise, students reported that high among the challenges to adopting active learning was a lack of class time to cover content.” (Petersen et al., 2020)

Course content is at the foundation of assessment and grading

Four Pillars of Change in Grading Practices

Talbert & Clark, 2021

Backward Design

Wiggins Mctighe, 1998

Just how big of an issue is this?

A Dilemma that Extends Beyond STEM

Some Questions & Dilemmas Re: �Alternative Grading

Talbert & Clark, 2021

Wiggins Mctighe, 1998

• How do we account for standards and expected results that number in the hundreds, or even thousands?!
• …especially if there are institutional or departmental pressures to attend to and assess those objectives?
• To what extent do we have control over defining standards and desired results for our courses?
• Would a reduction in the volume and pace of course content jeopardize student learning and preparation?

1. Introductions & Engaging With the Grading Conference Community
2. Considering Barriers to Innovation in Teaching
3. Regarding the Volume and Pace of Course Content
4. Evidence from a Study with Working Professionals
5. One Example of Alternative Grading in a Pre-Health Profession Course
6. Reflection & Discussion

Agenda

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24

Background

A Gap in the Education Research Literature

• Existing education research provides a wealth of insights regarding how we teach and to some extent who we teach, but relatively little research explores what we teach.

What’s the importance of course content, anyway?

• Course content is often purported to be important for use in students’ future courses and careers.

Course Content Can as a Gatekeeper

• The volume and pace of course content excludes many students from our fields.

Anatomy & Physiology (A&P) Education as a Research Context

A&P is a yearlong lecture + lab series with intense course content expectations.

Student pass rates in A&P range between 30-70%.

A&P has direct connections to a common career pathway.

Research Questions

1. To what extent do nursing professionals perceive A&P content as aligned with their nursing careers?
2. How do nursing professionals perform on a sample of A&P assessment questions?
3. To what extent do nursing professionals perceive A&P content as influencing who persists in their profession?

Methods

Invitations to 178 graduates of a community college nursing program 1-7 years into their nursing careers.

Identified stratified random sample of 30 nurses for interviews.

Methods

1. Open ended questions about participants’ general recollection of A&P and how the amount of content and level of detail in A&P was helpful in their current nursing profession.
2. A 17-question multiple choice A&P assessment.
3. Follow-up open ended questions similar to Part 1

Semistructured interviews, consisting of…

Deductive content analysis of transcripts with 93-100% interrater agreement on assignment of quotes to categories.

RQ1: Relevance of Course Content to Careers�Engaging with some data!

https://www.flippity.net/ma.php?k=1LoxO0ILjV_53OEWPEaXeUUozHI7LJffAQ7XZcY4bxyY

Spend a few minutes analyzing the quotes by dragging them to the best matching category.

Turn phones/tablets sideways for landscape view if working on a handheld device.

RQ1: Relevance of Course Content to Careers

93% (28) of interviewed nurses felt that A&P content was irrelevant to their careers

RQ1: Relevance of Course Content to Careers

70% (21) of interviewed nurses felt that A&P content was not retained

RQ2: Working Professionals’ Performance On a Short Content Assessment

RQ3: Impacts of Course Content on Profession�Engaging with some data!

https://www.flippity.net/ma.php?k=100Ga4g3aZhrTBuL6svMbZdO4x_ujQTv4drpvR2y8HRM

Spend a few minutes analyzing the quotes by dragging them to the best matching category.

Turn phones/tablets sideways for landscape view if working on a handheld device.

RQ3: Impacts of Course Content on Profession

53% (16) of interviewed nurses felt that A&P content was exclusionary as a result of an overload of details

37% (11) of interviewed nurses felt that A&P content was exclusionary due to general gatekeeping

RQ3: Impacts of Course Content on Profession

27% (8) of interviewed nurses felt that A&P content was exclusionary as a result of unnecessarily intruding on life commitments

13% (4) of interviewed nurses felt that A&P content was exclusionary toward specific populations of students

Reflecting On Interview Quotes

Conclusions

Working professionals described undergraduate course content as unmemorable, irrelevant, and exclusionary…even when that coursework appears to relate to their profession.

This aligns with previous work with graduating seniors in a wide variety of STEM fields (Seymour and Hewitt, 1997, Seymour et al., 2019).

Current methods of identifying course content lack a strong evidence base, are misaligned with career preparation, and exacerbate exclusion.

Link to full paper: https://www.lifescied.org/doi/epdf/10.1187/cbe.23-05-0074

Potential Implications for Grading

Talbert & Clark, 2021

Wiggins Mctighe, 1998

• There is little evidence to suggest students remember and use very much from courses with large volumes of content expectations. �(which is perhaps most courses)
• Seek out opportunities to reduce course content in the spirit of…
• Supporting more authentic learning and retention.
• Promoting equity and justice in our fields.
• Providing capacity for alternative grading.

1. Introductions & Engaging With the Grading Conference Community
2. Considering Barriers to Innovation in Teaching
3. Regarding the Volume and Pace of Course Content
4. Evidence from a Study with Working Professionals
5. One Example of Alternative Grading in a Pre-Health Profession Course
6. Reflection & Discussion

Agenda

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40

My Current Grading System

Lecture + Lab Anatomy & Physiology

No Midterms or Final Exams

15-20 “big idea” short-essay questions (1-2 per week) aligned with lecture content. Students can resubmit answers as many times as desired to reach full credit.

One day your friend, Luís, who has always been somewhat short, comes up to you and says, “Okay, you A&P expert, I have a question for you! I exercise lots, eat calcium rich foods, and take vitamin D supplements, but I never get taller! Clearly my bones can grow, since I had a little growth spurt in high school, but I’ve been pretty much the same height ever since then. What was going on with my bones back then that isn’t happening now and why?” How do you respond to Luís?

My Current Grading System

Lecture + Lab Anatomy & Physiology

Lab tests where students are given a series of tasks (some individual, some group-based). Students can try each task multiple times and receive feedback from the instructor after each try. Everyone must show proficiency at the tasks before leaving.

Building a Skeleton (done with your table group)

You will find a box of loose human bones at your table. Your task is to arrange the bones as they would be found in a human skeleton.

• Pull out the bones, identify them, and consider features that would help you determine whether they belong on the left or right side of the body. Then lay them out on your table as you think they would be arranged in a real skeleton.
• When ready, you are ready, I will review your work and ask you to describe the bones and bone markings that justify the arrangement on your table.

1. Introductions & Engaging With the Grading Conference Community
2. Considering Barriers to Innovation in Teaching
3. Regarding the Volume and Pace of Course Content
4. Evidence from a Study with Working Professionals
5. One Example of Alternative Grading in a Pre-Health Profession Course
6. Reflection & Discussion

Agenda

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43

An Anonymous Reflection

https://forms.gle/JzFRzRPianEShudG8

Reflection is critical if we want to remember our time together and put these ideas to use!

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As you move on to other presentations and the rest of your busy life, take a moment to commit to writing something that stands out to you.

Content Coverage as a Potential Barrier to Innovation in Grading

Jeff Schinske

Biology Instructor

Thank you!!!

Potential Implications for Grading

Talbert & Clark, 2021

Wiggins Mctighe, 1998

• There is little evidence to suggest students remember and use very much from courses with large volumes of content expectations. �(which is perhaps most courses)
• Seek out opportunities to reduce course content in the spirit of…
• Supporting more authentic learning and retention.
• Promoting equity and justice in our fields.
• Providing capacity for alternative grading.

What’s next?

Now until 1:00 Lunch break (offline)

Next Parallel session

1:00 - 2:00 10A - DEI & Alternative Grading

10B - Strategies & Practices #3

10C - Disciplinary Applications #3 - Chemistry & Math