I have to admit to enjoying the various discussions on MC, PCredit, etc. I
enjoy hearing what others have to say about the nuts and bolts of a class.
I just wish this discussion were a little later (say in October) so that my
methods class could get in on it.
Anyway and anyhow, the rubric that one chooses for partial credit depends
completely on what the grading scale is and vice versa. When I was in
school (pre-college) we were graded on a 7 point scale (69% was an F) and
when I got to college and discovered a 10 point scale (59% was an F) I was
amazed. At Simpson the most popular is the 10 point scale and if I vary
from that the students get into an uproar. What the students do not
understand (as I didn't when I was in college) is that it doesn't matter
what the grading scale is at all; I can adjust my rubric so that the same
person will get the same grade (modulo a + or -) under either grading
scales.
Recently (only in certain classes) I have experimented with a letter grade
scale. That is, every item that is graded receives an A, A-, B+, etc. and
on the spreadsheet where I record the grades I put 4.0, 3.7, 3.4, etc. The
students have not complained about this but they also have not raved about
it either. In essence this is a 20 point grading scale! I thought they
would be ecstatic but they didn't realize.
I choose this grading method simply so that I could give the student the
grade I thought they should get instead of trying to make the arithmetic of
grading rubrics and scales come out even. (In the process of experimenting
over the years I have found that sometimes the arithmetic gives the
students lower grades than they should get (for which the students gladly
accept an adjustment) and sometimes the arithmetic gives the students
higher grades than they should get (for which the students rebel if there
is an adjustment). Currently I am still experimenting. Has anyone tried
this?
Murphy
---------------------
M. E. "Murphy" Waggoner
Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Simpson College
701 North C Street
Indianola, IA 50125
waggoner@storm.simpson.edu
www.simpson.edu/~math
---------------------
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