It was time to turn in mid-term grades, and I went with a very simple grading rubric:
- 20% of quiz one
- 20% of quiz two
- 60% of test one
I downloaded all of the student grades from our online class management system (Blackboard) into Excel, and created my simple grading formula. I then converted each numeric score into a letter grade, and posted their letter grades into our student information system. It’s a process I’ve done well over a hundred times.
I then sent an email to my students letting them know I had posted their mid-term grade, and shared the formula I had used to determine their grade.
Shortly after sending that email, a student wrote to me and told me that he got a different grade than what I had posted when he did the calculation for himself.
I went back to my spreadsheet, and there was my mistake staring me right in the face.
When I had downloaded the grades from Blackboard, the grades came into my spreadsheet in the order that the quizzes and test had been given in: quiz one, test one, quiz two.
As a result, I ended up calculating their grades as follows:
- 20% of quiz one
- 20% of test one
- 60% of quiz two
I had reversed the last two assessments.
It took me all of 30 seconds to recalculate their grades (you gotta love Excel), and then just a few minutes to repost their revised grades to the student information system.
I then had to send out another email letting the students know that I had made a mistake and that I had posted their correct grade.
For most of the students, there was no change; for some students the correct rubric increased their grade, and for some others, it lowered their grade. (I’m also guessing that many students had not yet checked what grade I had posted for them the first time, so they never saw the error).
Fortunately, these were just the mid-term grades, and it was easy enough to go in and fix their grades.
If this had been their final grades, it would have been a major headache to correct everything.
So hopefully I’ve learned my lesson about being extra careful about doing student grades (you’d think I’d already know that after 35 years).
And thankfully, if I do make a mistake, I am sure I can count on a student or two to let me know…