Latest Embarrassing CHE Op-Ed: Make All Courses Pass/Fail

[jerseyjay]

Our uni just issued the edict that students may demand a P/NP option on any class that does not count toward a major or minor.

I don't quite understand why----I don't see how on-line instruction will be any harder or, including drive-time, walk-time, and class-time, any more time consuming than traditional instruction.

Theoretically, if a course is designed correctly, it shouldn't be.

However, at my school, this is the reality:
-Courses are not designed correctly, because professors are doing it on the fly, some with no online teaching experience;
-Students do not have computers or reliable internet;
-Students have to take care of children who are home from school;
-Students are working long hours if they work in certain jobs (e.g., Amazon or nursing);
-Students are now unemployed if they work in certain jobs (e.g., substitute teachers or waiters);
-Students do not have access to libraries or archives making it hard to write term papers;
-Students need to worry about elderly parents with health issues.

I do not think most of this applies to Harvard students, but it does apply to many of my students at an open-admissions public university in an area that currently is essentially under quarantine. 

This is not taking into account the mental strain of being stuck in one's apartment (or one's family home) indefinitely with what some have estimated is a 40-80% chance of getting a disease that may prove fatal. [I am aware that it is unlikely that most of our students will die from this disease, although I have several students with various "underlying health issues", and many live with people who fall into this category. But in any case, the news about the pandemic is not conducive to relaxation.]

[Wahoo Redux]

Interesting.

We are a primarily commuter, open-admissions school, so the situation above is almost exactly the situation where we are.

Our uni has offered no rationale.  It might actually be to make the lives of the professors easier too.

[dismalist]

If one took the arguments in the article seriously, one would be forced to conclude that during the health emergency all courses should be graded Pass.

[mahagonny]

I would like to know which students are taking the class P/F before I read their work, so I know how much effort to put into reading it.

THAT is the big advantage to faculty; grading mostly disappears or requres no more than a cursory look at anything.

Too negative. I wouldn't  consider it an advantage to me to be given the option to neglect to give needed feedback. Things go better when the student knows where he stands. But I would argue that in some cases, where the lab section is overpopulated, needed equipment is missing, the course has been moved online abruptly or other major compromises, the pass/fail grading system is more plausible because an 'A' through 'F' scale is not authentic or borders on arbitrary 'calculation.'

[Cheerful]

However, at my school, this is the reality:
[Yes.  See list above.]

This is not taking into account the mental strain of....

+1  These are no ordinary times.  Many are under unprecedented mental, physical, and economic stress.  Giving students the option of Pass/Fail makes sense to me, a reasonable compromise.

[mahagonny]

Of course, the CHE is on our shitlist now. Running articles sympathetic to adjuncts and other lunacy.

[marshwiggle]

I have a question.

Can anyone give a good reason why P/F would be better than assigning grades as normal, but putting a note on the transcript to identify this as being the "covid term", and possibly not having it included in GPA calculations?

[Chairman X]

Can anyone give a good reason why P/F would be better than assigning grades as normal, but putting a note on the transcript to identify this as being the "covid term", and possibly not having it included in GPA calculations?

One of the key reasons for moving to Credit/No Credit (or whatever) is because some students will do worse than other students this semester for reasons completely unrelated to their effort or ability. Some students might go home to their parents who have a solid income, and have access to a desk, privacy, time, and the bandwidth to complete their assignments as needed. Others will have parents who've been laid off and therefore need to pick up more work themselves, or have a partner who becomes ill and needs tending, or have children they're supposed to home school, or who don't have good internet for reasons ranging from from a income to unlucky geography.

So how are we to interpret a transcript that has an asterisk by that C or that A reminding us of the COVID term? Did the student receive an A because they did excellent work? Or because they had good bandwidth? Did the student who received a C simply not perform in class? Or did they need to spend time and mental energy tending to a dying grandfather struck down by a terrible disease?

I just don't see how we can ignore that these realities really will impact student performance, and hence that traditional grading is going to reflect all kinds of things besides performance in (hastily prepared online) class.

[dismalist]

Can anyone give a good reason why P/F would be better than assigning grades as normal, but putting a note on the transcript to identify this as being the "covid term", and possibly not having it included in GPA calculations?

One of the key reasons for moving to Credit/No Credit (or whatever) is because some students will do worse than other students this semester for reasons completely unrelated to their effort or ability. Some students might go home to their parents who have a solid income, and have access to a desk, privacy, time, and the bandwidth to complete their assignments as needed. Others will have parents who've been laid off and therefore need to pick up more work themselves, or have a partner who becomes ill and needs tending, or have children they're supposed to home school, or who don't have good internet for reasons ranging from from a income to unlucky geography.

So how are we to interpret a transcript that has an asterisk by that C or that A reminding us of the COVID term? Did the student receive an A because they did excellent work? Or because they had good bandwidth? Did the student who received a C simply not perform in class? Or did they need to spend time and mental energy tending to a dying grandfather struck down by a terrible disease?

I just don't see how we can ignore that these realities really will impact student performance, and hence that traditional grading is going to reflect all kinds of things besides performance in (hastily prepared online) class.

Sure, but then why Fail or No Credit at all?

[Liquidambar]

I would like to know which students are taking the class P/F before I read their work, so I know how much effort to put into reading it.

THAT is the big advantage to faculty; grading mostly disappears or requres no more than a cursory look at anything.

I wish!  Unfortunately we don't know (unless students share with us) who is P/F and who is A-F.  And now my school has decided that students can even switch to P/F after they see their grades the end of this semester.

[downer]

I would like to know which students are taking the class P/F before I read their work, so I know how much effort to put into reading it.

THAT is the big advantage to faculty; grading mostly disappears or requres no more than a cursory look at anything.

I wish!  Unfortunately we don't know (unless students share with us) who is P/F and who is A-F.  And now my school has decided that students can even switch to P/F after they see their grades the end of this semester.

When I am entering final grades, those students who are P/F have only those options pop up in the online submission form. I may be tempted to leave a bunch of grading undone until that form is available.

[Hegemony]

I'm with JerseyJay.

[marshwiggle]

I would like to know which students are taking the class P/F before I read their work, so I know how much effort to put into reading it.

THAT is the big advantage to faculty; grading mostly disappears or requres no more than a cursory look at anything.

I wish!  Unfortunately we don't know (unless students share with us) who is P/F and who is A-F.  And now my school has decided that students can even switch to P/F after they see their grades the end of this semester.

When I am entering final grades, those students who are P/F have only those options pop up in the online submission form. I may be tempted to leave a bunch of grading undone until that form is available.

Absolutely. Letting students choose after the fact is a ridiculous policy. By allowing students to choose at the end, it even rewards students who've blown things off all term before the virus. And if the goal was to reduce students' stress, that would have been most valuable before the final exam by lowering the stakes.

[HomunculusParty]

If one took the arguments in the article seriously, one would be forced to conclude that during the health emergency all courses should be graded Pass.

Some of our students actually did mount a petition for that. I don't think it'll get far.

But they do have the option to select pass/fail. Not at Harvard, but another Ivy, and I know some of our students do face many of the issues described by jerseyjay. We tried to address some of the worst problems by allowing students whose home situation was particularly dire to remain here. Fewer students than expected took advantage of that offer, but I suspect some of them are unknowingly walking into worse situations for academic performance than they think. I believe many of them haven't thought about bandwidth limitations, family pressure to take care of younger siblings who are suddenly home all the time, and other difficult elements of trying to do academic work without the support system they're used to. Plus it's definitely the case that many of my colleagues are on their way to being absolutely abysmal online instructors.

So I'll understand if students take the option, though I did counsel students looking at grad school or trying to raise their GPAs not to do it.

[marshwiggle]

If one took the arguments in the article seriously, one would be forced to conclude that during the health emergency all courses should be graded Pass.

Some of our students actually did mount a petition for that. I don't think it'll get far.

Someone needs to compassionately explain to them that doing so would mean that future employers (grad schools, etc.) would, in that case, have to consider any record of courses "taken" under that rule essentially count for nothing, since the person who was going to fail anyway gets the same "pass" as the person who aced everything despite the current situation.