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

[mahagonny]

Clemson has announced that instructors can exempt all students from final exams.

My university has extended the deadline for course withdrawal to May, as well as the deadline by which students have to decide whether to have their courses graded as P/F. Basically this means no student needs to fail a course this semester.

Same here. From my perspective as an adjunct whose bread on the table depends on student evaluations, in a department with some uncommunicative senior faculty and a rocky relationship between faculty union and admin, I don't mind. I think they taking us out of harm's way a bit. Not that I think they would do it for that reason. It's a university-wide decision.

[Caracal]

Clemson has announced that instructors can exempt all students from final exams.

My university has extended the deadline for course withdrawal to May, as well as the deadline by which students have to decide whether to have their courses graded as P/F. Basically this means no student needs to fail a course this semester.

Same here. From my perspective as an adjunct whose bread on the table depends on student evaluations, in a department with some uncommunicative senior faculty and a rocky relationship between faculty union and admin, I don't mind. I think they taking us out of harm's way a bit. Not that I think they would do it for that reason. It's a university-wide decision.

Ditto. Really the parallel to giving students a pass/fail option for faculty is that we just shouldn't do student evals this semester. In the same way that students shouldn't be punished for dramatically changed classes and circumstances, it isn't really fair to judge faculty based on things out of our control. There are people who don't have young kids and who channel anxiety into work who find themselves with a lot of time and are putting that into teaching right now. That's great, of course, but some of us suddenly don't have daycare and have toddlers around all the time. Other people get distracted by stress and anxiety and are having a hard time focusing. Some people have classes that can be put online easily, others have classes that are really hard to do that with. Obviously like the students we still need to do our job and meet minimum standards, but it just isn't fair for faculty to be being compared in these circumstances.

[Wahoo Redux]

Our evals have been entirely suspended.

[jerseyjay]

At least one school I am aware of has said, explicitly, that faculty will not be evaluated on teaching this term. I am not entirely sure what this means, but it does seem obvious.

At my school, although nothing explicitly has been said, all of the regular announcements about teaching evaluations have ceased two weeks ago, whereas normally they would have intensified. Some of this might also be that the administrators who tended to occupy themselves with sending such emails might otherwise be occupied.

[mamselle]

I didn't see it above; has it already been mentioned that Harvard has gone to "Emergency Satisfactory" and "Emergency Unsatisfactory" grades for all classes?

That preserves context while releasing the pressure valve to something like humane.

M.

There are two articles on this (at least) in the Crimson:

1. The announcement:

    https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/3/28/harvard-coronavirus-universal-satisfactory-unsatisfactory-grading/

2. The push-back:

   https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/3/27/undergrads-react-grading-change/

M.

[marshwiggle]

There are two articles on this (at least) in the Crimson:

1. The announcement:

    https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/3/28/harvard-coronavirus-universal-satisfactory-unsatisfactory-grading/

2. The push-back:

   https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/3/27/undergrads-react-grading-change/

M.

Interesting that all of the coflicting preferences use "fairness" as their rationale.

[dismalist]

There are two articles on this (at least) in the Crimson:

1. The announcement:

    https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/3/28/harvard-coronavirus-universal-satisfactory-unsatisfactory-grading/

2. The push-back:

   https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2020/3/27/undergrads-react-grading-change/

M.

Interesting that all of the coflicting preferences use "fairness" as their rationale.

Indeed, and fairness nowadays means equal outcomes. There are very cheap ways of providing equal outcomes. :-(

[mythbuster]

We have gone to an A, B, S, U. System. Students opt in. Faculty do not know who opts in. If gives incentive to at least try. Our drop deadline is now almost the last day of class instead of this coming Friday.

[dismalist]

We have gone to an A, B, S, U. System. Students opt in. Faculty do not know who opts in. If gives incentive to at least try. Our drop deadline is now almost the last day of class instead of this coming Friday.

This is an excellent scheme: Anyone who thinks they can do a good job gets an A or a B, with a tad risk. Anyone who thinks they cannot do a good job opts for S/U [and of course get an S, and why not?]. Any employer or graduate program can check this if they think relevant.

I like very much, for incentives are preserved and information is broadcast.

[marshwiggle]

We have gone to an A, B, S, U. System. Students opt in. Faculty do not know who opts in. If gives incentive to at least try. Our drop deadline is now almost the last day of class instead of this coming Friday.

This is an excellent scheme: Anyone who thinks they can do a good job gets an A or a B, with a tad risk. Anyone who thinks they cannot do a good job opts for S/U [and of course get an S, and why not?]. Any employer or graduate program can check this if they think relevant.

I like very much, for incentives are preserved and information is broadcast.

That raises the question of whether there is any good reason to not make this permananent.

[Caracal]

We have gone to an A, B, S, U. System. Students opt in. Faculty do not know who opts in. If gives incentive to at least try. Our drop deadline is now almost the last day of class instead of this coming Friday.

This is an excellent scheme: Anyone who thinks they can do a good job gets an A or a B, with a tad risk. Anyone who thinks they cannot do a good job opts for S/U [and of course get an S, and why not?]. Any employer or graduate program can check this if they think relevant.

I like very much, for incentives are preserved and information is broadcast.

From the perspective of the person who would be deluged with emails from students who don't know how to assess their grade probabilities for themselves before the deadline and then get angry emails from students who chose to take a grade and then did badly on the paper/last exam/other thing and don't like their grade, I'm happy that my school is letting students choose after they see the grade.

[mahagonny]

We have gone to an A, B, S, U. System. Students opt in. Faculty do not know who opts in. If gives incentive to at least try. Our drop deadline is now almost the last day of class instead of this coming Friday.

This is an excellent scheme: Anyone who thinks they can do a good job gets an A or a B, with a tad risk. Anyone who thinks they cannot do a good job opts for S/U [and of course get an S, and why not?]. Any employer or graduate program can check this if they think relevant.

I like very much, for incentives are preserved and information is broadcast.

From the perspective of the person who would be deluged with emails from students who don't know how to assess their grade probabilities for themselves before the deadline and then get angry emails from students who chose to take a grade and then did badly on the paper/last exam/other thing and don't like their grade, I'm happy that my school is letting students choose after they see the grade.

Reminds me the old television show 'Let's Make a Deal.' Do you want to hang on to your oak bedroom furniture set or go for what's behind door #2?

[dismalist]

We have gone to an A, B, S, U. System. Students opt in. Faculty do not know who opts in. If gives incentive to at least try. Our drop deadline is now almost the last day of class instead of this coming Friday.

This is an excellent scheme: Anyone who thinks they can do a good job gets an A or a B, with a tad risk. Anyone who thinks they cannot do a good job opts for S/U [and of course get an S, and why not?]. Any employer or graduate program can check this if they think relevant.

I like very much, for incentives are preserved and information is broadcast.

From the perspective of the person who would be deluged with emails from students who don't know how to assess their grade probabilities for themselves before the deadline and then get angry emails from students who chose to take a grade and then did badly on the paper/last exam/other thing and don't like their grade, I'm happy that my school is letting students choose after they see the grade.

Reminds me the old television show 'Let's Make a Deal.' Do you want to hang on to your oak bedroom furniture set or go for what's behind door #2?

Nothing at all wrong with making such a scheme permanent. And, the analogy is apt. :-)

[marshwiggle]

We have gone to an A, B, S, U. System. Students opt in. Faculty do not know who opts in. If gives incentive to at least try. Our drop deadline is now almost the last day of class instead of this coming Friday.

This is an excellent scheme: Anyone who thinks they can do a good job gets an A or a B, with a tad risk. Anyone who thinks they cannot do a good job opts for S/U [and of course get an S, and why not?]. Any employer or graduate program can check this if they think relevant.

I like very much, for incentives are preserved and information is broadcast.

From the perspective of the person who would be deluged with emails from students who don't know how to assess their grade probabilities for themselves before the deadline and then get angry emails from students who chose to take a grade and then did badly on the paper/last exam/other thing and don't like their grade, I'm happy that my school is letting students choose after they see the grade.

Reminds me the old television show 'Let's Make a Deal.' Do you want to hang on to your oak bedroom furniture set or go for what's behind door #2?

Nothing at all wrong with making such a scheme permanent. And, the analogy is apt. :-)

So eventually all transcripts will only contain A's and S's. The only thing to distinguish students by will be the ratio.

[dismalist]

"So eventually all transcripts will only contain A's and S's. The only thing to distinguish students by will be the ratio."

De facto, you may well be right. And that's like what we have today, just A's and B's. Because of various kinds of pressure, none of this may matter. We're definitely all in the top 10%!