Student Emails Concerning Assigments

[HigherEd7]

Can someone please give some advice how to end a conversation with students who send you emails requesting a higher grade on an assignment? I try to be nice and explain to them what the rubric says and my expectations, and then it turns into a back and forth discussion on an email.

[San Joaquin]

You're the adult in the equation.  Stop responding.  Don't feed the expectation that conversation will change the outcome.

[dismalist]

Can someone please give some advice how to end a conversation with students who send you emails requesting a higher grade on an assignment? I try to be nice and explain to them what the rubric says and my expectations, and then it turns into a back and forth discussion on an email.

Ah, yes, brings back memories! By all means be nice and explain once, and then stop answering e-mails. What Joaquin said.

What I eventually learned to do ex ante was to say that requests to regrade would be accepted, but that the request had to be specific and explained in detail. Moreover, the whole exam would be regraded. :-) This stopped the unending requests in their tracks.

[HigherEd7]

Thank you for some reason I feel obligated to respond to student emails.

You're the adult in the equation.  Stop responding.  Don't feed the expectation that conversation will change the outcome.

[San Joaquin]

Then it appears the student is not the issue.  Is it more important for you to adhere to some abstract definition of "nice person" or to help the student come to a more mature understanding of learning & performance?

[Parasaurolophus]

I don't think I'd stop responding, because it's normal for professors to be really bad about answering email, so I'm not sure that it would convey the desired message.

Instead, after the first round, I'd just start responding with a very short email every time:


Student,

No.

-Parasaurolophus

[Caracal]

Can someone please give some advice how to end a conversation with students who send you emails requesting a higher grade on an assignment? I try to be nice and explain to them what the rubric says and my expectations, and then it turns into a back and forth discussion on an email.

Yeah, you want to cut off the back and forth. Do what you're doing with the nice explanation, but if they write back trying to argue with you, just say you only change grades when there's a clear grading error.

I usually also tell them that if they want to discuss it further they are welcome to come by office hours, which they almost never do. That might not work as well if your office hours are virtual...

[aside]

I don't think I'd stop responding, because it's normal for professors to be really bad about answering email, so I'm not sure that it would convey the desired message.

Instead, after the first round, I'd just start responding with a very short email every time:


Student,

No.

-Parasaurolophus

This.  "I cannot give you a higher grade than you earned."  Repeat as often as necessary.

[kaysixteen]

It of course depends on whether the OP is an adjunct, and/or is serving in an explicitly 'customer-friendly' school, the numbers and severity of which circumstances doubtless being greatly likely to increase with covid-related financial stresses, etc.

[Caracal]

It of course depends on whether the OP is an adjunct, and/or is serving in an explicitly 'customer-friendly' school, the numbers and severity of which circumstances doubtless being greatly likely to increase with covid-related financial stresses, etc.

I actually don't think those things matter much when you're dealing with students trying to get you to change a grade. If you start giving in on grade complaints because you're afraid of students complaining, you're going to drive yourself crazy.

My policy is that I will always listen to a student who thinks a mistake has been made. However, I only change a grade if I really can't understand or justify the grade I gave. Once every year or so, a student thinks I've given them too few points on something and I look at and have to agree with them. I grade over 500 essays and essay exams a semester, so I try not to feel too bad about occasionally making a real mistake.

However, what I'm not going to do is get drawn into changing a grade just because a student is complaining. I have rubrics, but those rubrics are still subjective. You could always argue that you should have gotten a few extra points. If I start giving in on marginal cases, I'm going to lose all confidence in my grading and feel like a doofus.

[writingprof]

I've found that directing students to the grade-appeal page of the handbook is a nice conversation stopper.

[marshwiggle]

It of course depends on whether the OP is an adjunct, and/or is serving in an explicitly 'customer-friendly' school, the numbers and severity of which circumstances doubtless being greatly likely to increase with covid-related financial stresses, etc.

I actually don't think those things matter much when you're dealing with students trying to get you to change a grade. If you start giving in on grade complaints because you're afraid of students complaining, you're going to drive yourself crazy.

My policy is that I will always listen to a student who thinks a mistake has been made. However, I only change a grade if I really can't understand or justify the grade I gave. Once every year or so, a student thinks I've given them too few points on something and I look at and have to agree with them. I grade over 500 essays and essay exams a semester, so I try not to feel too bad about occasionally making a real mistake.

However, what I'm not going to do is get drawn into changing a grade just because a student is complaining. I have rubrics, but those rubrics are still subjective. You could always argue that you should have gotten a few extra points. If I start giving in on marginal cases, I'm going to lose all confidence in my grading and feel like a doofus.

This is why some people give "benefit of the doubt" points. Every exam (paper, etc.) automatically gets a small (say 3%) addition of BOTD points. If you want to challenge the grade, you give up the BOTD points. Unless you're pretty sure that you can gain a LOT of points, it's not worth it. That gets rid of a lot of complaints.

(Of course if it's clear you've just made an addition error, i.e. something completely non-subjective, then they don't lose those points.)

[AvidReader]

I usually invite the students to come to office hours after the *first* email: "Thank you for your email. I would be happy to discuss this paper and my feedback with you in office hours, which are Tuesday from 9-11 a.m." (or whenever). Now I tell them that they can schedule a Zoom meeting with me if it is hard to come to campus. Then we talk through the rubric and I point out passages that have merited each grade/deduction. If the issue can't be resolved in the meeting, I (as writingprof does) direct them to the grade appeal.

Also, once they have vented, I also try to keep the focus on the next activity: "Yes, I can see why it was frustrating to lose 50 points for not including any sources in your annotated bibliography. However, you can compensate for that in the research essay by doing X and Y. Do you have any questions about that?"

AR.

[Caracal]

It of course depends on whether the OP is an adjunct, and/or is serving in an explicitly 'customer-friendly' school, the numbers and severity of which circumstances doubtless being greatly likely to increase with covid-related financial stresses, etc.

I actually don't think those things matter much when you're dealing with students trying to get you to change a grade. If you start giving in on grade complaints because you're afraid of students complaining, you're going to drive yourself crazy.

My policy is that I will always listen to a student who thinks a mistake has been made. However, I only change a grade if I really can't understand or justify the grade I gave. Once every year or so, a student thinks I've given them too few points on something and I look at and have to agree with them. I grade over 500 essays and essay exams a semester, so I try not to feel too bad about occasionally making a real mistake.

However, what I'm not going to do is get drawn into changing a grade just because a student is complaining. I have rubrics, but those rubrics are still subjective. You could always argue that you should have gotten a few extra points. If I start giving in on marginal cases, I'm going to lose all confidence in my grading and feel like a doofus.

This is why some people give "benefit of the doubt" points. Every exam (paper, etc.) automatically gets a small (say 3%) addition of BOTD points. If you want to challenge the grade, you give up the BOTD points. Unless you're pretty sure that you can gain a LOT of points, it's not worth it. That gets rid of a lot of complaints.

(Of course if it's clear you've just made an addition error, i.e. something completely non-subjective, then they don't lose those points.)

I like that idea. In effect, I do employ a sort of unofficial "tie goes to the student" grading policy, but I can see the benefit of letting the students see that you're doing that.

[polly_mer]

It of course depends on whether the OP is an adjunct, and/or is serving in an explicitly 'customer-friendly' school, the numbers and severity of which circumstances doubtless being greatly likely to increase with covid-related financial stresses, etc.

That's the case for responding 'no' instead of not responding after the first no.  If the faculty member doesn't get to hold the line on standards, then that's the time to be looking for another job because that's an institution with such dire financials that they've given up on education in favor of cashing all checks.