Student Emails Concerning Assigments

[the_geneticist]

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.

I like to say, "If you have any further questions, please come to my office hours/This is too complex to discuss in a simple email, please come to my office hours". 

[Aster]

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.

I like to say, "If you have any further questions, please come to my office hours/This is too complex to discuss in a simple email, please come to my office hours".

This. It shuts down frivolous harassment pretty well.

Myself, I usually prepare a generic email response that says something like "please refer to the course syllabus for questions about grading policies." Of course, one has to actually *have* such policies in a syllabus to use this approach. But if you have an LMS, you could also whip up a course announcement that does the same job. I just did something like this over the weekend for some courses recently converted into remote format. I started getting a few emails from confused students after an exam was posted, predicted that "oh crud this is gonna snowball," and wrote up an info blurb to deal with most expected questions.

[xerprofrn]

I spend a lot of time grading, and then I go through again to make sure I have applied my same thinking to all grades. As someone noted above, grading is somewhat subjective, even with rubrics, but I spend a lot of time doing my best to ensure even grading.

Students who ask about their grades, in email received order:
1.  "Be sure you read my extensive feedback on your submission.  Did you get a chance to do that?" --> eliminates a few who just reacted to the grade without looking at feedback.
2.  "So glad you read my feedback.  Do you have any questions on specific feedback I gave?" --> eliminates those who read the feedback, continued to react to the grade, and have no basis for complaining.
3.  "That's a great question.  As I stated in my feedback, I deducted points for X.  What is your rationale for a different grade?" --> eliminates those who read feedback but can't think of a reason they deserve a higher grade.

For the ONE student who took it all the way to #3, she got snippy with me, saying she didn't have time to make a case, and I didn't reply to that last email.  Done.

[fishbrains]

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 my approach (and circumstance) as well. I find it pretty easy to delineate between a student who can cleary articulate the error I may have made versus the students whose grades just don't match the images they have of themselves.

[Mobius]

Always put the onus on the student to justify a bump. For future semesters, outlining your appeal policy will help. I require paragraph or two. Most won't like it, and it will stop most appeals. I've even had those who want to go to law school had the gall to complain about my appeals process.

[hungry_ghost]

Late to the party as always.

From my syllabus (which I believe a borrowed in part from the old Jedi mind tricks thread):

If you do not understand why your work has been assigned a particular grade, if you believe there has been an arithmetic mistake, or if you would like to talk about strategies to improve your work, please talk with me or send me an email.

If you believe your work has been evaluated incorrectly, please make an appointment to talk with me in person in my office. Before the appointment, you should send me via e-mail a clear explanation of your concern, and you must bring the work with you to the appointment. For electronic appointments, you must provide a digital copy of the work.

Regarding email:
I do my best to model polite, professional behavior, and for this reason I respond to email from students promptly.

I correct arithmetic mistakes immediately and apologetically. I am always happy to talk to students about how to improve their work, as my job is to teach, educate, and help them learn. I don't mind pointing out that they need take another look at the rubric and/or assignment instructions, though having to do this multiple times is wearying.

But, I can't change a grade (which is different from correcting a calculation error) without a meeting, which must take place during my office hour (unless the student has an appropriate conflict, in which case we can meet by appointment). Even if you have not included a similar policy in your syllabus, you can still give these followup instructions in an email.

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.