Grades are a way of telling students how they are doing with regard to understanding course content and developing skills. Effective communication of grades is often combined with feedback to the student about how the student can do better.

Grading system should be determined at the beginning of the course. IU teachers and Associate Instructors can use Oncourse to set up grade items. Faculty need to notify students the grading process and update the grade during the course.

When grading, comparing student performance to that of other students should be avoided, but comparing student work to a learning objective or grading criteria is encouraged. This helps the student know what aspects to improve and decide what the next goal should be.

Team Grading

When grading students' team projects, it is recommended to split a team project or assignment grade into a "team component" and an "individual component. The team should be graded together on their final product, and individual contribution and performance should also be assessed. Aan individual grade in a group project may not be based just on content learned, but could also consist of how members participate in the group work in terms of contributing ideas, compromising, negotiation, communication, and etc. There are several ways to track individual contribution and performance on a team project, including:

• Peer evaluation (an example): where students assign grades to their team memebers' performance based on rubrics
• Team Progress Report: reports that include comments of individual performance, attendance records and so forth
• Self-evaluation: where students give grades to themselves based on their participation and contributions using guidelines
• Individual Journals: students' journals which document their thought processes and input into the team
• Wiki: a collaboration tool to track individual contributions

Grading System

Grades shall be assigned to individual students based on the evaluation of the student's scholastic achievement using grading systems. Below is an example of a grading system, one of the default grading systems Oncourse gradebook uses.

Grading Tips

• Tell students how you are going to grade them at the beginning of the course so that they are clear about the expectations
• Give students the opportunity to ask questions about grading and raise their concerns.
• Adjust grading policy or system if necessary with students' rationale
• Provide informative feedback that will help them improve as the course progresses.
• Link grades to course learning goals and objectives stated in the syllabus