grading
TagOral Exams in Undergrad Courses?
Between the developments in large language models (like GPT-3) and their possible use by students, and being in the thick of end-of-term grading of papers, the idea of making use of oral exams, as suggested in a recent New York Times column, seems tempting. (more…)
Conversation Starter: Teaching Philosophy in an Age of Large Language Models (guest post)
Over the past few years we have seen some startling progress from Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-3, and some of those paying attention to these developments, such as philosopher John Symons (University of Kansas), believe that they pose an imminent threat to teaching and learning (for those who missed its inclusion in the Heap of Links earlier this summer, yo..
Teacher, Bureaucrat, Cop (guest post)
“We can free ourselves up to pursue a wider range of educational goals when we see that fairness is not an absolute demand for all classroom life, but only one goal among many. And sometimes, we can trade away some degree of fairness in the pursuit of other goals.” (more…)
Comparatively Lower Grades in Philosophy Courses: Facts, Explanation, Effects, Fixes?
Informal conversations with students and professors suggest that it is harder to get a higher grade in philosophy courses than in courses offered by many other departments. (more…)
In Defense of Benchmarking (guest post)
There’s a reason for instructors to meet with their teaching assistants to grade some sample assignments together, but it’s not what you think. (more…)
How Much Do Philosophy Professors Grade?
A professor at a liberal arts college writes in because she has seen signs of confusion in her department about “what is manageable or expected” in the number and kind of assignments students have to complete in a course “when the professor does the grading.” (more…)
Counting Participation in the Philosophy Classroom
Do you grade your students on their in-class participation? How do you do it? (more…)
A Good Time To Try “Additive Grading” (guest post by Ian Schnee)
In this guest post*, Ian Schnee, Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Washington, shares an interestingly flexible approach to grading that might be especially well-suited for a time in which we might expect a higher likelihood of disruption to our students’ lives. (more…)
How Should We Grade Students During a Pandemic? (guest post by Wes Siscoe)
How, if at all, should instructors grade their college students this coming term? In the following guest post*, Wes Siscoe, a postdoctoral fellow at Florida State University and the Mellon Course Design Coordinator for the Philosophy as a Way of Life Project at the University of Notre Dame, offers some suggestions.
An Impressively Detailed Philosophy Paper Grading Rubric
Micah T. Lewin, a recent PhD from Stanford who is currently an adjunct professor of philosophy at Perimeter College, Georgia State University, has created an impressively detailed and helpful rubric for grading philosophy papers. (more…)
A Philosopher’s Key To Grading Papers Quickly
Nick Byrd, a philosophy PhD student at Florida State University, has created a shorthand that he uses for commenting on his students’ papers. He describes it as having the virtues of the “grading shortcuts” method advocated by Rebecca Schuman and the more extensive approach advocated by Marcus Arvan. (more…)
Graded Assignments in Philosophy MOOCs
Philosophy professors generally like to assign papers to students. The format of a paper allows the student to exercise certain skills of careful exposition and argumentation in ways that quizzes and timed exams don’t. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) often do not include graded work—and certainly not graded papers. The massiveness and openness (inexpensivenes..
Is Anonymous Grading Really Better?
A philosophy professor has written in with some questions about anonymous or “blind” grading, in which the identity of the student whose work is being assessed is not known to the grader. The majority opinion in philosophy appears to be that there are strong moral reasons in support of anonymous grading. Yet, there are questions about evidence for it, as well as abo..
Grading Shortcuts
For years I provided very extensive comments on students’ papers. What stopped me was one of them, finally, saying “thank you.” It immediately struck me that hundreds of students over many semesters hadn’t cared enough to say anything to me about the comments, and in fact probably hadn’t cared about them at all. I switched to a more minimal commenting approach, at l..