Do the points even matter?
By Scott Wojtanowski, System Director for Educational Technology and Development, Minnesota State
With just a couple of weeks left in the fall term, you may find yourself in your gradebook updating grade item after grade item. Having spent hours on these Brightspace pages myself, I can’t help but think about the original airing of the American television show, “Whose Line Is It Anyway?.” In this game show, the audience would shout out prompts for odd situations out of which the three or four performers would find ways to improvise their way. The host, Drew Carey, would award an arbitrary number of points to those performers he believed provided the best laughs for each situation. The host would summarize all of this as “the show where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter.”
Caption: “Points don’t matter…” originally published on YouTube.
Similarly, as faculty members when we score an assessment, we’ll often assign a number or point value as way to measure “how much” a student has learned – you earned a 28/30 on this quiz. Although these points are intended to reflect learning, it can be difficult for some learners to make this connection. Concerned that students are more concerned about their points, rather than their own learning, some educators have begun to explore the practice of ungrading. In Undoing the Grade: Why We Grade, and How to Stop, author Jesse Stommel provides the following summary:
The word “ungrading” means raising an eyebrow at grades as a systemic practice, distinct from simply “not grading.” The word is a present participle, an ongoing process, not a static set of practices. Ungrading is a systemic critique, a series of conversations we have about grades, ideally drawing students into those conversations with the goal of engaging them as full agents in their own education.
If you are intrigued by ungrading practices, we’d encourage you to review examples of ungrading that colleagues from Minnesota State University, Mankato have put together. Perhaps you’ll be able to incorporate one or more of these practices next term.
Why doesn’t my student see their grade?
By Scott Wojtanowski, System Director for Educational Technology and Development, Minnesota State
Stop what you are doing right now. Head to the Enter Grades area in your Brightspace gradebook. Find any student and select the dropdown chevron following the students name. This dropdown will display with several options, including, Preview. After selecting Preview, a new page loads that is the same as when that same student selects Grades from the navigation bar.
Does this page show all the information you thought would be displayed to students? Or, are you asking yourself questions like,
- Why isn’t their final letter grade displayed?
- Where is all that feedback I left them on their quiz submission?
- Everything is listed as points, why aren’t there letters?
If what you expected to be displayed for your students is not there, you may be missing a few settings. (Yes, we agree, the gradebook in Brightspace has lots of room for improvement.) You may be interested in reviewing this helpful video from our friends at Stony Brook University.
Brightspace Common Gradebook Issues #3 Why Are My Students Not Seeing Their Grades, DoIT Training at Stony Brook University originally published on YouTube.
Educational Developers Connect Webinar Series
By Megan Babel, ASA Communications Coordinator, Minnesota State
Educational Developers Connect is an event series that brings together educational developers for community and collaboration. In September 2024, campus educational developers from across Minnesota State connected to curate and create educational development resources. One result of that collaboration was a webinar series that focused on themes of Accessibility, Equity by Design, For New Faculty, and Generative AI!
Learn more about these webinars and view the webinar series recordings.
Accessibility: Is My Document Accessible? (23:12 minutes)
View the Is My Document Accessible? webinar recording.
This webinar is set up to guide you through three essential strategies to make your course materials more accessible using Microsoft 365 tools. It covers:
- How to effectively use headings
- How to add alt text to images
- How to use the Word Accessibility Checker to review documents.
These tools are simple to use but can have a huge impact on how students engage with your content. As we go through the examples today, we’ll be thinking from a student-centered perspective, ensuring that we create materials that work for everyone, including students with disabilities.
Equity by Design: Why Aren’t Students Coming to My Office Hours? (29:22 minutes)
View the Why Aren’t Students Coming to My Office Hours? webinar recording.
In this webinar you will learn about the connection between office hours, equity, and student success; hear from other instructors about their office hour strategies and walk away with practical strategies that you can implement right away.
For New Faculty: What Matters Most: Five Cs to Get New(-ish) Faculty Started (28:56 minutes)
View the What Matters Most webinar recording.
Just getting started in teaching? Looking for fresh approaches? Teaching can feel complex. To be successful, it’s helpful to prioritize early on what is most important. In this webinar, we offer new faculty five tips for getting started: creating Community in your course, promoting Clarity in your assessments, Communicating with students, Collaborating with colleagues, and staying Calm.
Generative AI: Unlocking Your AI Sidekick: Supercharging Your Work (32:50 minutes)
View the Unlocking Your AI Sidekick webinar recording.
In this webinar we will help define generative AI with real life examples using Microsoft Copilot as an assistant in daily workflow. Learning Outcomes include: By the end of this session, participants will be able to…
- Make a plan for AI literacy within your discipline
- Identify Minnesota State licensed generative AI tools
- Explore the MS Copilot tool for efficiency in your work
- Review Copilot results for accuracy and alignment with your needs
Network for Educational Development
View past editions of the Educational Development Digest.
Visit the NED Events Calendar to view upcoming educational development opportunities. Visit the NED Resource Site for recordings of previous webinars and additional resources.
