HERE’S AN IDEA! W hy don’t we take our student grading system and turn it
upside down? Why would we want that? Studies show that a learner becomes more
on understanding and applying concepts to every-
proficient in a given subject when instead of being
day situations. Education doesn’t have to be painful
handed a “good grade” they are taught to apply
and students can really learn to enjoy it. This project
concepts to real world situations. This helps them
explores some of these “radical” changes we can
to worry less about grades and allows them to focus
make to improve our current education system.
possibilities
Lets pretend we have the ability to make any changes we want to our traditional learning system. Here are six areas that I chose to reinvent and turn up side down.
GRADES Final grades are given only at the end of each semester. This can help students focus on task completion and content master y. Progress is assessed with a unit tracking system (sort of a check marks system). Finishing all semester tasks means getting an “A�.
DEADLINES Without grades there is no need for formal deadlines. Projects and assignments may be completed at a student’s own pace. However, course credit is only granted once all unit tasks have been completed.
Lectures Lec tures are all taught on I-learn. Classroom time focuses around content application, class interac tion, and feedback. Homework in the classroom?! I wish this was around when I started college.
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Better progress assessment tells us not just how to grade a student but also how to help them value education and excel in the future careers.
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Fenton Broadhead BYU-I Academic Vice President
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An educator may assess students more efficiently if grading is based on a person’s knowledge of a subject, their application of what was learned, and how well they share what they know with other peers.
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Henr y J. Eyring
BYU-I Academic Vice President
Assignments & deadlines Assessments Assessing the progress and learning of students is based on 3 areas to measure their knowledge of a subject, the application of what they have learned, and how well they are able to share that knowledge with others in their class.
DEADLINES Student are given unlimited attempts for all quizzes, tests, and exams. This helps a learner discover what they may not know about a subject without penalizing their GPAs. This will also help reduce stress and anxiety.
Linkedin When a course is completed the student may share official faculty endorsements through their school’s new social media hub. This would be optional but beneficial for future employers to be able to see exactly what a person has learned during their college careers.
Assessment Tools
Redesigned Now that we have created some new rules for our new education system we have to upgrade the tools currently in place. BYU-Idaho has been using I-learn as a student assessment tool for years. We will keep the name, but that’s all we will keep.
A new on-line
Plat for m
Changing the rules was just a start. Now we are creating a brand new plat form to organize cour se contents, student work, and progress assessments. I-learn 4.0 will help you keep track of progress and feedback from instructors and peers.
SIMPLICITY & Usability All I-learn 4.0 features have been carefully craf ted into a clear and simple inter face. What worked on I-learn 2.0 was kept, what didn’t was improved, and what was missing has been created.
Progress Assessments Your school progress will now be measured based on your knowledge, application of knowledge, and how well that knowledge is shared with others students in classroom collaboration.
Progress Tracking Super simple Changing the rules was just a start. Now we are creating a brand new platform to organize course content, student work, and progress assessments. I-learn 4.0 will help you keep track of what you have accomplished and organizes feedback from professors and peers.
Your course tasks are represented by the coordinating color of each assessment area (knowledge, application and collaboration). Some assignments will be more extensive than others and will therefore fill more unit task boxes. This will all depend on what your professor has planned out for the course. When all of your unit task boxes are filled you will see a full progress bar and a final grade will generate.
Your Classes Your classes are all here on your progress bar making it easy to view progress at a simple glance. You can see how much you have completed in all new areas of assessment based on how many boxes have been colored.
Knowledge This area of assessment will test your understanding of course content gained through study. (Quizzes, tests, exams, etc.)
Application This area of assessment with include hands-on experience using your knowledge in real world situations and experiments.
Tracking Progress
When our education system promotes knowledge, application, and collaboration instead of one-dimensional grading scales students will finally began to focus on just learning and will also enjoy their educational process. This is how I-learn 4.0 can help students:
Homework
Assessments
Not sure where to start? Your to do list will show your upcoming assignments and suggested completion dates.
Here you will see the assignments you have mastered and those that need a little more work.
Collaboration You don’t really know it until you can teach it. This area of assessment will require you to actively participate in the education of your fellow classmates.
Performance
Assignment units can be worth 1 to 5 unit tasks each. A course is not completed until all are filled, but students can work on unit tasks in any order and return to past assignments until completed.