Grades can be critically important for students, particularly if they plan to further their education beyond a college certificate or diploma. At the same time, designing course evaluation systems and grading students’ work is a challenging, complex and time-consuming process for teachers.

This guide provides an overview of the process with tips and tools to make it a less daunting task and ensure students are evaluated consistently and fairly. It is a starting point to help teachers meet both student and faculty needs.

Giving Students Feedback: a teacher’s guide, distinguished between:

• Evaluation – always includes a mark or grade.
• Feedback – provides students with information about their progress in learning – it does not need to be tied to a mark or a grade.

This guide is about evaluation that is tied to a mark or grade. Many teachers say assessment instead of evaluation so the guide uses the terms interchangeably. Ditto marking and grading.

• Evaluation system – this is the overall strategy of individual assessment tools that together add up to 100% of the marks for a course.
• Assessment tools – are the individual tasks students are required to complete in order to earn marks for a course.
• Grading system – is the college-wide standard that distinguishes the minimum requirement to pass a course (usually 50% or a D) from performances that are above or below the minimum expectation. The chart shows the equivalent letter and percentage grades with their associated grade point average (GPA)

1. Include assessment tools for all the course learning outcomes and relevant Essential Employability Skills (EES)

In George Brown’s outcomes-based curriculum model, the outcomes determine the evaluation system. Students must reliably demonstrate all course outcomes in order to pass a course, so teachers should:

• make the link between learning outcomes and assessment tools transparent
• spread individual outcomes and EES across more than one assessment to ensure they are adequately measured
• categorize test questions by outcome and require students to pass each category in order to pass the test.

2. Take a Universal Design for Learning Approach: use multiple means of action and expression

Encourage students to demonstrate their learning in various formats. Students may find they can express themselves better in one medium more than another. Teachers should provide multiple ways in a course for students to express themselves:

• include skills demonstrations, written assignments, oral presentations, group projects, quizzes, videos, posters, student choice, etc.
• use “open” formats to account for the varying learning styles and ability levels of a diverse student population.

3. Ensure consistent evaluation across sections of a course

When more than one teacher is teaching the same course to students in the same or a similar program:

• the percentage of the overall grade attached to various categories of assessment should be the same
• the design and weighting of individual assessment tools can vary.

Example – 40% of the final grade for a course measures oral presentation skills:

• one teacher may require students to give two presentations worth 20% each, another, three presentations worth 10%, 15% and 15% .

4. Follow College policies and guidelines

The policies are:

• grades for participation or attendance should not exceed 10%
• at least one graded assessment tool should be completed and returned prior to the mid-way point in every course.
• try for 30% of the course assessments to take place before the course drop date
• no one assessment should exceed 50% of the grade in a course.

5. Reflect and revise

Was your evaluation strategy successful?

• Are students who are producing exceptional work being adequately rewarded for their efforts?
• Conversely, are students passing the course yet failing to reliably demonstrate all of the course outcomes?
• Have all of the course outcomes been adequately and fairly assessed?

1. Be clear about your expectations

Give students clear instructions and details about the tasks they are required to complete for marks in a course. Explain what they need to do to get an “A” and, conversely, make sure that your criteria for a “D” reflect your minimum expectations.

• Two useful tools are rubrics and exemplars. Click here for some suggestions.
• Share samples of past students’ good work.

2. Match your expectations to the learning outcomes

Well-written learning outcomes will dictate the minimum expectations for student performance. For example, if an outcome calls for analysis, demonstrating a simple understanding of facts and theory is not sufficient to “pass”.

• Do not let your minimum expectations fall below the level set by the learning outcomes.
• Measure students’ work against specific criteria, and not relative to one another’s work.

3. Make authentic assessment tools count

Authentic assessment tools are those which incorporate tasks and scenarios that reflect what students would encounter in a real-world situation. With thoughtful design, they can synthesize the evaluation of several course learning outcomes and require students to integrate knowledge and skills acquired in other courses.

• Give these tools the value they deserve by increasing their weighting in the overall evaluation system.

4. Involve students

Students can be a great source of ideas for ways to demonstrate and measure their learning. They can:

• suggest scenarios for case studies
• draft questions for multiple-choice tests for review sessions and/or graded tests
• give feedback about assessment tools and ways to improve them
• self- or peer-assess their own or colleagues’ work before handing it in to improve the quality of the work and make the task of marking by the teacher easier and faster.

5. Reflect and revise

Did your assessment tools work the way you planned?

• Did students make common errors or encounter difficulties that suggest the need to change teaching strategies?
• Did students make common errors or encounter difficulties that suggest the need to change evaluation strategies?
• Are the assessment tools still reflective of real-world tasks in a changing global environment?
• Was there enough time for the learners to complete the assignment?
• Was there enough time to evaluate the submissions?
• Is there feedback from students that you can use to plan for next time?

It’s stressful to face an allegation of unfairness in evaluating students, or to not be able to adequately explain why a student received a particular grade. Clear communication about expectations and a structured marking process help.

Consistency

1. Mark one question or section of an assignment at a time for all students.
2. Pace yourself and set aside enough time for marking so that the last assignment is given as much attention as the first.
3. Sort graded work into ’same grade’ piles and review for consistency.
4. If you take a break during grading, review a few marked papers before resuming.
5. Ask a colleague to do a random audit of a few papers to see if you agree on the assigned grade.

Fairness

1. Have students identify their work by student number, rather than name, (or turn the cover page over and don’t look at the names until you’re ready to record the marks).
2. Provide constructive comments that explain a mark, noting what was done well and what needs improvement.
3. Analyze common errors, including patterns of multiple-choice responses, to determine problem questions and adjust marks as necessary.

Efficiency

1. Create and share a key of symbols and comments to reduce the time it takes to provide individual feedback.
2. Scaffold the submission of assignment or project components so that students learn project and time management skills and marking can be spread out in stages.

The variety and design of assessment tools is limited only by your imagination and creativity.

Case studies

Written Assignments (e.g. research papers, essays, business reports)

Group Projects

Multiple-choice Tests

Case Studies:

Resources for Case Writing. Schreyer Institute for Teaching Exc

Written Assignments:

Assignment Design: Checklist. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo

Responding to Writing Assignments: Managing the Paper Load. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo.

Group Projects:

Collaborative Learning: Group Work and Study Teams. From the hard copy book Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis; Jossey-Bass Publishers: San Francisco, 1993.

Methods for Assessing Group Work. Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo.

Multiple Choice Questions:

Basic Tips for Writing Effective Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ’s): A Compilation of the Most Useful Advice. Jennifer Murdock, Department of Economics, University of Toronto (July 2006).