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Alternative grading in algorithms

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Alternative grading in algorithms

A guest post I wrote for "Grading for Growth"

Kevin Sun
Jun 30, 2023
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Alternative grading in algorithms

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Grading for Growth is a Substack newsletter about alternative grading practices written by David Clark and Robert Talbert, two math professors at Grand Valley State University. I recommend taking a look — there’s a bunch of interesting stuff (e.g., “objectivity theater,” cheating, video assessments).

Earlier this week, they published a guest post of mine; here is the link. I wrote about my first attempt at alternative grading, which seemed to go fairly well. Here are a few thoughts related to the post:

  • Traditionally, for a problem worth 10 points, a submission receives one of (at least) 11 possible outcomes: 0, 1, …, 10. I think having fewer possible outcomes (e.g., 2-4) makes grading faster, more consistent, and more transparent.

  • Most people would probably agree that students’ grades should reflect their grasp of the material at the end of the semester. If so, it’d make sense to give reassessments without penalty (but in my experience, they’re not common).

If you’re interested in the full version, please feel free to check it out!

Grading for Growth
Alternative grading in algorithms
Today we have a guest post from Kevin Sun. Kevin most recently taught computer science (CS) at Elon University. He received his Ph.D. in CS from Duke University and B.S. in CS and mathematics from Rutgers University. He has primarily taught algorithms, and he has written course notes that can be found on…
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3 months ago · 5 likes · 4 comments · Kevin Sun
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Alternative grading in algorithms

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