Week 10 Reflection
This week had me thinking about grades more deeply. Not that I don’t reflect on how I assess students, but reading Small Data, Online Learning and Assessment Practices in Higher Education (Watson et al., 2017) and The Impact of Assessment on Student Learning made me consider grading more closely. Assessment isn’t always about learning. Unfortunately, it's sometimes more about maintaining institutional accountability or checking boxes for certification. That can be a little uncomfortable, especially when you're someone who cares deeply about students actually growing, not just surviving a system. The “Jay” case study in the Watson article really stuck with me. A student failed an online course, not because they weren’t learning, but maybe because the system wasn’t flexible enough to see the learning that was happening. How often do we reduce a complex, messy, human learning process to a single grade or submission? And how often do we miss something important in doing so? I...
