Barry Westling

Hi Sarah: I might ask if your students have satisfactorily completed their regular assignments, why is there the need for extra credit? Some teachers may want their students to improve their grades and be tempted to offer EC. But really that only adds points, and contributes very little to learning. My bias is to avoid EC, because my backgraound is teaching critical care topics. People can be hurt or harmed by mistakes, or worse if students don't get their knowledge and skills perfected. If it's important enough to award credit, I think it should be part of the regular curriculum.… >>>

Hi Ruth: Designing a grading system becomes a bit easier if we rely on well written course objectives and student learning outcomes (SLO's). Once we know what is to be taught, then the instructional component is the primary focus. Grading systems shouldmeasure student learning, and that learning should have come mostly from the SLO's and objectives. The way to measure are numerous. And we want balance so that students who may have different leraning styles to be able to demonstrate their abilities as well. Variety in selecting component grading usually provides a good way to balane grading, so that there… >>>