A given letter grade should represent the same level of mastery and performance across all IUSO courses. As a measurement of mastery, grades should communicate how well a student demonstrated their command of the course content. If students’ final course grades are often modified to ensure a desired portion of the class receives passing grades, this suggests a disconnect in the teaching and learning process.  Further discussion and reflection can help identify challenges and thus solutions to these persistent challenges. Contact Dr. Strackeljahn to discuss your specific course (amstrack@iu.edu).

The following information about all graded components (i.e. assignments and exams) of your course should be articulated in your course syllabus and mirrored in your Canvas course:

• a brief description of each graded assignment
• the point value of the assignment and weight in final course grade
• grading scale–conversion of points or percentages to letter grades

Specifics on performance expectations and grading criteria should be provided when the assignment is given to protect against common sources of student frustration with assessment: (a) unclear assessment criteria, (b) unclear expectations, (c) uncertainty about how and why a grade is assigned to an assignment, (d) ambiguity over ‘word counts’, (e) inconsistently applied deadlines, and (f) lack of opportunities to demonstrate capability (Flint & Johnson, 2011). Small changes in your teaching to make assessments more transparent can combat these frustrations and improve the fairness of your assessment practices.

Default grading scale

You may set the grading scale for your course however you see fit. Below is the default +/_ scale provided in Canvas. Ensure that your Canvas course grading scale matches the one articulated in your syllabus.

A +100%to97%
A < 97%to93%
A- < 93%to90%
B+ < 90%to87%
B < 87%to83%
B- < 83%to80%
C+ < 80%to77%
C < 77%to73%
C- < 73%to70%
D+ < 70%to67%
D < 67%to63%
D- < 63%to60%
F < 60%to0%

Registrar’s GPA calculation

The table below identifies the point values the Registrar assigns to the letter grades given in your course. Please keep these in mind when defining your course grading scale.

Curving grades

Curving grades transforms the grades into a standard normal distribution (shifts the mean and range to conform to a more typical grade distribution). Curving will improve some students’ scores but can simultaneously reduce high-performing students’ scores. Further, a curved grade does not necessarily represent the students’ level of mastery of the course content.

If you add a set amount of points to everyone’s score, this is not curving. It is instead adjusting grades and in this case, inflating scores. Before adding points to everyone’s score, consider if questions should be dropped or if exam revisions may be appropriate. The goal of all IUSO courses is mastery and quality preparation for future coursework and clinical experiences, passing a student who does not have a command of the content disadvantages them. Read on for additional guidance on interpreting your assessment report and fair approaches to adjusting grades.

Examining assessment performance

Start by examining the assessment report in ExamSoft. Instructions for downloading the report are available on ExamSoft’s Reporting Overview page.

Did many students miss the same questions?

Review questions to determine if the question was either (a) confusing or misleading in some way (if yes, consider dropping it from the exam) or (b) a difficult question (if yes, consider offering a supplementary review of the content and allowing students to submit exam revisions).

Do any of the questions have a negative point biserial correlation coefficient?

If so, this indicates students who scored highly overall did poorly on this item while students who scored poorly overall, did well on this item which suggests this question was misinterpreted by students. To nullify the impact of this item on students’ scores, give full credit for all choices. (If instead, you add an additional point to all test scores, you give extra credit to the students who got the question correct.) The question should be revised if you wish to use it in future exams.

Did a few students score much lower than the rest of the class?

While overall performance may be satisfactory, examine score reports for outlier students who scored significantly lower than the rest of their peers. Think carefully about how you will manage these students who are at high-risk of falling behind the group.

Grade adjustments

After examining the exam statistics and dropping items as appropriate, students’ scores may still be lower than desired. Instead of adding a set number of points to all scores or curving grades according to a standard distribution, consider allowing students to make exam corrections or revise their assignment submission according to predefined parameters. Revisions should demonstrate students’ understanding of the topic. Allowing students to revise their work encourages mastery of content and continued learning. Mastery of the content is essential to their continued success in the program.

If extra credit or revision opportunities are offered to some students, all students should be made aware of the opportunity and procedures for earning these additional points. If opportunities for improving grades are only provided to select students you are privileging some students while disadvantaging others. Expectations for performance should be held consistent across students. Offering low-stakes graded activities during the semester provides a greater learning benefit than extra credit activities at the end of the semester.

Dropping assignments or exam scores

When Canvas Assignments are organized into Assignment Groups, Canvas can automatically drop the lowest score(s) in a given Assignment Group. Only apply this rule to Assignment Groups at the end of the term so that students are not surprised by a lower grade at the end of the term if they do worse on the final compared to their previous exams.

• Canvas guide on dropping lowest score(s)
• Canvas guide to creating Assignment Groups