Category: Course Design

Grading and Assessment

This fall the Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning is offering a faculty book club where we will read Specifications Grading by Linda Nilson. This book club is intended to spark discussion about grading and assessment practices and strategies for using grading and assessment to support student learning and communicate student achievement.

Grading and Assessment

What is the difference between grading and assessment? Are they the same thing? According to the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation, “the goal of grading is to evaluate individual students’ learning and performance;” whereas “the goal of assessment is to improve student learning” (What is the difference between assessment and grading). When grading and assessment are aligned, they can support student learning and growth as well as provide information about student proficiency at the end of a course.

Assessment

It’s important for faculty to include many opportunities for assessment in their courses. This gives both faculty and students insight into what and how well students are learning. Based on the results of assessments, faculty may decide to change their teaching strategies, course assignments, and/or exam questions. Based on the results of assessments, students may decide to change their study strategies, note-taking habits, and/or class participation. Assessment results may also help faculty and students begin a conversation about how to improve teaching and learning in a specific course.

Grading

Grading can be a challenging part of teaching, but, when grading and assessment are aligned, grading can become less challenging. Ideally, grades should indicate what students know and can do within the scope of the course that students have completed. Assessment results can help students adjust their learning strategies so that they gain more knowledge and skills during a course, which should improve their course grade. However, it can be challenging to connect course assessments with a final course grade in ways that meaningfully communicate student knowledge and skill levels.

In Specifications Grading, Nilson (2015) suggests that faculty consider revising their grading systems to ensure that their systems:

  • “Uphold high academic standards” (p. 9)
  • “Reflect student learning outcomes” (p. 9)
  • “Motivate students to learn” (p. 10)
  • “Motivate students to excel” (p. 10)
  • “Discourage cheating” (p. 10)
  • “Reduce student stress” (p. 10)
  • “Make students feel responsible for their grades” (p. 11)
  • “Minimize conflict between faculty and students” (p. 11)
  • “Save faculty time” (p. 11)
  • “Give students feedback they will use” (p. 12)

If you would like to learn about Nilson’s ideas for how to do this, please register and join us for the Fall 2025 Faculty Book Club. Participants will receive a copy of the book.

References

Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation. (n.d.). What is the difference between assessment and grading? Carnegie Mellon University. https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/grading-assessment.html

Nilson, L. B. (2015). Specifications grading: Restoring rigor, motivating students, and saving faculty time. Routledge.

Building An Interactive Online Course Using DesignPLUS

Looking to make your online course more interactive and engaging? Join us for a hands-on workshop to learn how to use DesignPLUS to build an interactive online course. We’ll show you practical strategies and guide you through follow-along activities so you can start using these tools right away! Just be sure to bring your laptop.

When: Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Time: 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.

Location:  Van Pelt/Opie Library Room 243
Registration is required.

Online Course Design: Getting Started

Are you interested in creating an online course? Do you have colleagues who enjoy teaching online, but you’re not sure how to get started? Below are some tips for developing an online course. (If you are already teaching online, consider joining our Fall 2024 book club where we’ll read Flower Darby’s Small Teaching Online.)

Develop a Vision for Your Course

When you begin developing an online course, start by thinking about what you want to teach students and why an online course would be a good way to teach what you want to teach.

Many times, online courses are developed as an additional section of an in-person course that is already being taught at the university. In these cases, the purpose for teaching the course and the learning outcomes that you want students to achieve by taking the course may already be clear.

Sometimes, an online course is developed to meet a specific need before a similar in-person course has been developed. For example, your department may be launching a new online program, and a new course needs to be developed to support students in achieving the program learning outcomes. In these cases, it’s important to clarify how the course will fit into the program and what learning outcomes students should achieve by taking the course.

Determine How to Assess Student Achievement

After you have decided on the purpose for your course and what students should learn from taking the course, it’s important to think about how you will assess student achievement using assessments that have been tailored for an online environment. In addition to or instead of multiple choice tests and writing assignments, authentic assessments can be useful for assessing student achievement in online courses. Authentic assessments “are tightly aligned with the learning objectives of a course or learning experience and have learners working on ‘real world’ problems” (Niemer, 2024). These types of assessments can be more engaging for learners and can better prepare them to use what they are learning in a course in their professional and personal lives.

For more information about authentic assessments, see Rachel Neimer’s (2024) discussion of Creating Authentic Assessments.

For more information about assessing students in online courses, see Creating and Adapting Assignments for Online Courses.

Collaborate with Instructional Designers

Once you have a vision for your course and ideas about how you would like to assess student achievement, consider working with an instructional designer as you continue designing and organizing your online course. The instructional designers at the Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning can help you:

  • Gain access to the MTU online course Canvas template
  • Brainstorm effective online assessment and learning activities
  • Consider how to make your course accessible to as many students as possible
  • Prepare to meet the Michigan Tech online quality course standards

To contact the CTL’s Instructional Design team, email Dan Ye at dany@mtu.edu or Catharine Gruver at cgruver@mtu.edu.

References

Niemer, R. (2024, January, 15). Creating authentic assessments. M Online Teaching. https://onlineteaching.umich.edu/articles/creating-authentic-assessments/

The Ohio State University Teaching and Learning Resource Center. (n.d.). Creating and adapting assignments for online courses. https://teaching.resources.osu.edu/teaching-topics/creating-adapting-assignments