Teaching Tips at SOM on the grading process
“Feedback is important. I grade [The Cranberries] case with the TAs because it’s a difficult case. I’ll give [the TAs] clear guidelines, then I’ll monitor how well they’re grading. [After] they grade, I look at the papers as well. It takes time to give feedback on assignments, but if you do that, it can be very powerful."
Art Swersey, Operations
"Before sending out a Pass or Fail grade, it makes a world of difference to send the student a short note explaining the grade. [We'll begin by saying,] 'In giving you this grade, we want to emphasize that it does not appear on your transcript and is meant as a private signal that we think you could have done better...' This turns a negative into a positive."
Barry Nalebuff, Economics; Daylian Cain, Marketing
“The TAs grade [the case write-ups]; they meet with me and I give them a rubric. [For] the exams, I give them the answers and they go and read the exams. I grade the final projects."
Fiona Scott Morton, Economics
“In my class, there is a lot of written work. I don't have exams, but I do have individual assignments as well as group assignments. Everything that is turned in is returned with a grade and written feedback. I give [the TAs] detailed grading guidance and get the assignments back to the students within a week. The TAs give me the graded assignments five days after they're turned in [and] I have a day and a half to look through them. The TAs grade in pencil in case I want to make changes."
Heather Tookes, Finance
"In smaller classes, feedback is pretty easy to give, but in larger classes, it’s almost impossible to give as much feedback as I would like. I have assignments that minimize the amount of feedback I need to give; the answer is, hopefully, objective and it’s not going to require lot of explanation. Giving feedback is hard and very difficult and I usually do not leave it to the TAs to do. The best I can do is say, 'You got it wrong and this is why.' When the student says, 'I would like [more] feedback,' I say, 'I will see you at office hours.'"
Kyle Jensen, Entrepreneurship
“I read all the papers and I write a paragraph or two to comment on each. That can be hard with 70 students, but I don't think other graduate students do an adequate job of grading papers. When they do presentations, I take notes and provide written assessments. I don't think the graduate students are capable of doing that [either]."
Sharon Oster, Economics
"I have a TA handbook I update each year, and before the course begins, I meet twice with TAs for training. During the course, we have a weekly TA check-in. The main TA responsibility is coaching feedback and grading of the weekly challenges. They send me highlights and red flags, and I check in by email with 10 or 15 students each week. "
Zoe Chance, Marketing
"Sometimes, I’ll send an email and I’ll say, 'I didn’t get your assignment for the first problem set. Is everything okay?' And then, invariably, I get an answer back saying, 'Thank you for asking; everything is okay. I’ll make sure to get all the assignments in, in the future.'"
Art Swersey, Operations
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