Part 2: Use of Grades for Design Projects
This blog post is a continuation of The Important of Grades.
As I wrote the previous post on the importance of grades, I have been trying to determine what is the best role of grades in education within the collegiate level. The problem that I find with grades in college is that students feel that unless they are earning A’s for their work, many feel that they are getting punished with low grades, which creates a barrier between the professor and the course materials and the students.
When I teach on-campus for schools, I rarely provide students their actual grades until the end of the term. I do talk with them each week about their work and help them understand if I felt that they were on track or if I felt they needed to research and practice more. This deduced the amount of frustration about the grades as in nearly every case the students would agree with me on the assessment of where they were with their knowledge and output of their new skills when there wasn’t the focus on the grade, but on the quality of the work.
Online classes provide posted grades of the student work each week so that students know their ultimate standing. Depending on how you look at it, this can be good or bad. This can be a positive element as this provides weekly confirmation of their progression in the course showing that the professor is involved with the development of their work. But some students (not all, but some) feel their work should be given higher grades based on their effort and not the quality. This belief from the student ends up creating discouragement from the grade and feedback and results in more frustration in the course as they feel that their work just isn’t measuring up.
Discrepancies in the grade expectations often creates issues between the student and the professor. Discouraged students can have a difficult time learning from the feedback and this creates an unproductive cycle of future work that is missing the expected quality as feedback that is provided doesn’t get absorbed properly.
Potential Solution
Although detailed grade descriptions are provided, as well as rubrics for each assignment, and previous student examples are showcases to display both strong and weak projects, I believe that there is one more step in helping the student more accurately evaluate their work: The students can submit with each design project a short write-up reflecting on their work that is available to the professor as well as classmates. This short reflection should identify the following ideas:
-
1. What was the easiest part to this project?
2. What was the hardest part to this project?
3. If you had more time, how would you improved the following items:
- (Depending on the project the following list could be:)
a. Logo Design
b. Navigation Design
c. Interface Design
d. Content Design
e. Typography
f. Color Theory
g. Balance & Alignment
4. What grade do you feel this project earns?
The 4th option, “What grade do you feel this project earns?” is important because this can help the professor communicate more efficiently with the student about their work. In some cases, the student may be believe that their grade should be higher than it is and this is dangerous for them as this will provide a false sense of comfort about their work. When these students graduate and showcase their work within a portfolio, it is this work that is reviewed and judged on the quality. When portfolio work is not good enough, no employer will take the time to explain this – the designer will simply never understand why their work is acceptable.
Of course, there are cases where students have such high expectations of where they feel they should be that they give themselves a lower grade than the professor would. This provides the opportunity for the professor to communicate about why the student should feel more confident about their work as confidence for designers is another important skills that can take time to develop.
It can be a little daunting at first to publicly showcase your grade and your reflection on your work, but as designers, we’ll be doing this professionally our whole lives. This also will help increase group communication within the classes as students should be encouraged to comment on each other’s write-up and grade. This can help students understand more where they are with their own understanding and ability, as well as help each other focus more on how to make the appropriate improvements of the work.
Question:
What do you think?
Do you feel that having students share their explanations of their grades would help them become more comfortable during their growth as a designer or not?
How else can grades be used within a classroom?
Djacquelynstew
“Criticism, or negative feedback should not only be welcomed, it should be expected. It humbles us and helps us as future designers to understand how to critique ourselves. After all, not every designer is automatically great.” Quote by Denise Delaney
Hey there Professor,
Wow! This is wonderful on your part, the effort that you put into this blog to help students such as myself understand how important grades are, why or why not to focus on the letter grade, and how we can improve on our design skills, and my particular favorite, how we can build confidence about designing.
I have you as a professor for a second time and I need to be honest with you. The first go round, I did not understand your method of response to students regarding their work submitted. I felt that you focused more on what was wrong, and what was good seemed to slip by the wayside. I felt you were a confidence buster who only wanted to show your greatness, and make us feel like we would never be designers. Yes, I did pass your class with a very hard earned A, and you and I never really bumped heads per se. However, if you remember, what did happen is that I became withdrawn in your live chats and participated little if at all in discussion during these chats.
Do I have a different opinion of you this time? Yes. Here is why.
1. I have a better understanding of you as a professor and your level of dedication to produce from your classes some of the best designers coming from IADT Online. While you obviously want to be a “cool” teacher, your utmost desire is that we become great. I do see and appreciate that this go round you have lightened up just enough to be “slightly cool” and you are helping the class to understand that we are all a team. It is not professor against student. The bottom line is, the better we become, the more confidence we feel as a student. The better we become, the better you look as a professor. In the end the end, teamwork benefits the entire class structure.
2. Feedback, yes, even negative feedback is a good thing. Constructive feedback that doesn’t sound good is not meant to say that one is a failure and should give up. Constructive feedback often means that the person providing the feedback believes you are not at a level of work at they know you can achieve. The key to it is, that they more than likely have seen your work and know that you can produce even more. So to some extent, negative feedback is a compliment.
3. It was only after having other classes where the professor gave over simplistic assignments, very little to know instruction and training, grades that were not deserved and absolutely no feedback, or worse “pacifier comments” meant to make us feel good, that I now understand you were exactly what I needed, and that is a professor who is so passionate about his craft that he wants every student to be great, not good but GREAT. I understand what I really needed and still need is a professor who is not afraid to tell me “give me what I know you’ve got girl”
This blog and the post that you are coming up with are a fabulous idea. The type of posts helps us to understand how we can make improvement, and how we can measure the level of work for ourselves, beyond the letter of the grade.
Thanks again Professor Leach, and congrats on what should be a very successful blog.
Denise,
IADT Web Design and Development Student
Matthew Leach
Hi Denise,
Thanks for taking the time to write this the wonderful reply!
So, are you saying that you like this idea of self-reflection posted by students with their projects?
I find that all good educators, coaches, trainers, and mentors are always trying to help others become better and adjustments are being made all the time. I’ve been realizing that so many of the students that become frustrated with the courses they take online is because they feel alone in the process where all their hard work is hidden from view from anyone that cares. My teaching style is still always the same – help designers become the best that they can! But I’m trying to create more of a community with students so they have a team of co-designers where problems can be discussed and solutions can be easier obtained then working alone.
I think I may have to add this to a personal testimonials page, because this may be the best line I’ve heard from a student about my teaching style: “Give me what I know you’ve got girl!” I love this!
Thank you! And I’m excited to see your growth as both a designer and professional in this industry!
Wided
From students’ perspective, we all think that we excelled in each and every project because we do put all the effort it takes to build a strong design and it can be our best design so far. Yet, from a teacher’s perspective, we are still students and we’re still learning. Even if the design is our best work, we still can’t see the little mistakes we’ve made while creating that design since we really don’t have that much of experience in this field. Unfortunately, many students refuse to admit that their work does not meet the requirements of the assignment and blame it on teachers by saying that ” X instructor doesn’t like me”, or ” Y teacher is jealous of my talents”, or any other excuses. Personally, since I was a teacher, I know for a fact that instructors never took anything personal when grading. They’re here for us to help us improve and gain new skills and techniques. Therefore, grades or critiques should be taken as a way to push us to work harder and excel in our projects. If we think of grades as just a method of guidance, showing us our mistakes, not just a way to tell us we’re a total failure, we can learn from our mistakes and use the instructors’ feedback to better ourselves.
Matthew Leach
Thanks Wided for the strong comments!
I think as professors we do understand the effort that is put into each project by the students as we designed these projects to push and ‘test’ the student’s ability with the given task. But when projects earn average to low grades, some students have a difficult time understanding that the grade is a reflection on their output and not on their effort.
Hopefully, as professors and students work more together and their relationship becomes stronger they will understand one another better. Then students can understand, interpret, and make changes based on the feedback without the grade creating a barrier in their communication.
And you raised a fantastic point about bias in grades based on the relationship of professors and students! I’ve reviewed projects that are not my “style”, but I always grade based on the quality of the work and not my relationship with the student. I’ve found that as students open themselves to the feedback and make the appropriate changes, they start to understand the quality of their work more and their grades improve.
So, for any of my students reading this… if you aren’t happy with your progress or the feedback/grades from me, let me know. I’ll always be happy to communicate with you on how to help you make additional adjustments to help readjust your progress.
robstathem
It’s been a little while since I’ve been back to this site to read these GREAT blogs….and this is another example of a terrific blog and discussion!
I like your solution, Matt! I think it engages the students and allows them to reflect on the work they did on the project, and how they could have improved.
Personally, I’m all in favor of “credit/no-credit” as an alternative to grades. In some cases, I believe you can choose this option for your classes anyway!? I believe that grades, like you say, can create tension between the student. If the student feels they deserve better then the actual grade given, there’s conflict. Having the “credit/no-credit” would alleviate any tension between the student/professor! If “credit/no-credit” is given, how does the professor determine the appropriate mark? In this case, there’s no fine line between the two…it’s either one or the other.
What about an option for the student to improve their work and grade during the course term? Although depending on the length of the term, that might not even be possible (lack of time).
-Rob
mik4u
There are many obstacles that we have to rise above, not only in life but also in our classes as we learn. Critical feedback is one of the tools in our arsenal that we often take for granted, what a mistake we make when we do this. I was wondering why this is, why do we get offended when our work is not recognized as amazing? Especially in school. I love critical feedback because it makes me think and grow, it pushes me to do a better job. If I’m honest, it is easy to hear feedback, that is helpful but it is difficult to give it. I am challenged by the idea of saying out loud what I think of others work. What if the things I see and think can be improved on in another’s work is something that they really liked? Who’s to say that I am correct? Then I have to laugh at myself, because I know how I value the feedback, chances are others will too. And any feedback, if given with a dose of niceness is always helpful, regardless of whether or not it’s heeded.
It also challenges me to learn what’s right and wrong in design. What I mean by this is that if I see something I’ve never thought of and truly like, it inspires me. And when I see something that is “design challenged” I make a mental note to never do that. What a great way to learn.