scholarly journals Avoiding Fuzzy Letter Grading Systems: Designed Research to Ensure Fair Translation of Academic Performance into Letter Grades That Provide Tangible Measures of the Skills International Employers Seek from College Graduates

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyffin Bradshaw
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
Letter Grades ◽  
Grading Systems

scholarly journals A Spreadsheet Template for Forced Grading System

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 267-272
Keyword(s):  
Test Scores ◽  
Business Schools ◽  
Numerical Test ◽  
Grading System ◽  
Efficient Tool ◽  
Letter Grades ◽  
Grading Systems ◽  
Spreadsheet Template

Forced Grading Systems are popular and accepted for evaluating students, particularly in business schools. Under such systems students' numerical test scores are converted to letter grades (A, B, etc.) and awarded in mandated percentages. In common practice, schools mandate that 10% to 15% of students in a class receive As, 25% to 35% Bs, and 40% to 50% Cs. However, instructors must identify what numerical cutoffs satisfy mandated grade distributions, and that tedious effort might entail several solutions. This study introduces an Excel-based template with which instructors can establish numerical cutoffs that distribute students' grades in accord with mandated standards. Results indicate that the spreadsheet template is an efficient tool to evaluate students following the Forced Grading System

Academic Achievement for Adults with Sickle Cell Disease Compared with Healthy Siblings

Blood ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 124 (21) ◽  
pp. 4936-4936
Author(s):  
Modupe Idowu ◽  
Solomon Badejoko ◽  
Paul Rowan ◽  
Harinder S. Juneja
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Sickle Cell Disease ◽  
Sickle Cell ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
College Education ◽  
School Absenteeism ◽  
Cell Disease ◽  
Healthy Siblings

Abstract Introduction: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a disabling condition that affects about one out of every 500 African American births in the United States. Children and adolescents with SCD have high rates of school absenteeism and poor academic achievement, yet there are very few studies that have investigated the impact of SCD on adult patients’ academic achievement. Since SCD mostly affects individuals of African descent, the possible risk factors for poor academic achievement and school absenteeism are an intricate combination of disease, demographic, and socio-economic variables. Potential associates of poor academic performance and school absenteeism in adults with SCD include health-related (pain frequency and intensity, health-care utilization), psychosocial (support system, coping mechanism), and poverty (many with SCD have low socioeconomic status). The goal of this study is to compare SCD patients’ academic achievement and school absenteeism with their unaffected siblings. Patients and Methods: Forty adult SCD patients (28 hemoglobin SS, 8 hemoglobin SC, 1 Sβ0 and 3 Sβ+; age: median = 29, range 19-56 years; sex: 20 males, 20 females) completed questionnaires relating to their academic performance. Patients on chronic transfusion therapy and those with other disabling conditions unrelated to SCD were excluded. Surveys, gathered during routine clinic visits, assessed demographics, use of hydroxyurea, current school status, highest grade completed, average number of school days missed per different time periods, average number of exams missed per school year, academic goal, and academic satisfaction. The survey also asked the patient to provide the academic achievement information for a healthy sibling, if they had a sibling within five years of age. Additional clinical measures were gathered by chart review. These included number of days in the health care facilities for acute illness and for routine clinic appointments in the previous year, and SCD-related laboratory and tests results. Results: Twenty-three out of forty patients (57.5%) were on hydroxyurea therapy and 24/40 (60%) had 3 or more hospitalizations in the previous one year. Twenty-seven (68%) of patients reported missing at least one important exam each year. Thirty-four of the forty (85%) SCD patients reported missing school on average once per week while this is true of 8/40 (13%) of their healthy siblings (p < .001, all patient/sibling comparisons tested by McNemar’s Exact (binomial) test). Six out of forty SCD patients (15%) are college graduates as compared to 14/40 (35%) of their healthy siblings (p < .001). Twenty-one of the 34 SCD patients (62%) who are not college graduates reported that they had some college education. Six out of forty SCD patients (15%) are currently in school. Five out of forty (33%) SCD patients compared with 8/40 (43%) siblings have GED or less education (not statistically different, p= .55). Nineteen (48%) of the patients reported that they were not satisfied with their academic achievement. Conclusions: School absenteeism and poor academic achievement are profound for adult patients with SCD. There is a significant difference in the school absenteeism between SCD patients and their healthy siblings. It is important to note that 62% of patients who are not college graduate reported to have had some college education; disability accommodations seem very likely to assist higher-education goals. Our future studies will focus on developing specific interventions that may improve academic support and accommodation of SCD patients. This will certainly require collaboration between patients, families, medical providers, and educational institutions. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

scholarly journals Motivational Media and Academic Success

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-163
Author(s):  
Nicolle Grant
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Academic Motivation ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Psychology Courses ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Experimental Group

Motivating students to do well in courses that fail to interest them can be challenging. The current study was designed to assess the potential impact of priming motivational media on academic performance. Students in six sections of introductory psychology courses (n = 128) completed a quiz after watching a 4 minute inspirational video (experimental group, n = 63), or without watching the video (control group, n = 65). The video selected showed scenes of individuals pushing their limits in all aspects of life and a commentary of a motivational commencement speech by Arnold Schwarzenegger given to college graduates. After completing the quiz participants were given a survey with questions pertaining to their motivation, positive and negative emotions, demographics, and their reactions to the video. Students who were primed by the video reported greater academic motivation and planned to study more for the next quiz than students who did not watch the video. Females reported lower GPA and lower positive emotions in the experimental condition. While there was not an overall effect of the video on quiz scores, male students who watched the video performed 10% better on the quiz than males in the control condition. Implications of these findings suggest that motivational information may be beneficial in inspiring academic performance in certain circumstances.

scholarly journals Impact of grading system on student academic performance during the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 80-93
Author(s):  
Alexander K. Pogrebnikov ◽  
◽  
Vyacheslav N. Shestakov ◽  
Yuri Yu. Yakunin ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Wilcoxon Test ◽  
Grading System ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Student Academic Performance ◽  
Grading Systems

The grading systems used for assessment students' knowledge in traditional and distance learning differ and give different assessments of learning outcomes, which affects the indicators of student academic performance. The trends of modern education are aimed at the increasing involvement of distance forms in the educational process of universities, which requires a certain synchronization of grading systems at the level of learning outcomes. The research is aimed at identification and confirmation of the existence of differences between the results of assessment in traditional and distance learning forms, which are reflected in the indicators of student performance. The study used methods of nonparametric analysis using the STATISTICA 10.0 program. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to compare independent populations in cases where there were no signs of normal data distribution, and Pearson's Chi-square test was used to compare nominal values. To compare related (paired) quantitative samples, the Wilcoxon test was used. The research results showed a statistically significant increase in student academic performance during the COVID-19 pandemic during distance learning. Therefore, when comparing the indicators of student performance in the spring semesters of 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 academic years, significant differences were found in the U-criterion and Chi-square with different levels (p <0.05, p <0.01, p <0.001) depending on the course of study and the performance indicator. The only exceptions are the senior students of Master's programmes who have shown a decline in academic performance. According to the results of the study, it can be concluded that the distance grading system makes lower requirements for learning outcomes in terms of student academic performance indicators, which overestimates them relative to the traditional form of education.

scholarly journals Employability: Smart learning in extracurricular activities for developing college graduates' competencies

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-188
Author(s):  
Yan Keung Hui ◽  
Lam For Kwok ◽  
Horace Ho Shing Ip
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Job Performance ◽  
Extracurricular Activities ◽  
Student Development ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Smart Learning ◽  
Central Repository ◽  
Participation Level ◽  
Feedback Data

Nowadays, employers expect college graduates (or simply “graduates”) to be for ready in taking up challenges when they enter into their careers. Most competencies that employers are looking for cannot be learned but can be developed by participating in extracurricular activities. However, planning on participation in extracurricular activities is difficult, given the lack of measurement standards together with their unstructured and non-systematic nature. To provide a smarter way for activity organisers, advisers and students to plan for extracurricular activities, our university has launched the central repository on student development activities system and codified the information about participation in extracurricular activities in a quantified and systematic way. This paper has collected data from three consecutive years from the system, the employers' feedback data and the academic performance data of placement students in the Department of Computer Science. Participation level, with logarithm transformation, had a positive and significant relationship with academic performance. Moreover, the competency developed by most students had a positive relationship with job performance in the placement year of 2019/2020. In this article, we discuss contributions, limitations and future directions.

Decision-Making Styles of the Next Generation of Chinese Business Leaders

2022 ◽  
pp. 365-386
Author(s):  
Rob Kim Marjerison ◽  
Jing Pan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Financial Assets ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Chinese Business ◽  
Decision Making Styles ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Commercial Organizations

This study seeks to explore the relationships between decision-making styles, academic performance, and gender of educated Chinese millennials. As the millennial generation of college graduates in China comes of age, they will move into leadership roles in public and commercial organizations. They will have influence over considerable financial assets as well as economic and public policy which translates into global impact. There is a gap in the existing literature on the topic. This study utilized online self-report questionnaires to gather data, and the general decision-making style test to assess respondents' decision-making models culminating in correlation analysis and t-test. Based on the findings of related research, the authors hypothesized that there would be a difference in the decision-making styles based on gender and that there would be a significant difference in academic performance based on the decision-making styles. The findings may be of interest to a variety of those interested in decision-making styles, Chinese millennials, and future leaders of China.

scholarly journals EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE COMPETENCIES ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMID COLLEGE STUDENTS: A STRATEGIC APPROACH

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
S. Ramesh ◽  
Dr H. Samuel Thavaraj ◽  
Dr Well Haorei ◽  
Dr D. Ramkumar
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
High Performance ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Social Competencies ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Impact

Cognitive ability alone is no longer the highest standard by which companies assess college graduates. Non-cognitive ability, such as emotional intelligence (EI), is an essential skill that distinguishes the potential high-performance students. It is hypothesized that high academic performing students will also display more EI levels than students with more modest academic achievement. The present study aims to review the studies conducted across the globe to explore the impact of EI's fundamental components, namely personal and social competencies on academic performance among the college students. The current literature reviews found a growing area of research into EI's necessary competencies and its relationship with academic performance among the students. The study reveals that a high level of personal and social competencies results in increased academic performance and vice versa. Research work done by various researchers shows a positive and significant relationship exists between the EI competencies (personal and social competencies) with the academic performance of the college students. KEYWORDS: Emotional Intelligence, Academic Performance, College students, Personal competencies, Social competencies.

scholarly journals Implementing non-traditional assessment strategies in teacher preparation: Opportunities and challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-51
Author(s):  
Jennifer R. Newton ◽  
Mira Cole Williams ◽  
Danielle M Feeney
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Mastery Learning ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Traditional Assessment ◽  
Letter Grades ◽  
Grading Systems ◽  
Assessment Strategies ◽  
Traditional Assessments

Assessment and grading in higher education have traditionally focused on “A” through “F”, or point-based alpha-numeric letter grades and subjective, independent grading systems. Despite the ubiquity of this system, there are no universal guidelines on how to assess student learning on that scale. What can be problematic about “the way things have always been” is that students are frequently de-humanized; higher education faculty often focus on compliance and authoritarian teaching rather than engaging in the learning process alongside the students. In contrast, some faculty members have explored non-traditional assessment practices in their coursework to enhance the learning process and improve individualized student support. This article offers strategies for implementing non-traditional assessments, specifically mediated office hours, mastery learning, and ungrading strategies are addressed.

scholarly journals Effect of Delivery Format on Student Outcomes and Perceptions of a Veterinary Medicine Course: Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Regina M. Schoenfeld-Tacher ◽  
David C. Dorman
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Asynchronous Learning ◽  
Veterinary Students ◽  
North Carolina State University ◽  
Course Materials ◽  
Letter Grades ◽  
Access Frequency ◽  
Delivery Format ◽  
Supplemental Course ◽  
And Performance

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted instruction at many veterinary schools to switch to an emergency remote teaching format to prevent viral transmission associated with in-person synchronous lectures. This study surveyed student perspectives and academic performance in a pre-planned online second-year veterinary toxicology course given at North Carolina State University in Spring 2020. This course relied on asynchronous narrated presentations for content delivery. This method of delivery predated the pandemic and was used throughout the course. Academic performance and patterns of access to materials in the online course was compared with the access patterns and performance of students given classroom-based synchronous teaching in Spring 2019. Assessments evaluated in this study were identical across courses. Students’ academic performance was unaffected by delivery method. Lack of instructor interaction was an important perceived barrier in the asynchronous course. Asynchronous course materials were uniformly accessed across all days of the week, while supplemental materials for the face-to-face course showed a weekly pattern. Moving from letter grades to pass/fail did not change access frequency to supplemental course materials but led to decreased video usage in the asynchronous course. Results suggest that although some veterinary students perceived the switch in delivery format negatively, the method of delivery did not adversely affect performance in this preclinical course.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document