AUC Faculty-Student Panel
What’s in a Grade?
I felt that every part of the talk was so relatable, for it discussed situations similar to ones either I or other students have encountered.
Moderator: Hoda Mostafa (CLT)
This panel engaged faculty and students in a campus conversation around various approaches to grading, providing feedback on student work and building frameworks for innovative strategies for assessing student performance. Faculty and students teams shared their experiences and approaches in an interactive format with audience interaction.
1) What’s (Not) in a Grade –– Some Thoughts. Khalil Elkhodary & Youssef Naga (MENG).
This talk focused on what is not in a grade and difference in perception about grades between faculty, students and employers. Grades are perceived by students as survivor’s badges of honor. Speakers discussed whether certain behaviors imply that grades are the most important thing in the world, how this affects students’ behavior, and they questioned whether tests are a fair measure of students’ performance and progress throughout the semester. Albert Einstein wrote, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid”. Do grades really define our students' futures? Youssef Naga spoke about how employers such as Procter &Gamble are not interested in GPA, but care about personality, ability to interact with others and skills required by the job want critical thinking or soft skills, graduate who solve problems. Speakers wondered if there were ways to report on learning dimensions different from grades.
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