Education continues to be a changing, challenging, and complex field of study. There are many hurdles to climb especially when it comes to underrepresented and minority students. Furthermore, minority and at-risk students continue to be of greater concern because these groups of students face prejudicial obstacles, have limited resources, and…

This study conducts a comprehensive analysis of the assessment of journal writing in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at the secondary school level, comparing the performance of a Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) platform with two human graders. Employing a convergent parallel mixed methods design, quantitative data were collected…

This article contributes to ongoing discussions regarding the evolution of the basic communication course. The authors detail the multi-year process of redesigning their institution's basic communication course, now centered on multimodal communication, and share insights from its implementation. Emphasizing the need to respond to increased…

Contract cheating is the purchasing of custom-made university assignments with the intention of submitting them. Websites providing contract cheating services often claim this form of cheating is undetectable, and no published research has examined this claim. This paper documents a pilot study where markers were paid to mark a mixture of real…

The weighting of a final exam or a final assignment is an essential part of course design that is rarely discussed in pedagogical literature. Depending on the weighting, a final exam or assignment may provide unequal benefits to students depending on their prior performance in the class. Consequently, uncritical grade weighting can discount…

The use of grade point average (GPA) as a means to summarise learning is a novel practice in the UK. The aim of this study was to determine if the inclusion of assessment results from student's first-year of study in the calculation of GPA is deleterious to students from a widening participation (WP) background. Assessment marks of full-time…

This paper analyzes the impact of grading practices on the gender gap in student achievement. We examine the gender difference in the difference between teacher grading and scores on national exams to test whether there are gender differences associated with different grading systems. We use data on 21 subjects across humanities and sciences for…

What do grades mean? What purpose do they serve? What role do they play in the learning process? Teachers and scholars have recently begun to re-examine these questions central to our current grading system. As a result, many have started to re-assess how grades are assigned in their classes. In this case study, I examine the effectiveness of…

At many universities, student evaluations of teaching (SET) are used for determining promotion, tenure, and other financial benefits for professors, which gives incentive for them to try to increase their scores. However, previous research, mainly based on US data, indicates that SET scores not only depend on teaching effectiveness and quality,…

Learner-centered approaches have been found to be effective in online courses for encouraging a deep understanding of course content and for encouraging student engagement. Instructors of two information systems courses revised their online teaching methods to incorporate student choice in assignments. All assignments except a weekly quiz were…

This article describes the synthesis of the research on mastery grading, growth mindsets, and testing for learning to produce a new grading system -- Second Chance Grading. The system and the research it is based on are described in detail. Reflections of the system's effectiveness, impact, and reception are also discussed. Finally, the appendix…

In the wake of last summer's disruption to the Higher Education entry process, this year's cohort of young people finishing school and college have faced their second consecutive year of disruption to their education, impacting their schooling, their exams and assessment, and the transition to their next steps in education. In 2021 pupils' grades…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if students' participation in the ALP co-requisite developmental English program relates to the likelihood of passing gateway college-level English. Data was collected to allow for analysis of gateway college-level English passing probability for all students who participated in gateway…

Participatory Learning (PL) integrates several learning approaches, engaging students throughout the entire assignment process for both online and face-to-face courses. Beyond simply providing a solution, students also craft a problem (problem-based learning), grade each other (peer assessment and feedback), evaluate themselves (self-assessment),…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine elementary education teacher perceptions of the change process that occurred in a public-school district during the four-year transition from a traditional grade reporting process to a standards-based system. The director of elementary education and a district leadership team provided…