Sessions

Online Score Updates for Fostering Responsibility

When assessment is continuous and ongoing, rather than based on a heavily-weighted final examination, students who miss too many assignments throughout the semester can find themselves mathematically unable to attain a passing grade. To avoid such a situation during a semester of distance learning, an online “Scores Update Sheet” was created for each class and updated weekly with the students’ scores for each assessment task, using anonymous code-names which the students chose themselves. Every week, students were required to complete an online form attesting that they had checked the Scores Update Sheet. It was hoped that this would not only be an informative means of acknowledging the receipt of assignments and of giving feedback, but that it would also foster a sense of responsibility, in that students would be informed of low scores in time for them to take appropriate action to improve them. A survey administered at the end of the semester showed emphatically that the Scores Update Sheet had been helpful for students, and had made an important difference to the way most students prioritized their assignments. Almost all students expressed a wish that such a facility was in place in more of their classes.