Pass/Fail/Merit/Distinction (Rubric)

Pass/Fail/Merit/Distinction (Rubric)

by Sami Cooper -
Number of replies: 10

Our College uses a rubric grading system to assign grades to submitted assignments. I would like to add fail / pass / merit / distinction grades to activities (quizzes / uploaded assignements etc).

I know this can be done using scales or letters but my problem is that they rely on a percentage grade. If a student fails to pass specific criteria they could still fail even with high percentages.

I would like to assign a fail / pass / merit / distinction grade regardless of percentage grade outcome. Is there a way?

Something like having a drop-down-box along side the grade-entry-box.. or anything else that would work?

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In reply to Sami Cooper

Re: Pass/Fail/Merit/Distinction (Rubric)

by Lev Abramov -

Is there a way? No idea. I just feel puzzled by the idea itself from the point of view of pedagogical consistency.

You're saying you will be handing out grades not based on the actualy perfomance of your students.

Are we being led to believe your esteemed College has finaly gotten rid of merit-based assessment altogether? smile

Hmmm... Does the Dean know what you are up to?

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In reply to Lev Abramov

Re: Pass/Fail/Merit/Distinction (Rubric)

by Avrila Klaus -

"You're saying you will be handing out grades not based on the actualy perfomance of your students."

Really?  I didn't get that from this -- I thought it was looking for criterion-based rather than percentage-based grading.  I've seen this on six-traits essay grading, where (for example) a score that meets the standards might be straight 4s...getting a 3 on one thing and a 5 on another would be the same percentage but wouldn't pass, by those criteria.

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In reply to Lev Abramov

Re: Pass/Fail/Merit/Distinction (Rubric)

by Sami Cooper -

Sorry, you have misunderstood what I am asking. Grades are most definitely based on student performance (Percentage). To clarify:

Our assignments consist of 5 criterion. Each one totaling 20% (20*5=100%). A student must score 5% in each criterion to qualify for a pass; meaning a student can fail with an 84% grade (20+20+20+20+4). The reason for this is that a student scoring less than 5% in a specific criteria, shows a fundamental lack of understanding for a particular subject.

This grading method is very common in the UK's higher eductaion sector.

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In reply to Sami Cooper

Re: Pass/Fail/Merit/Distinction (Rubric)

by Marcus Green -
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Just to confirm Sami's point, this type of grading is very, very common in the FE vocational sector (16-18 year olds). The commercial VLE where I work does not support this type of grading.

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In reply to Sami Cooper

Re: Pass/Fail/Merit/Distinction (Rubric)

by Tim Hunt -
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Rubrics are being worked on for the assignment module and gradebook for Moodle 2.2: http://docs.moodle.org/dev/Advanced_grading_methods.

I will wait to see how that pans out before trying to do anything for quiz essay questions.

Average of ratings: Useful (2)
In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Pass/Fail/Merit/Distinction (Rubric)

by Gary Newport -

We also have the Fail/Pass/etc scenario for BTEC courses and have set up a scale and used outcomes. We are still testing this out but it appears to work nicely. We can mark an assignment against the outcomes (P1, P2, M1, etc) as well as give the overall work a grade (Pass/Merit/Distinction). We have applied these to assignments and Workshop. There has been no need for this on quizzes or other exercises currently since any of these are still on a progression basis.

Currently it all seems to work and the students like it so...?

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In reply to Gary Newport

Re: Pass/Fail/Merit/Distinction (Rubric)

by Sami Cooper -

So if a students 'overall grade' is a Pass/Merit/Distinction, but fails against one of your 'learning outcomes', how do you display that they have actually failed?

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In reply to Sami Cooper

Re: Pass/Fail/Merit/Distinction (Rubric)

by Gary Newport -

So, I have an assignment (A1), where there are three criteria I am marking against; P1, M1, D3. If they fail to achieve P1 then the P1 is not marked as an Outcome but also the work is Below Pass (since they MUST have the PASS criteria to gain anything else). If they have P1 and M1 then it is a MERIT and so on. I am applying the BTEC rules that work cannot be the higher mark if the lower marks are not ahieved.

 

Marcus is correct in that I have now worked with Uniservity, Blackboard and Fronter and none of these cater for BTEC. Moodle never has really but it is a simple thing to make it work effectively; whilst the others have never produced a workable structure.

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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Pass/Fail/Merit/Distinction (Rubric)

by n kearns -

When is this likely to be avilable as we are keen to be able to grade bTEC criteria wihtin the moodle gradebook.

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