My Turn: Midterm grade process flawed

Midterm grades came out this week, but who cares? If your grade wasn't as high as you expected, I'm sure someone told you, "Don't worry, it's just a midterm grade." If it was better than you thought, the same person might have told you, "Calm down, it's just a midterm grade." What he means is that the letter you see on your report only represents a fraction of what your final grade will be. In most classes, this fraction is a third or less.

These midterm grade reports are mandatory for faculty to submit. They were due Monday at 10 a.m., according to St. Bonaventure's academic calendar. Whether professors have graded any significant assignments yet or not, faculty members submit a grade for each student. Some of my professors took class time or sent an e-mail to explain how the midterm grade was calculated, what was factored in and what was not.

If the university is going to require a notification to let students and parents know how the semester is going for each class, why mandate a report that shows so little? The midterm grade system, as it stands, shows students how they did on the first few assignments. Professors should just return graded assignments to students instead.

Perhaps the university is trying to bring parents into the loop with these mid-semester grade reports, so they can chide or praise their kids for what they've done. Unfortunately, the information they receive is not representative enough to make a judgment. I've heard enough stories about students coming home and having to explain to their parents why what they saw on the report wasn't as bad as it seemed. This misrepresentative midterm report system can turn one bad quiz grade into an argument with parents about whether or not to drop a course.

Moodle, the online courseware used by most students and professors already, has a grades page where professors can input scores students can see. If this Moodle grade book were mandatory, students and parents would have a better idea of how each assignment is affecting their final grades.The professor's grade book would be the student's report.

I had a class last semester that made use of the Moodle grade book, and it was easy to see how I was doing, and I made changes to my study habits many times throughout the semester, rather than just once.

The midterm grade system mandated by the university is unnecessary and uninformative. No student would be wise to rely on such a system to evaluate their performance, and few students do. The good news is that a more representative and cohesive alternative, Moodle, is right under our noses.

e-mail: hartnetc@sbu.edu