After successfully switching to specifications grading in BIOE415, I shared my process of how I...
I am a co-founder of the Strategic Preparation for Academic Resilience and Know-how (SPARK) program, which is an initiative to prepare STEM graduate students who identify as women for faculty careers. We are creating resources and workshops to fill a gap in preparation that isn’t readily available as part of many graduate programs or targeted for an audience of women.
Our primary focus is to help women graduate students strategically plan for their first academic job search. We have created an 11-week workshop series that provides background about the faculty and post-doc job search process. Each participant will create a draft of major statements required to apply for most academic jobs. Then participants will work in small groups with a mentor to peer review and refine each statement.
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Across higher education, there has been an increased emphasis on creating inclusive classroom experiences for students. However, these efforts have largely been focused on traditional lecture-based courses. While some of the evidence-based practices of these initiatives apply to lab and design-based courses, there are several unique situations in these courses that would benefit from a different approach. For example, lab-based courses generally have longer in-class periods that require extended focus; use unique tools, equipment and software; and are required to complete activities that are very different from traditional homework. In design or project-based classes, much of the project work happens in unstructured time outside of the classroom where team dynamics cannot be observed by instructional staff. In both lab and design-based courses, students interact with their peers and instructional staff in very different ways. Broadly experiential learning (labs and projects) is an essential part of STEM education, therefore, if we aim to have a diverse group of students succeed in STEM, then we also need for them to be included and active participants in all aspects of their education.
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In the spring of 2021, I started looking for collaborators who were interested in research in undergraduate laboratories. Through the power of professional networks, six of us began meeting to identify a project for the Strategic Instructional Innovation Program in the Academy for Excellence in Engineering Education (AE3) in the Grainger College of Engineering (GCoE) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The first project we identified was to create a community of practice (CoP) of instructors of laboratory and design courses. Since then, the community of practice has continued to grow and expand its impact.
Read more about the Lab and Design CoP on their website.
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The goal of alternative grading is to apply assessment methods that separate feedback from the final grade of the course. In the United States, traditional grading is frequently based on a weighted average of points earned throughout the course to arrive at a formulaic final grade that is indifferent to the actual learning attained by each student. Most alternative grading systems do not assign grades based on these traditional percentage or points-based scales.
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