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I am a teaching assistant in an undergraduate bioinformatics course. A few weeks ago the students in the course handed in the final assignment (which is worth 80% of the final grade), which we (me and the other members of the course staff) are currently in the process of grading.

The lecturer in charge of the course wants to give the students only their final grades for this assignment without any feedback on why points were taken off. Her justification for this is that she do not want students to pass the feedback to the next class that will take this course and thus avoid copying of answers. While she did not say so explicitly, my impression from some things she did say is that by avoiding a more detailed feedback she hopes to discourage student from appealing their grades. My university's regulations state that a student can appeal any grade, but in the appeal form the student must specify exactly which question/part of the assignment they appeal and why do they think that points were taken off unfairly, so no feedback - no appeal and thus no extra work for the course staff.

I am rather uncomfortable with this attitude for several reasons:

  1. From a didactic point of view I think that merely giving a student their final grade without any indication what was his/her errors is wrong is it does not allow them to improve.

  2. Not giving feedback will not prevent students from passing their work to the next class. It will just mean that the errors of student from this class will propagate to the next class.

On the other hand, I am uncomfortable from insisting on this issue from several reasons:

  1. This is my first year as a TA, whereas the lecturer has been giving this course for many years, so it is possible that her judgement is better then mine, even though it seems wrong to me.

  2. It is unlikely that I will teach this course again (I intend to graduate and move to another university later this year). Thus, even if I do manage to persuade the lecturer to give a more detailed feedback, I will not be around to face the consequences she is afraid of whereas she will, so insisting on this may be a bit unfair to her.

  3. The other TAs in the course do not seem to share my opinion (they did not voice any strong opinion of this matter).

  4. I do not want to start a confrontation with the lecturer, as I might need a reference from her in the future.

There is still a window of a few weeks until we are supposed to give the grades, so theoretically I can reopen this discussion.

Basically, I have two questions:

  1. Given all of the above, should I attempt to persuade the lecturer to allow more detailed feedback?
  2. If I should, how can I persuade her?

EDIT

Some additional information that seem relevant is light of the comments and answers:

  1. As per the lecturer's instruction we keep a detailed record of the grading of the assignment (this also includes that lecturer, with respect to the parts of the assignment that she grades herself). So detailed feedback is available. Thus we can rule out the possibility of laziness or unwillingness to waste time on detailed grading.

  2. Assessment and feedback during the course Many of the classes in the course included practice sessions during which the students were supposed to complete on assignment. These assignment were not handed in or graded, but were meant solely for the students' learning. During these sessions the students were able to consult the course staff if they did not understand or were unsure about a certain question. In addition there were two midterm assignments, each worth 10% percent of the final grade (I would mention that at my institution it is quite normal that the final exam/assignment makes 80% or even more of the final grade, but is not normal not to give feedback on it).
    For the first of these midterms we did not give students individual feedback, only the final grade. We did mention in class some frequent errors and issues in the assignments. Formally students were allowed to approach us for more detailed feedback but as far as I know few if any did that. For the second midterm assignment we give detailed feedback.
    The in the grading policy between difference between the two midterm assignments is that the first assignment was submitted only electronically via the course website and in the second assignment the student were also required to hand in a hard copy of the assignment. The lecturer refused to allow feedback on the electronic submission because this would be easier to pass to the next class. Initially she wanted to require hard copy submission of the first assignment too (presumably to allow detailed feedback). When I asked prior to the issuing of the assignment to the students why an electronic submission is not enough she changes it an electronic submission only. I did not realise at the time that this would deprive students from feedback. She only informed us about that after the assignments were handed in and we were about to start grading.

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user1614062
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  • Have you checked your university's regulations to see if they set any standards for reporting grades by question/part? – Patricia Shanahan Feb 06 '17 at 15:36
  • Would you be allowed to go over the student's work with them individually in office hours? – Nate Eldredge Feb 06 '17 at 16:19
  • @Patricia Shanahan: I don't know if the the regulations say something on this explicitly, but even if they do I would not feel comfortable with confronting the lecturer on this ground alone. – user1614062 Feb 06 '17 at 16:22
  • @Nate Eldredge: Maybe if a student will specifically ask for a clarification on the grade, but not many students will do that. Also such students will likely approach the lecturer and not me, and I don't think she will be receptive to the idea. – user1614062 Feb 06 '17 at 16:25
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    Have you talked to your advisor or someone else in the department you trust about this? They can likely help you navigate local politics. – Richard Erickson Feb 06 '17 at 16:26
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    I know a few professors who don't write down detailed feedback in their initial assessments of final projects; instead, they just assign a letter grade, and keep a private rough record of their impression of the assignment. This is for two reasons: (1) The most time-consuming part of grading assignments is actually providing the detailed feedback; reading over an assignment and getting a sense of its quality is pretty quick. And the end of the semester can be quite busy. (2) Many students never read feedback comments on assignments during the term, let alone after the end of the term. ... – Michael Seifert Feb 06 '17 at 17:42
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    ... If a student does request their final assignment be returned after they receive their final grade, the professor will then go back to their "private rough record" and fill in the detailed feedback after the fact. This whole technique seems a little odd to me, but some of my colleagues swear by it in order to maintain their sanity at the end of the semester. – Michael Seifert Feb 06 '17 at 17:45
  • @Richard Erickson: I don't think local politics are much of a concern in this. It is not that I fear that lecturer will retaliate if I would confront her on this issue. Getting a reference from her would be nice but not critical so this is the least of my concerns. I am just wondering whether it would correct to act on this and how. Given the feedback I got so far from other responders, I will probably drop the issue. – user1614062 Feb 06 '17 at 21:07
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    Re: Some comments to answers below: I'm not that surprised by this policy on the final. At my institution, all final exams are stored in a "vault" by the registrar after 72 hours and then generally not available to instructor or students. In some cases I record stuff so as to give feedback, but I'm really working against the flow of the institution for that. The thing that does smell stinky to me here is that only 20% grade/feedback came prior to this point. – Daniel R. Collins Feb 06 '17 at 21:26
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    @Daniel R. Collins: Thank you for your valuable input. it is customary in my university that the final exam/assignment make up most of the grade (up to 90% in some courses). However, such assignments are generally returned to the students, and usually with substantial feedback. In fact I can't recall a single instance where feedback on a final was avoided in such a way. Nonetheless I think under the circumstances I will take your advice. – user1614062 Feb 06 '17 at 21:36
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    As a programmer, I can't help but think of the compilers/parsers/etc. that give really, really bad error messages and make my life miserable trying to find the real problem... You can waste literally hours on a single error sometimes. – jpmc26 Feb 07 '17 at 00:21
  • Can you let students come in and walk them through their answers in person? – Kevin Feb 07 '17 at 19:08
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    Speaking as a former university instructor who had to grade things, have you considered this person is just lazy and doesn't want to take the time to do proper grading? That was always the most tedious part of my job, but it's also one of the most important for student growth to have good feedback, so I did it. – childofsoong Feb 07 '17 at 22:13
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    No. I understand your good intentions and appreciate your courage to follow your conscience. As you analysed there does seem to be a deliberate grey-area justification. Since you have done the best for the students, dont worry about the rest (grading part). I think accumulation of such instances in life will make you realize the difference in 'practice vs preach' in academics, along with creative ways of justification. Hopefully future gets better :) – Rahul Feb 08 '17 at 07:35
  • @Kevin: I doubt many students will opt for that. Also we distributed the grading so that each question is graded by a different members of the course staff. Thus, this is not a possibility I could offer students as I won't be able to answer about questions I didn't grade. – user1614062 Feb 08 '17 at 15:55
  • @ childofsoong: I don't think this is the case. Some of the grading is done by the lecturer herself, some by the TAs. If it was laziness on hep part so could have just assign all of the grading to the TAs. I don't know what she does about the parts that she grade but she directed us (the TAs) to keep a meticulous record of the grading and why points were taken off, so at least for some questions detailed feedback is available. So I do believe that the reasons are what I stated in the question. – user1614062 Feb 08 '17 at 15:59
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    A grade without comments is just about as useful for the student's purpose (learning new things) as giving no grade to begin with. The purpose of studying is to learn things, not pass exams. – Matti Virkkunen Feb 08 '17 at 16:31
  • Question: Does the lecturer give any feedback on other work prior to this in the course? – Daniel R. Collins Feb 09 '17 at 04:00
  • @ Daniel R. Collins: I edited the question to include details about the prior feedback in the course and some other information that seem relevant in light of the comments and answers, see question. – user1614062 Feb 10 '17 at 01:38
  • @user1614062: I think that edit was helpful, thank you. – Daniel R. Collins Feb 10 '17 at 19:54

5 Answers5

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No, you should not confront the lecturer again ("reopen") over this issue. That would not be an efficient use of your time.

You've talked to the course instructor. She has explained to you her justification. Presumably she's observed both cases of giving and not giving feedback for the final in the past (you have not). You do not have the power to compel her. You don't have other allies on the grading staff. You are ending your engagement there in the immediate future. You will not deal with this issue again. Move on.

Keep this in your list of "things I think I could improve on when I become a lecturer" for the future. Hopefully this will be a memorable case to experiment with later on your own. And you'll get to observe another institution's practices for comparison in the meantime. You may well be right, but you triply don't have the time to redirect this in your current position.

Daniel R. Collins
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    +1. This is unfortunately not the time and place for the OP to pick a fight. "Keep your powder dry", as they say. – tonysdg Feb 06 '17 at 16:34
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    +1 for "Keep this in your list of "things I think I could improve on when I become a lecturer"" – Zenon Feb 06 '17 at 17:08
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    +1 for an answer that says something correct but unpleasant to admit. It is difficult to stand by and do nothing in the face of injustice (and I do agree with OP's analysis of why the lecturer's behavior is wrong), but given the power dynamics at play here and OP's personal situation, I think accepting the lecturer's decision is the most sensible course of action. – Dan Romik Feb 06 '17 at 18:45
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    Could also talk to the dean and get the lecturer disciplined, no? as far as I understand, she's deliberately skirting the appeals process. Thats worth firing for, imo. – Magisch Feb 07 '17 at 07:29
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    @Magisch The OP thinks that might be why the lecturer isn't giving back feedback. It sounds like the OP doesn't have any proof for that claim and isn't even fully convinced that truly is the case themselves. – Kevin Feb 07 '17 at 16:45
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    Yes...but. Feedback is the essence of the learning process, in any context. Some one is refusing to do her job. – MickeyfAgain_BeforeExitOfSO Feb 07 '17 at 22:52
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    Can't it be escalated? E.g. handed off to whoever the lecturer's superior is. The OP may not have the power to change things, but someone else might, and handing over the responsibility to act feels like it would be better than essentially sucking it up. – Amani Kilumanga Feb 08 '17 at 02:22
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    -1, this is why injustices impregnate and pervive in the western educational system. "just move on". – CptEric Feb 08 '17 at 08:54
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    This is exactly the right thing to do. Politics have ended too many grad student careers. – dev_nut Feb 08 '17 at 18:44
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    @CptEric the answer has no downvotes, so it looks as though like you didn't put your vote where your mouth is. When you have to downvote, downvote, don't talk. – Dan Romik Feb 11 '17 at 23:14
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    "it's not public, but it's there" ~SO message when i try to do so. @DanRomik . get down your high horse. – CptEric Feb 13 '17 at 07:03
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    This answer is a problem with academia. The point of a course is 1) teach students, 2) certify knowledge and 80 percent of a course without feedback is not conducive to healthy courses. – Harrichael Mar 24 '17 at 20:23
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What the lecturer is doing is reprehensible, but there is nothing you can do about it.

A vast amount of educational research demonstrates that prompt feedback improves learning. The lecturer appears to be systematically avoiding giving any feedback, which is absurd.

Why would the professor do such a thing? You list her stated reason and one suspected reason. Neither of these is a valid reason for her to abdicate her responsibility to run the course in such a way that students receive feedback. Another quite likely reason is simply that she's lazy. The bare minimum she has to do in this course is show up to the lectures. Anything else added to the structure of the course will increase the amount of time she has to spend. If she assigns the students graded work, then even if she doesn't have to read the work herself, there is some nonzero amount of time she has to spend handling that, even if it just means entering scores into a spreadsheet or something.

Her justification for this is that she do not want students to pass the feedback to the next class that will take this course and thus avoid copying of answers.

There is a very simple solution to this problem, which is that she needs to stop reusing the same final project semester after semester. It sounds like she's too lazy to do that.

The reason this is an unwinnable fight for you is that when someone is this lazy about their job, it's because that's the kind of person they are, and they are strongly motivated to keep things the way they are. Offering sound ethical and educational arguments to the contrary will not work, because an unethical person will never agree with an argument when agreement would mean having to change their behavior.

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    As if the students didn't talk to each other. It is rather easy to know whose assignments were graded high last semester (being 80% of the grade), and then allow the freshmen to peruse that work. Not ethical, but students sometimes are not. Security by obscurity does not work on its own. – Mindwin Remember Monica Feb 07 '17 at 19:20
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    I wonder if this answer should be modified in light of the OP's edited, extra information (last paragraph) -- i.e., that feedback is given on earlier assignments; and that the final exam policy is standard throughout the institution. Is "What the lecturer is doing is reprehensible" still appropriate? – Daniel R. Collins Mar 25 '17 at 14:37
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If there are any issues, they are between the instructor and the students. One would assume that if a student approached the instructor with questions about the grade, then she would be responsive to that request. If she is not, the student has the responsibility to pursue recourse.

The best you can do is to grade as quickly as possible, so that students will have the ability to ask questions soon.

Scott Seidman
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    Some people think you have a moral duty to do a job well if you are doing a job. Especially if the well being of others depends on you doing your job well. – Yakk Feb 07 '17 at 14:41
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There was one professor at a college I attended who, knowing that grading is the least pleasant part of a professor's job, wrote a "quiz" program that automatically graded student assignments without him intervening. Students kept complaining about it in course reviews, and he kept tweaking it, sometimes in ways students found very strange. (At one time, his students could get zero credit for a good chunk of a working solution; at another time his students could get partial credit for what turned out to be very minimal.)

That "quiz" program was the reason he didn't get tenure, and that was the only time in academia that I have seen sheer delight on the part of a student who just heard that a professor was not extended tenure.

Others are, unfortunately, probably right in assessing the politics and saying that the problem is not one you could straighten out or should try. I'd love to give you some pixie dust that would give the necessary clout, but I can't.

Meanwhile, you have provided perhaps a lesson for the rest of us that a large portion of a professor's obligation to students is to answer the question, "How could I have done better?" Your own situation may be immovable, but you've given everyone else here a valuable "Heads up!"

Christos Hayward
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    +1 for the pixie dust part:). Also it is good to know that such a lesson is needed. As a student I always received feedback for my work so I thought this is elementary, which is probably part of the reason that I find the situation difficult. – user1614062 Feb 08 '17 at 16:02
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You would not expect detailed feedback for a final exam so why for a final assessment?

This does not seem abnormal to me. Feedback is given through the course to help students improve, and then they are assessed on what they have learned during the final assessment. Were this assessment a final exam there would be no expectation of detailed feedback, so why expect it for a different form of assessment?

Feedback is not "free"; it hugely increases the amount of time that marking a piece of work takes. For a final assessment the chances that the feedback will simply be ignored by any student is substantially higher since there is no further assessment of that material, and the value of that feedback is also lower. It is not unreasonable to hold assessments without feedback to students.

Jack Aidley
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    Gee! I provide detailed feedback for all my exams! (Exams during the semester are returned with feedback. Final exams are not returned, but I mark them as though they would be, and invite students to come by to look over their final exams. – Bob Brown Feb 06 '17 at 18:22
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    I think that's very generous of you @BobBrown. – Jack Aidley Feb 06 '17 at 18:26
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    -1. Not giving detailed feedback is very different from not giving any feedback, which is what OP is describing, including not giving a breakdown of how points were assigned for different questions. The former is somewhat reasonable, whereas the latter sounds like unethical behavior on the part of the lecturer (especially given their apparent motivation of making grade appeals impossible). And yes, offering feedback is not "free", it is part of our jobs for which we are paid a salary. – Dan Romik Feb 06 '17 at 18:37
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    +1 To counter some downvotes; like Jack, I'm not that surprised by this policy on the final. See my comment to the main question above. – Daniel R. Collins Feb 06 '17 at 21:27
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    You don't expect feedback on 80% of your grade? – jpmc26 Feb 07 '17 at 00:50
  • Giving feedback exposes you to arguments, which are very time consuming and unpleasant, better not to write anything, just put down the marks. Then hand out a sheet with commonly made mistakes. – Hercule Poirot Apr 24 '22 at 11:12