Overview
It happens — and all too often for our comfort: students complain about their grades. How should you respond?
- This page offers strategies to help you resolve grade issues with your students, based on suggestions shared by veterans instructors at the Academy and elsewhere.
- Keep in mind, though, that your best option is to be proactive, so that grade complaints don't arise in the first place! Learn more: Minimizing grade complaints.
Preliminaries
Get some perspective...
Let your colleagues inspire you...
Double-check yourself...
Work with your student
- Lots of emotions are attached to grades, so you may find it helpful to insist on a cooling off period to allow students time to review your feedback and reflect on the quality of their work.
- When a student emails you about a grade, ask them to do some legwork before you discuss their work with them. Have the student:
- Review the AAU Grading Scale to clarify the Academy's general approach to grades.
- Take another look at the grading criteria or rubric for the assignment.
- Review their own work in relation to the rubric and make notes about their work's strengths and weaknesses. Identify the specific points on the rubric on which they think they were unfairly graded and any questions they might have. Getting students to identify the problems with their work themselves makes them more invested in solving these problems.
- Reflect on how much time and effort they have put into their work so far. How does this compare to time requirements for online courses, in general, or for this assignment, in particular?
- Review all the feedback you gave their classmates on the same assignment. (You can verify that they've done this by checking the "Participation" section of their grades interface.)
- Ask the student to get back in touch with you, after they have completed these tasks, so that you can discuss any questions they still have. You might also ask that they send you the notes from their investigation to help focus your conversation.
- Propose an online meeting to review and discuss the student's work — but make it clear that changing their grade is an unlikely outcome of such a conversation. Getting involved in an email battle can be frustrating and counterproductive, and both parties can be tempted to say things they wouldn't express face-to-face. A live meeting humanizes the encounter. (Learn more: Teaching in a Virtual Office) In your conversation:
- Assume the student's good intentions — and don't take the conversation personally.
- Keep the focus on improving the student's work, not on the grade.
When you meet with students, as much as possible, orient the conversation away from justifying the grade the student received, and toward "here's how you can improve on future assignments of this type." Regardless of whatever snotty emails I've received from a student, I always approach this type of meeting treating the student 100% as if they are honestly trying to improve their writing/test taking strategies/etc. — and for almost all students, being treated that way puts them in that mindset (comment from "rainbowbrite" on MetaFilter).
- Remind the student that a grade is not a judgment on their ability but an opportunity for growth — and that your job is to help them understand where they still have room for growth and how to improve. (Learn more: Are Good Art Students Born or Made?)
Don't be a martyr. If the student is argumentative or abusive or otherwise inappropriate, end the conversation politely. Let the student know that if they are not satisfied with the result of your discussion, they can contact the department director or — worst case scenario — file a grievance. Students can find information about the grievance process, including FAQ and detailed directions for filing a grievance, on the Live Chat & Information Center page.
- If your student can't or won't meet with you, use the communication strategy outlined in Responding to Challenging Students Online to craft an email response.
- If appropriate for your class and your discipline, offer the student an opportunity to redo the assignment, so they can demonstrate that they have learned from your feedback. If you decide to do this, set some specific guidelines for their late submission:
- Give them limited time in which to complete the revision — say, one week — and adjust the closing date on the relevant assignment so they can submit their work.
- Give them limited time in which to complete the revision — say, one week — and adjust the closing date on the relevant assignment so they can submit their work.
- Require them to explain in writing (or via video) on how they have incorporated your feedback into their revision.
- Average their two grades — the grade on the original assignment and the grade on their revised work — to determine their assignment grade.
- Protect yourself by keeping good records: document your communication with students within the LMS: save Mailbox messages, etc. And don't put anything in writing that you wouldn't want to see published in the local newspaper!