Update 18-Apr-2019: I’ve cobbled together a script that will generate reports for students depending on which assessments they have passed. The code is here. I expect that one of the challenges of Specs Grading is managing student completion and ensuring all students have up to date information on their progress. I’m not sure that Blackboard will suit this. I’ve mocked up what an app to allow teachers to manage this data would look like. Read more

I’ve become interested in an approach to grading that I have learned is called Specifications Grading. This tries to solve problems with the common approach of calculating module grades as the average across assessments, each rated 0-100%. The ones that I feel most strongly about are: Aggregating performance across several assessments results in numbers that are difficult to interpret. A student earning 90%+ probably achieved all of the module outcomes, a student earning less than 10% probably achieved none of them. Read more