Transparent grading criteria

[Nik_Blazius]

Hi! I would love if I knew something about how my works are graded in class. Sometimes it's difficult to write a good text because I don't know what the grading is based on. I believe some information about this could be included in the class prompt booklets. Moreover, I would like to suggest to Professors and Class Helpers to give a nice feedback on the story after grading, it would help to understand what the criteria are. I always ask how I could improve my story, but I rarely get a useful/detailed/exact advice (which doesn't really make Professors and Class Helpers to seem competent). :/

Edit: I always forget what grades are there, a list of them would also be nice.

 

[Nyn]

I think it would be nice to know on what our work is graded on, but I don't really care too much about that to be honest xD If I try hard and follow the assignment you will usually get a good grade.

Here's a list of all the grades (I believe) you can get:
O+ / O / O- / E+ / E / E- / A+ / A / A- / P+ / P / P- / T+ / T / T-

 

[Nik_Blazius]

I try hard and follow the assignment you will usually get a good grade.

I try to get an O+ every time, if I do something then I want to do that properly. Sometimes I have no idea what I did wrong and I have no chance to know it since there is no information about grading and as I said Professors and Class Helpers not every time explain how I could have written a better text. Actually, there is another reason why I'm suggesting this, it would make easier to give suggestions on what the criteria should be. I believe grammar should not be on the criteria list, since not every student is a native English speaker, but sometimes (sadly) grading is based on it.

 

[Aurora]

Greetings therblaze,
thank you for taking the time to make a suggestion for Potterworld. We always appreciate players making suggestions and leaving feedback!
I will now bring up your idea to the rest of the Poltergeist Team so that we can discuss it and get back to you with a response.
Have a wonderful day!

 

[sophia]

Heya! I understand that it could be a bit frustrating to receive a grade lower than what you were expecting. However, there are a few downsides to us leaving feedback for each and every assignment we grade.

Many of the notes classes here on Potterworld, at least from my experience, can have anywhere from 20 students to 120 students. When we are grading assignments, it already takes more than an hour to grade every person's work. To also provide feedback on each and every book would take even more time, and some players do have to leave early from class to pursue other things. The best way to receive feedback is to mail it to the person who graded your assignment, who can take a second look at it and provide you the best feedback then.

We do our best to provide feedback to players who ask for it. However, we cannot remember every thing about someone's assignment when we are grading many others. I completely understand where you are coming from. But, I do not believe what has been suggested is the best way to go about this. If you would like more specific feedback on your work, you can always message the person who graded it to take another look. We are always happy to help you out.

 

[Nik_Blazius]

When we are grading assignments, it already takes more than an hour to grade every person's work. To also provide feedback on each and every book would take even more time, and some players do have to leave early from class to pursue other things. The best way to receive feedback is to mail it to the person who graded your assignment, who can take a second look at it and provide you the best feedback then.

You have a really good point there! In this case, I would suggest a better communication since nobody offered me to read through my work after the end of the class (or anything like this). However, I think the criteria still could be written in the prompt book because it wouldn't make class longer.

 

[Mallaidh]

I think they used to leave feedback actually, not much just a little sentence saying "This is really great work!" or "This could have been better, but still good!"

Pretty much what happened is you were told not to sign your book and quill, but leave your name at the end so they knew who it was by and then they added the feedback sentence onto the end of your work.

I'm guessing they changed it because people either didn't sign it or they didn't leave their username on.

 

[Mak]

Hey! I'm new to being a professor, but I've taught a few notes classes so far! I can't speak for the other professors, but my discord PMs are always open (mckenzie #1354) if you'd like me to give you feedback on anything that you write in class <3. In addition, if it's my class, I'd love for you to send me your assignment in the mail for me to read over and give you tips on what you did well and what you could do better on! But yes, as Sophia said, it does take around an hour for the class team to get through all of the assignments so it'd be really hard for us to ask everyone if they'd like feedback. So, my suggestion is this: if you'd like feedback, just ask! <3

 

[Nik_Blazius]

Pretty much what happened is you were told not to sign your book and quill, but leave your name at the end so they knew who it was by and then they added the feedback sentence onto the end of your work.

I really like this idea, but I think it would be a problem that the student didn't sign the book. I don't think it would take too much time, but maybe it would. Thanks for the information!

 

[Nik_Blazius]

I can't speak for the other professors, but my discord PMs are always open (mckenzie #1354) if you'd like me to give you feedback on anything that you write in class <3. In addition, if it's my class, I'd love for you to send me your assignment in the mail for me to read over and give you tips on what you did well and what you could do better on!

That's exactly what I meant on better communication in a previous comment. Thank you for the oppurtunity! I would write something similar to this in the class prompt booklet, so that everyone knows there is this opportunity. If I hadn't made this thread, when would I have gotten an information about this (because I asked Professors and Helpers for giving feedback several times)?

 

[Mak]

I can't give you an exact answer on that, but can tell you that asking questions never hurts!

 

[luckiestblock]

100% agree; I have attended quite a few notes classes in my almost 5 years of playing Potterworld. In all of those classes even if I follow the prompt and write it multitudes over the required length it still feels random and based on the person grading it. Some class helpers I feel give Os really quite easily and others it is quite an anomaly; sometimes I feel as if I put the same amount of work into different assignments and can get a O- and an A+. Because of this I often times will take the quiz option not because I enjoy it but because it is a much safer more objectively scored assignment (which means I usually get O-). Adding grading criteria will make the grade less subjective and make it so there are very specific things you can work towards.

2ndly, I believe that feedback is very much needed. I know a lot of people complain that it would take up a lot of class time and to that I say, no, it would not. By feedback I am talking about 3ish word sentence fragments. Stuff like "Increase pages" or "Focus on Prompt" or "Be more creative" or "Include more class notes". At least in my opinion making every grader write literally 3 words would not really slow down class due to how minimal the amount of time is. In return it would enormously help players by allowing them to see their mistakes and correct them.

 

[Nik_Blazius]

Another idea came to my mind: signing books with the title "Feedback", and these could be graded at the end of the class. I believe this could work.

 

[luckiestblock]

Another idea came to my mind: signing books with the title "Feedback", and these could be graded at the end of the class. I believe this could work.

I think the best solution for feedback is a sentence fragment that would be displayed in chat. You know how when your assignment is graded a chat message appears that is something like “Your assignment has been graded. You have been rewarded with X Academic Credits”? What I would suggest is that a third message appears that is like “Feedback: (Insert Feedback Here)”.

 

[Mallaidh]

I wasn't aware that some teachers are happy to give you feedback if you mail them your assessment.
I've been asked a couple times to mail my assignment to a helper/professor because they really like it but I wouldn't do it either way, I'd suggest that professors mention that you're encouraged to send mail and you will receive feedback if you do otherwise I'd never do that normally.

This also doesn't take any time to implement - just slightly change the guidance on what professors should do.

 

[Aurora]

Hello again @Nik_Blazius,

Thank you for your valuable feedback! Unfortunately, we will be declining this suggestion for the following reasons. Firstly, it would take quite a bit of time to write up a grading criteria for each class. Generally our grading criteria is based off of detail, creativity and responsiveness to the given prompt, but it can still be somewhat subjective depending on who is grading. Therefore, it would be relatively complicated to use this criteria for all of a one hour long class with 120 students.
The same issue exists with leaving feedback. Even with only 3 words per student, it would still take time to try and think of a feedback and be able to put it into 3 words, which often isn't exactly possible. It's also likely that these 3 words might not help students much, as they'd have to be rather vague, and this might cause discussions with Class Helpers and Professors, which would also take time. It would also have to be done for all 120 students, which is 360 words and that is not insignificant. Therefore, this would definitely slow down grading by a significant amount and cause classes to last longer than they should, especially if they are very full.
A similar issue would exist if 120 students per class would mail the professor their assignments or create an additional book called feedback, especially if a professor teaches multiple classes in a week.
However, we do attempt to have a general grading criteria for all professors and class helpers, though this can still vary slightly, and therefore we encourage you to ask class helpers or professors if you have any questions about this! Mailing professors your assignments after class for more detailed feedback is also always an option!

I hope this made sense and does not discourage you from leaving further feedback! Have a wonderful day <3

Best regards,
Aurora