Verified by 
Motivation
I Made My College Class Easy to Pass When We Went Online: The Balance
Part 2: Give students a chance to climb high, but don't flunk them if they can't
Posted April 21, 2020
In a typical semester, about zero students fail my class. I don’t want that number to go up in this crazy semester. Here’s the thing: Under the best circumstances, the grade a student gets in a class is only an approximation of the grade they deserve. Right now it’s worse. With students learning online, pass/fail, studying from home under a wide variety of challenges, this semester is not representative of what college should be. Student performance is only partially under their control. Thus, the connection between the grade they get and the grade they deserve is even weaker than usual. It follows that there is an increased chance that I’ll give someone the wrong grade. And I don’t want to give a failing grade to someone who deserves to pass. So I don’t want to give a failing grade unless it’s clear that the student really deserves it.
Some professors disagree with me. Many have set relatively high standards for passing their classes now that we’ve gone pass-fail. In some cases, they’ve actually made it harder to pass. If that’s you, I don’t want to sit in judgment. I shouldn't, because I’m certainly no better than you. But I do have some more thoughts; consider them, if you want, and then draw your own conclusions.
First off, if someone limps into your gym carrying a heavy load in one hand and can’t lift the weight, do you really want to fail them? Remember that unlike the gym, you won’t necessarily see what they’re carrying, so you might fail them without even knowing what they’re up against. I especially worry about this because some students have a personal code of honor that makes them refuse to ask for special help. And some students might fail simply because they refuse to cheat.
What if you have a student who makes an honest effort and doesn't cheat or ask for help, but they’re also dealing with a lot of other stuff, and they fail your class. From one perspective that makes sense; if they didn’t learn the material to your standards, maybe they should fail.
Just remember, though, that when someone fails, when they find out, they are going to feel like that kid in the gym who can’t lift the weight, and they’re going to feel like you’re in their face screaming at them that they are a failure.
My feeling is, make a syllabus that allows them to earn a passing grade without cheating or asking for special help. I’m convinced that requires making a syllabus with flexibility built-in. I think some professors are sort of planning to be flexible but not saying so explicitly to their students. I used to handle things this way. For example, I used to give extensions on papers, but some students never asked for extensions, even when they needed one. In effect, these students were being punished even though they didn’t deserve it. Now I try to be explicit about my rules--if I’m going to be flexible I say so--so now, my syllabus clearly states that if you want an extension you should ask because I’ll probably give you one.
When we went online I added something to my syllabus saying that if a student is in danger of failing they should talk to me because I plan to be very flexible and help them figure something out. My point is twofold: First, I hope other professors are also willing to be flexible. Second, if you are planning to be flexible, I recommend letting your students know by saying so explicitly.
Some professors are using an effort-based curriculum--if you put in the effort then you pass the class. That sounds good in theory, but effort-based syllabi can be inflexible, especially if students have to do XYZ to pass. The problem is, what if someone only does XY and half of Z? The other problem is, if passing requires that students do everything you ask of them, then there’s only one threshold. Sorry to repeat myself, but to give a good experience to every student, I think you need to have a low threshold for passing but offer students the opportunity and motivation to do more than meet that low threshold. So an effort-based curriculum should tell students the minimum requirements, but make those standards reachable, and also allow students the chance to do a lot more.
The other thing I’d say to professors who’ve made their classes harder to pass—or even those who haven’t made their classes easier to pass, which is what I’m advocating--is to remember that in the gym analogy, you’re a gorilla. You’re super strong. You can lift 200 lbs over your head without breaking a sweat. This makes it hard to take the student perspective. Remember, to a gorilla, 30 lbs is a feather; to humans, it can be a lot.
Here’s how I’ve adjusted. I’m not saying I’m a role model, but again, something to think about. When we transitioned to online classes, I reduced the amount of material that we’d cover by a little bit. I tried to adjust enough to account for the difficulty I expected all of us to experience trying to work from home while still giving the students enough materials so that they could learn a lot if they were motivated.
I made my tests open-book and open-notes. I figured people were inevitably going to use their book and notes on my online tests, so making that against the rules would only penalize the honest students who refused to cheat.
But I didn’t make my test questions harder. I figure students will have the advantage of there being less material to study and an open-book/open-note policy. But they’ll have the disadvantage that they are trying to study from home--and that I’m inevitably going to be a less effective teacher. I think these advantages/disadvantages will balance out.
So I wrote a test that had some hard questions. That way the students who wanted to walk into my gym and lift heavy weights got their chance and they’ll know I’ll be proud of them if they do. But I also wrote a couple of easy questions.
Perhaps most importantly, I put in extra credit questions. I wrote 18 questions but three are extra credit so their grade will be calculated with a 15 in the denominator. I’ve never given extra credit before. I’m doing it now because it satisfies my main objective: Make the class passable for students who are struggling, and also let students who really nail it feel proud. If someone gets 9 questions correct, instead of 9/18 (50 percent) they’ll get 9/15 (60 percent) and feel like they’re passing. If someone else gets 18/15, they will have a legitimate reason to be proud of themselves. Of course, that person will get 120 percent on my test, which makes no sense. But hey, if I make a few people feel good about themselves, well, these days? There’s nothing wrong with that.
