Dear Aggie,
I am looking forward to the end of the semester, but I am also stressing about getting all my grades submitted and all the students who are going to be asking for some kind of special help. Do you have any tips for making it to the end of the semester?
~Train or daylight at the end of the tunnel?
Dear Train,
It is definitely daylight at the end of the tunnel, and you are going to get there! I can't guarantee it will be completely stress-free, but here are a few tips that may be helpful to reduce end-of-semester stress for you and your students.
Incompletes have a specific purpose, and can be very helpful. A key point to keep in mind is that an Incomplete is NOT intended to be a way to avoid (or postpone) failing a course. Incompletes are appropriate when:
If you have a student who meets these conditions (for example, serious illness or injury), then you can complete the I grade information form (under the Faculty tab at my.nmsu.edu).
Here are the important things to document:
Both you and the student need to sign the form, then your Department Head and Dean. If the student is unable to sign (e.g., because they are in the hospital) try to obtain some kind of acknowledgement from the student (like an email saying they agree to the I). If you are unable to do that, send the student a detailed email about the I grade (keep a copy) as well as the completed I grade information form.
Students may request the opportunity to complete extra work or earn extra credit, in order to improve their grade. While I am sure we all understand how frustrating it is to be close to earning a higher grade, we also have to be fair to all our students. If we provide an opportunity for one student in a course, we have to be willing and able to do so for all students in that course. Given how challenging it is to complete the grading of the regular work, taking on extra grading at the very end of the semester just doesn’t seem feasible. It is also not fair to other students who did not budget time to complete last minute extra credit at the end of the semester. This is something that you could make clear on your syllabus, so that students know that this is not something that can be done.
When students are very close to earning a higher grade, they may go back to earlier work in the course and request that you reconsider your grading, perhaps due to perceptions of a grading error or overly strict grading. I am happy to consider such requests, but only within a week of a grade being posted (and this is clearly stated in my syllabus). Just like last minute requests for extra work or extra credit, I am not able to re-grade a semester’s worth of work at the very end. It can be helpful to remind students to check their grades frequently, and to ask them to follow-up if they have any questions along the way.
For students who earn a failing grade, you will have to enter the date of their last attendance/participation when you enter the grade. Dear Aggie has a post on how to determine the date of last attendance, including using a tool in Canvas. Hopefully this information will be helpful as you are entering your grades.
While we all hope that we will not encounter student academic misconduct, it does sometimes happen. If you do discover a case of academic misconduct, you are obligated to report it (within 5 days). Luckily, NMSU has developed a system to help you navigate the process. You can find an overview here:
https://studentlife.nmsu.edu/academic_integrity/academic_misconduct.html
From that page, you can access a reporting form:
https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?NewMexicoStateUniv&layout_id=16
This form allows you to enter and submit information and documentation, and to "refer the case to a campus Academic Conduct Officer for assistance with case investigation and adjudication." If this is the first time you are working through a case of academic misconduct, I strongly encourage you to take this option!
By including information about academic misconduct in your syllabus, and making your expectations clear about what is/is not allowable, you can help students adhere to the academic conduct expectations in your course, and at NMSU in general. Minimally, include a link to the Syllabus Student Resources and Policy page on your syllabus:
https://provost.nmsu.edu/faculty-and-staff-resources/syllabus/policies.html
One last thing: If you do plan to make changes to your course, you may want to do so in a Canvas Development Shell. As described in more detail in this Dear Aggie post, development shells are Canvas courses that never enroll students. They are thus ideal for making and testing changes to a course. You can copy your "just completed" course into a development shell, play with it while all your ideas are fresh in your mind, then copy it into the actual course shell when that becomes available.
If you have students who submitted particularly well-done, creative and exemplary work, consider asking their permission to share it (anonymously) in a future iteration of the course. Or you may want to ask students to send you a short e-mail with study tips to share with future students in the course.
I hope that your semester will end smoothly, and that this information will be helpful if you do encounter any challenges. Have a wonderful summer!
~Aggie
https://arp.nmsu.edu/5-10/ (ARP on student academic integrity)
https://arp.nmsu.edu/5-11/ (ARP on procedures to report academic misconduct)
https://arp.nmsu.edu/4-55/ (ARP on I grades)
If you have a teaching question for Dear Aggie, please e-mail her at dearaggie@nmsu.edu
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