How grading at scale makes large classrooms feel small
Grading at scale is a time-tested practice with many benefits, the most prominent being that a standardized and efficient grading system helps both educators and students track students’ learning progress throughout the course.
However, when it comes to deeper assessment of student work, traditional grading practices present shortcomings and can sometimes invite biases and inconsistencies, according to the Harvard Graduate School of Education. While this issue spans primary, secondary, and post-secondary education, it’s most common in large enrollment courses in higher education due to the sheer volume of student work instructors have to grade.
An increasing global trend (Yelkpiere, et al. 2012), the motivations behind these oversized courses include increased student enrollment, budget restraints, and resource management, and in the case of higher education, high demand for a required course. Large enrollment courses often number in the hundreds of students (At UC Berkeley, the largest course in 2013 reportedly had 1,098 students).
In this blog post, we’ll explore the challenges of large enrollment classes, the impact a large class size can have on students, and what instructors can do to counteract those effects. We’ll also look at the future of large classroom learning in the age of artificial intelligence and ever-evolving technology.