This is a board presentation at the 2023 ASEE Annual Conference describing the HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: Commitment to Learning Instilled by Mastery-Based Undergraduate Program (CLIMB-UP). Commitment to Learning Instilled by a Mastery-Based Undergraduate Program (CLIMBUP) is an NSF IUSE:HSI project centered on re-designing courses with high non-completion rates (C- or lower) that have implications towards students’ graduation, transfer ability and retention. Despite decades of effort to create active, inquiry-based learning practices in classrooms, our institution continues to see equity gaps and many required courses with noncompletion rates exceeding 50%. Grading practices have been identified as one of the main culprits in the persistence of equity gaps. As a Hispanic Serving Institution, we recognize and value the diversity of experience that our students bring to our campuses and are committed to utilizing their strengths by creating datadriven, equitable grading practices that give students space to take risks and bring alternative viewpoints to our classrooms and be rewarded. We believe a Mastery-Based Grading (MBG) approach can address problems that a traditional grading approach has caused. The CLIMB-UP project is building the infrastructure to support and train STEM faculty (both tenure-line and adjuncts) to redesign and teach a Mastery-Based Graded (MGB) course, and is conducting research on faculty experiences and on the change in student attitudes, mindsets, and outcomes.
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Experience Report: Standards-Based Grading at Scale in Algorithms
We report our experiences implementing standards-based grading at scale in an Algorithms course, which serves as the terminal required CS Theory course in our department's undergraduate curriculum. The course had 200-400 students, taught by two instructors, eight graduate teaching assistants, and supported by two additional graders and several undergraduate course assistants. We highlight the role of standards-based grading (SBG) in supporting our students during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conclude by detailing the successes and adjustments we would make to the course structure.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2047756
- PAR ID:
- 10401772
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 221 to 227
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3502718.3524750
