Advice on grading assignments and exams during Covid Pandemic I am TAing for an undergraduate course: &quot;Data Structure and Algorithms&quot;. The course is attended by around 200 students consisting of second to fourth-year students of multiple disciplines.
Midway through the semester, our country got hit by a covid wave. Around 20% of the students are there who themselves are sick or their family members are sick. These students are requesting relaxation in course policies like decreasing the number of assignments, decreasing the passing criteria of the course, avoid surprise quizzes, etc. The students who are close to their graduation are more afraid of failing and loosing their jobs.
However, a small fraction of students are not realizing the plight of other students and they are against any such relaxations. These students are mostly those who are performing well in the course. They want to attempt all the assignments and exams and want grades for them. They are not realizing the plight of the students who are unable to perform well under these tough times.
According to me, a few relaxations might be beneficial for all the students and that can be implemented. For example: not conducting surprise quizzes in the class, etc. However, the relaxations like decreasing the number of assignments or decreasing the passing criteria of the course is not a good approach since the students will pass the exam without sufficient knowledge and learning. It would further affect badly their future job prospects. Moreover, it would be unjust for the students who worked hard and secured good grades to survive in this competitive world.
I know that this is a debatable and subjective question, and there is no perfect answer to this. However, I will like to know the inputs and advice from you guys since somebody might have faced a similar situation in recent times. What action should be taken under these conditions that will benefit the most number of students, taking into account the plight of the students who are suffering due to covid?
This is not a policy for a TA to change. The faculty is responsible for the course evaluation policy. TAs just help carry it out. This is especially true if there are many TAs since grading needs to be consistent over all the students in a course.
If you think a change is warranted, discuss it with faculty. But you certainly can do so.
But, the basis of this question is unfortunately too focused on grading rather than learning. It is learning that has become more difficult. It is also true that the methods we use to evaluate students (exams, say) has been affected and cheating has been made easier and harder to catch. If you want to make a positive change, focus on those things.
Personally I think standards of learning should not be lowered. But better ways to construct courses and evaluate students are required now.
Note that employers also are going through the same things that students are, so it is unlikely that they will ignore the difficulties that students face in hiring and in graduate school admissions.