Sorry for the long post but please help!
My daughter went into her biology final last week with a solid A in biology (her major). She has been checking her grades on Blackboard (the online grading system her school uses) throughout the semester and every subsection in her biology class was showing a solid A. Last Friday, she went online to see what she got on her final and saw she got a 96 (class average was 88). However, she saw her class grade was a B and was shocked. She quickly went through her grades thinking this must be a mistake and that’s when she saw the professor posted two zero’s for two post class assessments (done online and should be a 100% - basically a grade booster). Somehow she missed two of these assignments although she is still in disbelief how she could have missed any - one in October and one in November. Since there are only five post class assesments, this killed her A. She also had online pre-class assessments to take which she did all of them. The lowest post class grade and the lowest pre class grade gets dropped.
She immediately met with her biology teacher to let her know what happened and she would never had missed a second assessment had the first one been posted as a zero in Oct, and she can’t believe she had missed any of them. Since the professor drops one grade from each post and pre class assessments, she would gladly keep all her pre class assessments if the two zeros were dropped. Unfortunately, her biology teacher was adamant in sticking to the grades as is and said she should have known a dash line in Blackboard was a zero. However, the dash lines never average in as a zero and it looks like it just wasn’t graded yet. Anyways, because these dashes were not part of the grading, Blackboard always showed her post class grade average was an A. Had the first zero been posted when it happened in October and not posted last Friday, she would have made sure she submitted everything online and gotten confirmation emails to double check her future submittals went through.
Since she had no luck with her professor, she went to the biology chair who was very nice and said he would talk to the biology professor to hear what happened. But he also said that in the end, her bio prof has the final say in grading.
I needed to hear what the CC parents thought and if anyone had experience appealing grades. My daughter still has finals this week so this has thrown her off but, she has been trying to stay focused.
No advice, but I just think that really sucks for your daughter. She’s obviously very conscientious, and I think that should be a mitigating factor.
My high school kid did something similar, hit save instead of submit. He admitted he screwed up & went to the teacher. He’s had this same teacher all 4 yrs of high school and he knew my son to not generally mess up like this. Teacher told my son he was an idiot (yep, he was!! LOL) and allowed him to submit his work.
Everyone makes mistakes, but if on the whole a student is above the board, I think benefit of the doubt should be given.
But she did miss doing the assignments? My daughter has had some bumps like this (freshman in HS) and I see it as a learning experience. If she honestly missed them, the B is an honest grade for her. I could only see appealing it if they were never posted to be completed but that does not sound like it’s the case. I would not appeal and risk getting on the bad side of the department. It’s just what it is. She’ll have to be more organized about assignments in the future.
She doesn’t remember if she missed them or if she did them but they didn’t get submitted properly. Since both the zeros weren’t posted until last Friday (despite that it happened in Oct. and Nov.) she had no opportunity to figure out what happened or learn from her mistake. Her grades in this grading section always showed as an A in Blackboard until last Friday.
Some college professors take no excuses and there is nothing you can do. Hey my daughter got a zero on an exam because she was in surgery. And that was not an oversight on her part but a medical necessity. So it is what it is.
@scubadive my daughter is in a middle college program and has one college course this semester. She got a zero on a quiz the day she was in the ER for pneumonia from the prof. Tough lesson for a 13 year old but it is just the breaks.
@SeattleMom1 this is her opportunity to learn from her mistake. She can try in the future to keep an agenda of all her assignments and mark them when they are done. That way she has her own paper record for follow up if there is something “off”. Another tip is to make sure she keeps in touch with other students in the class to check in. That’s usually how students remember assignments they’ve lost track of. The grade on Blackboard is meaningless if all of the assignments are not in. The prof might have been giving students an opportunity to check in on missing assignments until the end of the semester. But she didn’t check in on those missing grades. It may feel harsh especially if she’s used to a more forgiving system from HS but it’s good to adapt to it rather than fight it.
Wow - a zero because she was in surgery? Why didn’t you appeal or talk to the chair? I would think she should have been able to take it after or before surgery.
Yeah medical procedures should be allowed.
But OP needs to make sure she’s keeping up on things. Check and double check. Theses electronic submissions can be tricky.
I agree she was responsible for getting the assignments turned in, but the professor should also be responsible for grading students’ work in a timely fashion. Not entering grades for 2 months is also wrong.
Edit: I think your daughter has done all she can. At least it’s a B and not a C or D!
I’m hoping that an appeal could work based on the fact that the zeros weren’t inputted into the system until the end of the semester. She is a freshman and won’t be making a mistake like this again. This will also make her check in with profs throughout the semester to make sure all grades have been posted. She will never let an electronic submission be complete until receiving a submittal email. But it’s too late for any of this since she just learned last Friday she got the zeros. Does this seem like a good case? She has medical school aspirations so her GPA really matters. It has gotten so competitive to get into medical school that every point counts.
@chercheur there was nothing to grade, though, so they are not really at fault for not grading something - it was never turned in. It probably just switched over to a zero eventually as soon as the semester was over and grades became final. If there is a blank space where there is supposed to be a grade, a student would usually realize towards the end of the semester that something’s missing. It was just a rookie error :(. Unfortunate, but it’s really the student’s responsibility to keep track of assignments. Hard with some profs if there are a million little assignments, I know. But it must be done.
@CCtoAlaska Correct - there was nothing to grade, so a zero should have been entered. It wasn’t for 2 months. One of my kids had a prof. who didn’t enter ANY grades until the end of the semester. My point was the professor should have entered the grades (including zeros) in a timely fashion.
I spoke to my sister who use to teach in high school and she said that a dash is read as not graded yet and not as zeros. My daughter also spoke to her academic advisor who said grades should be posted as you go along through the semester so kids know how they are doing and I agree. She would have been very careful with her future submissions if she would have seen that first zero back in Oct.
This just isn’t the reality, though, and students need to really stay on top of every assignment and track that they are done. A kid who really wants all As should try to print some kind of proof that they did online assignments (take a screen shot of the assignment right before they press enter, and of any confirm that comes up that the assignment was entered). My kid is in a masters program where she has only gotten 2 assignment grades back out of about a dozen for the semester, and the final is tomorrow. Every semester of college and grad school, it seems like there has been at least one prof that is a slow grader.
The harsh reality is that NOTHING can make college profs grade on a timely basis, and the onus is pretty much on the student to keep track of assignments turned in and save as much proof as they can so they have some recourse if the prof loses track or the system eats it.
@intparent I don’t disagree with anything you and others have said. She had been online checking her grades and it always showed an A. Since she thought those missed assignments were submitted she never had any indication they weren’t. I want her grade to reflect her knowledge and not a Blackboard deficiency. She will never let this happen again. However, since she never knew this was happening, she couldn’t improve any of her double and triple checking of her submissions.
Well… you said yourself that she is unclear on whether she submitted them or not. Keeping some kind of copy (screen shot or something) of each item is necessary, and checking off against the syllabus would have given her a backup. I’m not saying many freshman realize they should do this. It is kind of like an accounting control. I am sure she will going forward. Maybe the dept chair will have some luck for her, but hopefully she’ll have her own evidence for any future incidents. Teachers do make mistakes, so an audit trail of her own is important.
Yes and had that first zero been posted, she would have known something went very wrong. The prof posted the other grades so she wasn’t one of those profs that never posted grades until the end of semester. Whenever my daughter went online, all the grading subsections showed she was getting an A. Last Friday was the first time she realized two assignments went in as zeros.
My point was that the prof might have been leaving the grades open until the end to give students a chance to turn overdue stuff in. S/he was maybe trying to be nice and give grace until semester’s end. But it’s too late after the final to check in about missing grades. Tracking the overall grade is not a good way to monitor progress in a class. You have to check if stuff is missing. If the prof has been grading other stuff, that is a red flag that something is off. On another note, my daughter’s two major classes this semester have had zero grades prior to the final grade - not just not entered but literally zero graded assessments or assignments. She’s had zero idea of her progress in the courses right up until finals week. In one of the classes it’s a points accumulation and in the other the final is the single graded assignment. That is just those profs’ style. No one will make professors change their habits so you just have to keep your head up and pay attention.
Her bio prof said that she should have known the dashes were zeros. She was definitely not giving any grace period. My daughter was looking at her subsections all the time and Blackboard always showed an A. And yes, she will never make this mistake again, however, knowing about this back in October would have changed everything.
Lesson learned then. My kids show up this same way and it’s understood it eventually counts as a zero if the assignment was not turned in.