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May 9, 2023

Those of us who grade class participation know that keeping track of our students’ contributions accurately and fairly is a challenge. Participation today takes many forms; beyond shared in-person insights, we now have chat boxes, breakout rooms, and online discussion boards to monitor. It’s important we pay equal attention to asynchronous learners, students with their cameras off, and large classes of students—all with limited support staff.

If we care about the engagement levels of our students, and we want to incentivize them using grades to participate, how can we fairly and transparently do that?

To help you think through your own process, we’re sharing four educators’ approaches to grading student participation.

4 Educators Share How They Grade Participation

“I initiate weekly online discussions, in which students are graded on several criteria.”

I proactively encourage participation and enhance engagement by introducing a group discussion online via our learning management system. This asynchronous activity is seamlessly integrated into my course’s framework, providing an interactive space where students can engage in insightful conversations with their peers and share ideas, insights, and perspectives twice a week.

I initiate the discussion segment every week by presenting students with a topic that correlates with the synchronous sessions. I provide clear instructions and expectations and I communicate the guidelines for participation, including a minimum requirement of one weekly post. Nonetheless, students are encouraged to interact as frequently as they desire.

To incentivize participation, I assign 10 percent of students’ total grades to participation in the online discussions. To assess the quality of students’ contributions, I developed a grading rubric based on several criteria, including the following:

Originality and relevance of discussion threads
Number and frequency of posts
Quality of uploaded or shared materials
Proper grammar and spelling

In addition to using grades as incentives, I motivate my students to actively participate in these discussions by highlighting the benefits of engaging with their classmates and their ideas. I remind them that online discussions are as vital as classroom discussions, providing an excellent opportunity to foster social skills and develop camaraderie.

This approach positively impacts the students, as it helps them engage with the course material and improves their ability to interact with their peers in a virtual setting.

“I require students to submit engagement entries at the end of each class.”

I grade student participation to keep students accountable and make sure they engage in the learning. To track their participation, I require students at the end of each class to submit engagement entries, which are graded for completion, through an online forum.

The entries have a two-part structure, as I usually want to include both critical-thinking questions and a task-based activity.

Here’s an example of what I ask for in an engagement entry. You can substitute this topic (plurilingualism in Canada) for whatever topic you’re teaching:

“PART A: In groups, answer the following questions and label the post Part A. To obtain the participation grade, each member of the group must post.

How have Canadian language policies shaped plurilingualism in Canada?
What does “language as cultural capital” mean to you?
How can a plurilingual approach to language education benefit indigenous languages?
How will you challenge the notion of the “generic student” in your future classrooms, with regards to plurilingualism?

“PART B: Based on this week’s reading, create a poster with the top five tips that help teachers understand what the plurilingual approach to language education may look like in their classrooms. To obtain the participation grade, each member of the group must post individual responses in a separate post labeled Part B.”

These entries contribute to the engagement portion of the course, which is weighted at no more than 15 percent of the course evaluation.

Because students are expected to submit these forum posts to earn a participation grade, it doesn’t matter if the class is in person or online. I use this engagement grade modality in all the courses that I teach. For in-person or synchronous classes, if students are absent, they can still submit the forum post so as not to miss the engagement points.

“I use fun platforms such as Kahoot to encourage and keep track of participation.”

For me, participation is more important than everything else and accounts for up to 25 percent of students’ final grades (this includes attendance). To help keep track of it, I often present relevant discussion topics and have students answer through fun platforms such as Kahoot and Jamboard.

I apply the inductive method when I am lecturing law to my students: I present to them a discussion topic and, in turn, they must prepare to answer questions based on the assigned topic.

Collecting their opinions and answers on Jamboard helps me better note whether they are understanding or not. I also add extra points to the final grades of those who always participate, even if they aren’t sure of the answers. I usually say to them, “Don’t look for the ‘perfect answer,’ but for an answer that demonstrates you have understood what you have read.”

I use Kahoot, usually after the theoretical explanation, to see if students are following me. With Kahoot, it’s easy to grade assignments, as the platform provides reports of each test and the individual performance of each student. In my experience, 10 to 12 questions is fair enough to assess students and their participation. Sometimes I allow them to play Kahoot in teams, but I prefer they do it individually.

Editor’s tip: Try using generative AI to help you come up with questions for these low-stakes quizzes. Take a cue from Wharton educators Ethan Mollick and Lilach Mollick in this Inspiring Minds article, “Let ChatGPT Be Your Teaching Assistant.”

“I grade participation on a sliding scale to encourage deeper interactions.”

Class participation (including attendance) is worth 30 percent of my students’ overall grades. This is intended to facilitate interaction, encourage peer-to-peer learning, and increase engagement in case- and lecture-based graduate courses.

The two criteria in assigning class participation grades are quality and quantity––though quality is by far the more important criteria. Typically, I assign three levels of participation as follows:

Basic: Shows basic understanding of course concepts
Moderate: Builds on peer comments to advance class discussion; reflects deep understanding of course concepts
Advanced: Reflects deep and nuanced understanding of course concepts in crisp, summary statements; provides new insights in class discussion

For finer granularity, you can adapt these three levels to a five- or seven-point scale, with basic and advanced levels at opposite ends and the moderate level at the midpoint.

To keep track of all these contributions in real time, my teaching assistant (TA) helps by marking them down in an Excel spreadsheet. Typically, the grade assigned by the TA stands; however, occasionally I may give a student a higher grade if I believe the student’s comment was exceptionally insightful, and I communicate that to the TA after class.

Broadening our measurements of participation

These diverse methods can help us expand our thinking around how we define and measure student participation. Participation is an important gauge of students’ engagement and learning, so we should encourage ourselves to be innovative when it comes to getting students more involved in their classes.