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[gbrown]

I've been teaching online for 6 years. I teach more f2f and tend to enjoy it more; that said, I'm not an idiot when it comes to creating assignments and doing assessments online.

What is getting me annoyed is that I seem to have a plethora of grade grubbers in a tech writing course that I'm teaching this Fall. After every tiny quiz (worth less than 1/2% of their total grade), I'll get a complaint from one of the same 4 students each time. I've even gone as far as scaling back on inference questions and creating more detail questions where I then put in the feedback area the EXACT page number in the textbook where they can find the answer. And these are questions that have been reviewed and proofed extensively. Still, I get the same 4 nitpickers driving me crazy with questions and confrontation. I even had one student angry about my taking 1 point off of a 100 point assignment because he had submitted it in an incorrect format (even though instructions were clearly listed on how to submit his work AND the 1 point penalty was listed in the rubric for this assignment). I just want to say (or type), "C'mon. Really? Over the semester, this is 1/1000th of your grade! For goodness sakes!" But I stay calm, try to be polite and do my job.

So, what do you do with grade nitpicking when it counts for so little--and it's clearly their issue (not yours)?

[lohai0]

I usually drop the lowest few scores on the low stakes stuff.

My personal hero dealt with grade grubbing by grading the class on total points...out of a billion points. When grade grubbers bothered him, he would happily give 1,000 points back. Then both sides felt they won.

[dlmcga01]

I too have had a problem with grade-grubbing in my classes.  About a year or so ago, I created a "grade appeal" policy.  Before I get into that, I should probably mention that I do not provide any feedback on final assignments.  Instead, I provide feedforward.  Students email me their assignments one week before the assignment is due and I provide feedforward and a pencil grade so that they can benefit from the comments before actually submitting their work for a grade. 

My "grade appeal" policy states that if they feel that their grade does not represent the quality of their work, they have to write me a letter explaining why, and how, they feel their work has meet the objectives of the assignments.  They have to use the assignment guide, my grading rubric, and examples from their work when making their argument.  I will then schedule a one-on-one virtual conference to discuss the assignment and their appeal. I've had students contact me about their grades, without the appeal, and I respond by saying that I would be happy to discuss the grades with them after they've submitted the appeal.  They don't submit the appeal. I've only had two students submit a grade appeal in the last year and my evaluations have not been negatively affected. I've found that grade grubbers are pretty passive students.

I know my policy may sound harsh, and perhaps even unfair, but I in the past several years, I've had a real issue with grade grubbers (and issues related to entitlement, in general) in all my courses, particularly at the end of the semester.  I did check with my supervisor and found that this policy was perfectly fine because I allow students the opportunity to discuss their grades with me. 

I like the billion points idea, too, though. 

[burnie]

I too have had a problem with grade-grubbing in my classes.  About a year or so ago, I created a "grade appeal" policy.  Before I get into that, I should probably mention that I do not provide any feedback on final assignments.  Instead, I provide feedforward.  Students email me their assignments one week before the assignment is due and I provide feedforward and a pencil grade so that they can benefit from the comments before actually submitting their work for a grade. 

My "grade appeal" policy states that if they feel that their grade does not represent the quality of their work, they have to write me a letter explaining why, and how, they feel their work has meet the objectives of the assignments.  They have to use the assignment guide, my grading rubric, and examples from their work when making their argument.  I will then schedule a one-on-one virtual conference to discuss the assignment and their appeal. I've had students contact me about their grades, without the appeal, and I respond by saying that I would be happy to discuss the grades with them after they've submitted the appeal.  They don't submit the appeal. I've only had two students submit a grade appeal in the last year and my evaluations have not been negatively affected. I've found that grade grubbers are pretty passive students.

I know my policy may sound harsh, and perhaps even unfair, but I in the past several years, I've had a real issue with grade grubbers (and issues related to entitlement, in general) in all my courses, particularly at the end of the semester.  I did check with my supervisor and found that this policy was perfectly fine because I allow students the opportunity to discuss their grades with me. 

I like the billion points idea, too, though. 

I always offer them the opportunity to submit an assignment early for feedback" (I LOVE the term feedforward, btw), but had never considered it as a grading policy.  Instead I use 2 things:  1) a grade appeal policy similar to what you describe and 2) "I appreciate your concern, but this was mentioned in the assignment description and you failed to take advantage of my offer to provide feedback before the due date.  Had you done that, you might not have lost these points."

Shuts up the grade grubbers fast, but leaves the door open to legitimate errors or concerns.

[bander40]

I've also noticed this kind of behavior in online classes. I really think there's something about the way students interact with online course material (or how they perceive the experience of being online and taking quizzes in this way) that seems to exaggerate the perceived value of these quizzes and other small assignments. My first semester, teaching online, I had one student who became completely irate that the quizzes were designed so you couldn't "backtrack" on the questions. His email complaint said this was "completely ridiculous!" I honestly thought he was going to have a heart attack.

To be fair, I think there's also something about the nature of online tests in particular (the time limits and "automated" nature of it) that really stresses students out. When my SO was in online classes (and she always made A's), she would literally begin shaking when she started an online test. She always calmed down by the time she finished, but I wonder if this nervous reaction to online testing may somehow correlate with the perceived importance of the grade.

[slac_vap]

I have a grade appeal policy that is very similar to dlmcga01's.  I use it for both my f2f and online courses, and it works well.

[yemaya]

I have a grade appeal policy that is very similar to dlmcga01's.  I use it for both my f2f and online courses, and it works well.

Same here.  Since adapting it, I have received a few emails, but with reasonable requests about checking that Bb did not cheat them of points in grading their quizzes, and largely minus the attitude.

[patchouli]

When students grade grub, and if I have not made an error, I turn the issue back to them: they are disappointed in their performance, what did they learn from my comments, what are their plans to improve?  If they persist, I take out the assignment and ask them to go over my comments and tell me what they learned from them.  Rarely can students do so, and if they can, then I move the conversation to ideas for improvement so that we can get to the real issue of what they need to be able to demonstrate as a skill or knowledge and build on their performance, not their effort.