Many universities in Korea and the US employed alternative grading mode as an option as the COVID 19 situation inhibited accurate academic assessment and assurance of a quality learning environment.
This Fall 2021 semester, George Mason University Korea (GMUK) has changed its grading system from alternative mode back to A-Z mode. Alternative grading mode was employed due to the COVID-19 situation that inhibited face-to-face classes, making accurate academic assessment hard. In addition, this change occurred due to the transition of class mode from online to a hybrid in the George Mason University (GMU) Fairfax campus. However, all the classes are currently done online in GMUK since the campus is located in Incheon, Korea, where the instruction mode gets affected depends on South Korea’s COVID-19 situation. Those circumstances have brought up some criticisms of the recent removal of an option for the alternative grading mode.
In Spring 2021, both GMUK and the Fairfax campus offered students options called alternative grading mode. The primary reason is that the ongoing pandemic situation made the overall quality of the university courses low. However, this Fall 2021 semester took a different step for each of these campuses. The Fairfax campus planned to transform the instruction mode back to face-to-face for students who got vaccinated. The campus noticed that “For the Fall 2021 semester, the university has started a goal of bringing at least 75% of instruction back to campus.”
Meanwhile, according to Yonhap News Agency, the universities keep their instruction online due to the fourth wave of COVID-19 in South Korea, though they were planning to go back to face-to-face instruction mode. Under these circumstances, every class in GMUK is conducted online; however, the same grading mode of the Fairfax campus is employed. Shannon Davis, an associate dean at GMUK, made it clear about these university measures in the Fall 2021 Town Hall meeting. “All grading policies are handled through the registrar’s office in the faculty senate at Fairfax campus. They decide the extent to which any grading policy changes, including how GPA is calculated,” she stated.
Although this change in grading mode in GMUK results from evident university policies, some students complain that it is not fair to use the same grading mode of the Fairfax campus since GMUK has a totally different situation from the Fairfax campus. For instance, a student of GMUK (Global Affairs, GMUK, ‘24) mentions students’ hardship in the online setting. She had experienced that a professor changed the time of the synchronous class abruptly. “I [She] couldn’t take that class because I had another class at that time. I thought the online format frustrated me for multiple reasons.”, she said. However, she also understands this university’s decision, saying, “But I [she] don’t think the decision is unfair since GMUK and Fairfax campus are the same university, and the only difference is the location.”
Besides, some students claim that the university needs to focus on improving the actual quality of online courses, which was the reason for the alternative grading option. For example, GMUK Spring 2020 student (Conflict Analysis and Resolution, GMUK, ‘23) said, “We missed the point for this whole argument.” She continues, “Suppose the quality of classes is the reason for the alternative grading mode; in that case, it should be argued for improving the quality of the class rather than providing an alternative grading option.” She makes it clear by commenting, “The logic here in the complaint on the removal of the alternative grading mode is troublesome. Some students are complaining about the removal of the alternative grading mode to make excuses for poor grades. However, the problem is not determined by the method of academic grading, but by their level of own efforts.”
There are different responses on the fairness concerning the removal of the alternative grading mode. Some students find that the online setting is still confusing and ineffective to the extent to which they need an alternative grading mode. Contrasting this idea, other students argue that individual effort makes a difference in academic achievement. This discussion leads to another conversation on the quality of education in online settings that all GMUK students and faculties need to tackle. GMUK states that they have been trying to figure out the best way possible for a better academic environment. Dean Davis explains that the problem would be getting better through the continuous efforts made in this environment. “We have many of those [online] spaces of the academic world more in control.” She continues, “Majority of our faculty has been trained in how to engage in this kind of online teaching modality… We have practice in this [online] space.”
Written by Suhyoung Ji, staff writer
Revised by Yu Bin Kwon | Managing Editor
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