Ball-rating system for assessing students' knowledge: the essence, pros and cons

To date, the main task facing the country's universities is to improve the quality of education. One of the key areas in its decision is the need to move to new standards. In accordance with them, a clear correlation of the number of hours for independent and classroom work is established. This, in turn, required the revision and creation of new forms of ensuring the quality control of education. One of the innovations was the point-rating system for assessing students' knowledge. Let's consider it in more detail.

Appointment

The essence of the score-rating system is to determine the success and quality of mastering the discipline through certain indicators. The complexity of a particular subject and the whole program as a whole is measured in credit units. The rating is a certain numerical value, which is expressed in a multi-point system. It integrally characterizes the progress of students and their participation in research work within a particular discipline. The rating system is considered as the most important part of the activity to control the quality of the educational work of the institute.

Benefits

What are the goals of the rating system? The advantages of this form of control are:

1. Increase the proportion of independent activities of students up to 70%.
2. Strengthening the motivation for constant active work throughout the semester on the assimilation of basic knowledge and skills within the disciplines.
3. Improving the organization and planning of the learning process by increasing the number of individual forms of work with students.
4. The development of continuous monitoring of progress by students and teachers themselves.
5. Receiving versatile and differentiated information about the effectiveness and quality of the educational process for the material and moral encouragement of students.

Importance for teachers

The grading system for assessing students' knowledge allows teachers:

1. Detailed way to plan the educational process for a certain discipline and stimulate the constant activity of students.
2. Timely adjust the program in accordance with the results of control activities.
3. Objectively determine the final evaluation of the disciplines, taking into account the systematic activities.
4. Provide a gradation of indicators in comparison with traditional forms of control.

Meaning for students

The rating system of assessment of knowledge allows:

1. Understand the specifics of the formation of learning indicators for the studied discipline and other types of activities to obtain the final results.
2. To realize the need for continuous active work on the implementation of the curriculum on the basis of knowledge of current rating values and their dynamics as a result of untimely mastering of the material on the subject.
3. Make corrections during the semester for the organization of independent activities.
4. Timely assess the status of their own work on the study of the subject, the performance of other types of training activities before the examination session.

Selection criteria

A score-rating system of knowledge assessment is formed taking into account:

1. Implementation of the program in part practical, lecture, laboratory exercises.
2. Performances of extracurricular and auditory written and other works.

Timing and number of control measures, as well as the number of points that are allocated to each of them, are set by the leading teacher. The teacher responsible for monitoring should inform the students about the criteria for their certification at the first lesson.

Structure

The rating system assumes the calculation of the results received by the student for all types of educational activity. In particular, the attendance of lectures, the writing of test papers, the performance of standard calculations, etc. are taken into account. Thus, for example, the overall result at the Department of Chemistry can be composed of the following indicators:

1. Presence in lectures - 1 b.
2. Registration of the report, laboratory work - 1 b. On inorganic chemistry, 2 b. - on the analytical.
3. Delivery of theoretical material on specific topics - 5 b.
4. Incoming testing - 5 b.
5. Intra-seminary certifications (tests, etc.) - 3-5 b.
6. Performance of independent individual tasks (compilation of a standard calculation) - 3 b.
7. Creative activity (participation in the conference, olympiad, the protection of the essay, etc.) - 4-5 b.
8. Compilation of abstracts on topics - 2 b.

Additional Items

The rating system provides for the imposition of fines and incentives for students. These teachers are informed about these additional elements in the first lesson. Fines are provided for violations of requirements for the preparation and processing of abstracts, untimely handed over standard calculations, laboratory works, etc. At the end of the course, the teacher can reward students by adding to the number of additional points scored.

Translation into academic marks

It is carried out on a special scale. It can include the following limits:

1. 85-100 b. Overall rating - "excellent." This indicator indicates the complete assimilation of the theoretical content of the course, the absence of gaps, the formation of the necessary practical skills of working with the material studied. A student with such an assessment completed all the training tasks, and their quality corresponds to the maximum indicators.
2. 74-84 b. - "OK". This assessment indicates the full mastery of the theoretical content, the absence of gaps in the basic concepts. However, some practical skills of working with the material are not sufficiently formed. A student receiving a "good" grade completed all the tasks foreseen in the program for which he received more than the minimum stipulated number of points. At the same time, some of them made mistakes.
3. 60-73 b. - "satisfactory". This indicator indicates a partial assimilation of the theoretical content of the discipline, but gaps are recognized as inessential. As for practical skills, they are basically formed. Of the tasks foreseen in the program, the majority was fulfilled, some of them may contain errors.
4. Less than 59 b. - "unsatisfactory". A student with such an indicator did not master the theoretical content of the course, did not fulfill most of the tasks stipulated in the program. In this case, he goes to the exam.

Another variant

The total number of points depends on the level of labor intensity of the discipline (on the size of the loan). The rating system can be represented in the following form:

1. "Excellent" - A. The student shows brilliant results with minor flaws.
2. "Very good" - B. Indicators of the student above the average, there are some shortcomings.
3. "Well" - S. The work of the student, in general, serious, but there are a number of remarks.
4. "Satisfactory" - D. Studen shows good results, but there are serious shortcomings.
5. "Mediocre" - E. Indicators meet the minimum requirements.
6. "Conditionally unsatisfactory" - FX. To get a loan, you need to do some extra work.
7. "Unsurprisingly unsatisfactory" - F. A student needs to perform a large amount of work. This means that he needs to take the course again. Otherwise, he may be expelled.

Ball-rating system: the pros and cons

The positive aspects of this form of control are obvious. First of all, an active presence at the seminars, participation in the conferences will not go unnoticed. For this activity, the student will be awarded points. In addition, research work will be taken into account . A student who attains a certain number of points can receive an automatic offset by discipline. A visit to the lectures themselves will also be taken into account. The drawbacks of the point-rating system are as follows:

1. Automatic offset involves a large amount of work. To get it you need to score quite a few points. This is in most cases more difficult than actually passing the test or exam.
2. Visiting lectures and active participation in them is estimated by a very small number of points. In addition, the trainee may completely forget. As a result, for the correct answer its indicator will not increase. This, in turn, can cast doubt on the objectivity of the rating-rating system.
3. There is a minimum threshold for admission to credit. If the student does not reach it because of unsatisfied or poorly written works, frequent missed lectures, then he may have serious difficulties in terms of further training.

Conclusion

The key place in the rating system is control. It provides for end-to-end certification in all disciplines in the curriculum. As a result, the student is assigned a rating score, which, in turn, depends on the degree of preparedness. The advantage of using this form of control is ensuring its information transparency and openness. This allows students to compare their results with those of classmates. Monitoring and evaluation of educational achievements is an important element of the educational process. They should be carried out systematically throughout the semester and throughout the year. For this purpose, the ratings of the students in the group and the course on specific disciplines are formed, the intrasester and final indicators for a certain period are displayed.