THE EFFECTS OF INCREMENTAL GRADING AND OPTIONAL HOMEWORKS ON STUDENT MOTIVATION

In this paper we summarize the outcomes of an assessment experiment conducted with more than 300 first year Computer Science undergraduates at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (“FMI”) of Sofia University. The experiment involves an approach to assessment and homework assignments which is novel for FMI. An incremental schema was implemented, rating every student in terms of his or her level of achievement, based on the course’s success criteria. On each level the students are given a task with increasing complexity and they have to solve it in order to pass to the next level. According to the determined level, students are being admitted or not admitted to the course’s final exam.

During the first semester students also had to solve obligatory homeworks, which contributed to their final grade. In comparison, during the next semester the same students were presented with the same amount of homework, but they could solve it voluntarily and could receive feedback on it, and it was not part of the grading formula.