Abstract:

In the Spring of 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the university suspended face-to-face instruction and moved all courses to an on-line platform. At the same time, administration announced modifications to the university wide grading policy. In part, the modified policy states:
- All undergraduate and graduate students will be allowed to convert any or all courses, not yet completed, to the S/U/NC (Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory/No Credit) grading option for Spring Semester 2020.
- Any course that the student receives a C or higher in may be converted to an “S” and will count toward their degree, regardless of current department, college or University requirements.
(https://www.bgsu.edu/covid19/updates-for-the-community/03-26-2020.html)

The policy, beginning Spring semester of 2020, continued through Summer and Fall 2020 semesters and is currently being considered for the Spring 2021 semester. Prior to this announced modification, students were limited in the number of S/U/NC courses they could take towards graduation and individual colleges and departments were able to designate specific courses that had to be taken for a letter grade. The modified policy announced by the university supersedes any/all college and department policies. While faculty overwhelmingly supported the modification when first proposed, potentially in its’ fourth semester, faculty support has begun to waiver as immediate and long-term issues have become apparent.

Immediate and long-term issues resulting from the modified grading policy to be discussed in this presentation include: (1) students not participating, attending and completing assignments once enough points have been earned to receive a grade of “S”, (2) students completing one-quarter to one-third of their major course of study with grades of an “S”, (3) grade point averages (GPA) used for entrance into programs, continuation in a program and graduation from a program may not reflect a student’s knowledge/mastery of the content, (4) difficulty in evaluating mastery of content in core courses with no specific letter grade being awarded (5) evaluation for scholarship awards and graduation with honors, and (6) future admissions to graduate/professional programs.

Keywords:

Covid-19, policy change, grading.