What New And Adjunct Faculty Need To Know About Exams, Grades, And Cheating

Abstract

College professors often regard their time in the classroom fulfilling and rewarding; the chance to affect the academic and professional development of their students is most likely a key reason why they chose to be professional educators. Unfortunately, with college courses come college credits, which necessitate a course grade for each student, which necessitates student assessment vehicles, such as exams. More unfortunately, those exams lead to the potential for student cheating.

Some professors, particularly new and/or adjunct professors, underestimate the importance of exams and the resulting determination of student grades. Unless proper attention is paid to exam construction and the possibility of academic misconduct by students taking exams, course grades can be a misrepresentation of student abilities and competencies.

This paper is the second of a two-part series. Both papers are user-friendly manuals designed to minimize the growing pains associated with college-level teaching, especially those experienced by adjunct instructors. With this information, instructors can better anticipate the challenges involved in assigning appropriate grades and meet the course objectives. Specific topics of this segment include exam development and administration, options for timing and scheduling exams, student cheating and methods to prevent cheating, and the overall strategies for course grading.

The first part of the two-part series, "Everything That New And Adjunct Business Faculty Members Should Ask About Teaching, But Dont Know Enough To Ask," was published in the May 2010 Journal of College Teaching and Learning. Topics include syllabus development, classroom teaching methods, efficient use of classroom time, and general classroom management.