This paper presents the development of a new computer based grading method for evaluation of student’s performance in graduate and undergraduate courses. The concept of grades, their importance and the role they play in higher education is discussed. The grading methodology presented here is independent of teacher’s intervention, is quite amenable to the use of a computer, and its application to UMT students has been demonstrated by means of an example. The method creates ranges or segments corresponding to the various quality levels of knowledge learned, and the respective letter grades are assigned thereto.
In higher education, the fair, qualitative and quantitative assessment and evaluation of teaching and learning is not a utopia of exact science but rather is an art which depends upon many factors including the preset standardized objectives, human psychology, philosophy, subjectivity, and imperfect and, generally, biased pedagogical approaches used to impart acceptable level of international quality and quantity of educational excellence. The grading philosophy presented herein is fair, consistent, non inflationary, or deflationary, and takes into account the quality and quantity of knowledge taught to and learned by a group of students. The quality and quantity of knowledge levels, perceived adequate, for assigning the weighted letter grades are determined using a maximum score that is computed relative to class average but is independent of individual student’s scores, and therefore, the method is transparent, consistent, and equally fair to all students. Although the method uses the maximum and minimum composite scores, yet it is not affected by the outliers.