Hi Dave,

I read #4 and #5 of your post very keenly. A few years back I was teaching Java at a college. I decided to experiment with getting the students to create a PLE as part of their learning plan. All the students had to blog their takeaway from each class. They also created screencasts instead of a traditional presentation.

Even though I as well as some students totally enjoyed the course and some students even grasped the importance of blogging to connect with a community of practitioners, I went through hell grading the course.

The first problem was to read the massive amounts of blogged content that was created (by 30 students over 10 weeks). But the second problem was even messier. Some students copied other blogged content from other students and a few students copied content from other places on the net. This was a real problem. I had to grade fairly, which meant that someone who copied should not get a grade as high as someone who did not. This resulted in an enormous time hit, which I feel could have been used to actually teach or help the sincere students understand the topic better.

What I am trying to drive at is: Is it necassary to grade? Can we not just say that a students’ portfolio (collection of blogs, assignments, presentations… all available in the public domain) is their grade. There is no number associated with it. For the student it’s their takeaway from the course and from other stakeholders (the university, or companies who may want to hire them) it is the cumulative portfolio which is a trail of their learning. They can then assess it in whichever way they seem fit for their purpose.

I realize that this is not a very objective way to providing a number, but then I am not very sure if a multiple choice test, or reading assignments and evaluating presentations is entirely objective either.

Would like to know your take on this issue.

Once again thanks for the excellent blog post.