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We recommend our Extension Course teachers use the same grading philosophy that we use when grading correspondence courses. Here is the statement of that philosophy:

We assume the answer is correct until proven wrong - do they have a basic understanding of the concepts? Grading is more or less an "interpretive" process. It helps if the person grading the students’ papers is familiar with the subject or has taken the course themselves. It is important to remember that people can express things in different ways and different words. Ask yourself "Is the subject of the question covered correctly and completely?"

In evaluating an answer, it is often necessary to look at the question and the answer. What does the question ask for - what does it cover? Does it ask for "some" requiring part of a list of items, but not all? Does the question ask for "the" or a comprehensive answer? (For example - What are the barriers between God and man that make it impossible for man to find God on his own? - In this case we would expect all of the answers, not just some of the answers.) Many times the answer is not totally correct, but partially correct. In this case, points would be deducted from the total points the answer is worth depending on how important the missing portion of the answer might be.

Some questions may have more value than others - does the question have more than one part to the answer? (For example a, b, c, d etc.) Let’s say you have 22 questions on the worksheet you are grading, but many of the questions have several parts; one question has 7 parts, another asks for 9 reasons in the answer, while another question asks for true or false to 16 items. These questions are worth more than other questions with only a single answer. Of the 22 questions, most are worth either 2 to 3 points, while the multiple answer questions are worth either 7 or 16 points as indicated. A one point deduction could be given for an individual item missed.

Many times it is necessary to look for Key words or sentences. Their answer may not be identical to the answer in the score key, but did they answer the question completely but just in their own words?

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