Abstract
The case of the semi-stellar student focuses on the challenge faced by first-time instructor and recent student affairs masters graduate Kara. Required to teach CCD 101: Introduction to College/Career Development as part of her academic advising responsibilities at Desert Rose College, a Minority-Serving Institution, Kara is excited to teach her first college course. Her bright and engaged student Fernando never misses class and participates often. Yet, Kara realizes he never turns in any work outside of class as she prepares to finalize grades in the learning management system, and assignments are worth 50% of the grade. What should she do?
Keywords: first-time instructor, teaching, grading, learning management system
Primary Characters
Kara (she, her, hers) is a white female with a middle-class background who recently graduated with her master’s in student affairs, new academic advisor at Desert Rose College teaching her first college course.
Dr. Aurelio (he, him, his) is the Department Chair overseeing CCD 101: Introduction to College/Career Development course at Desert Rose College. Dr. Aurelio is Hispanic and was a first-generation college student.
Fernando (he, him, his) is a first-generation, Hispanic student who commutes 40 minutes to campus on a bus. He is a few years older than the typical freshman, and is very engaged in Kara’s CCD 101 class.
Context and Case
Kara is a new academic advisor at Desert Rose College, located in the southwestern United States. Kara is a white female with a middle-class background who recently graduated with her masters degree in student affairs. Desert Rose College is a small, public baccalaureate institution established 20 years ago, serving a population primarily of first generation, low income, minority, and/or non-traditional students. Desert Rose has 2,000 students, is considered a Minority-Serving Institution, and does not have campus housing. Many students commute to Desert Rose via public transportation. Desert Rose offers only a handful of bachelors programs and has a few campus buildings with offices and classrooms. CCD 101: Introduction to College/Career Development, is a required course for all of the students at Desert Rose College. Academic advisors are expected to teach one section of CCD 101 each year, and the upcoming semester would be Kara’s first opportunity to teach a college course.
The department chair, Dr. Aurelio, met with Kara to discuss her preparation to teach a college level course for the first time. He is Hispanic and also was a first-generation college student before pursuing a career in higher education. They had a pleasant conversation, and Dr. Aurelio was very pleased with Kara’s background in advising, despite her lack of teaching experience or familiarity with the Learning Management System (LMS).
He provided her syllabi from past instructors and copies of the suggested textbooks so she could prepare for the course. Dr. Aurelio, who had been at Desert Rose College since it opened 20 years prior, made sure to inform Kara that she needed to teach the course with the selected texts and follow the syllabus since all students would take this course no matter who the instructor was. Dr. Aurelio planned to remain hands-off when working with CCD 101 instructors, with the exception of any complaints from students about their instructors or vice versa.
On the first day of the semester, Kara picked up her prepared syllabi from the department office and entered the classroom very early to set up and test the technology. As students trickled in, she handed them the syllabus. The class had 40 enrolled students, and all of them showed up on the first day of class. At the beginning of class, the students introduced themselves, and Kara reviewed the syllabus, including details for class assignments and the grading scale for the course. The grading scale showed the weights for the different course components:
25% Participation and Attendance
50% Assignments
10% Quizzes
15% Group Project & Presentation
Kara put a strong emphasis on participation and attendance because she wanted these new-to-college students, regardless of age, to understand the importance of attending class to be successful in college.
Even on the first day, Kara observed the personalities emerging from her students in the classroom. One of the students sitting in the back of the room, Fernando, was very engaged but also joked around. Fernando was a first-generation, Hispanic student who commuted 40 minutes to campus on a bus. He was a few years older than direct from high school first-year students, having worked full-time to save for college in order to avoid taking out student loans. After the first few weeks of the semester, Kara thought of him as a “class clown.”
As Kara distributed quizzes in class over the materials, Fernando excelled, earning perfect scores. The class had an in-class group project that ended with a presentation later in the semester. Fernando never missed a day of class, was always energetic, and engaged his classmates in discussions on topics as basic as note taking to more complicated discussions on money management. His group’s presentation was very strong and they earned a perfect score.
Kara believed that Fernando was an outstanding student and she was fortunate to have him in her section of CCD 101 as a model for other students in her class. At the end of the semester, Dr. Aurelio invited Kara and other new instructors to a grading workshop as they finalized course grades before submitting to the registrar. As a first-time college instructor, Kara was eager to attend this workshop. She had not realized that the system only populated assignments that were submitted when she was grading during the semester. As Kara calculated each student’s grades for CCD 101, she realized that Fernando had never turned in a single assignment. Since assignments are weighted 50% of the course’s overall grade, Fernando’s grade would be F.
Kara was shocked and confused – she thought Fernando was an A student and discovered that the overall grade for him in the online gradebook was based on only completed items, and she had not known where to click in the LMS to make the grades calculate out of the total points for the course. He came to class every week and participated, and all of his in-class quizzes and the presentation grades were 100%. Yet he never completed any work outside of the classroom.
She asked Dr. Aurelio if she could give Fernando a grade of D so he could pass the class, as she thought he was such a good student when physically in the classroom. Dr. Aurelio cautioned her to own the grading scale and apply it fairly to all students in the class. He suggested that she try to reach out to Fernando to make this a teachable moment. Yet, she was afraid to admit to Fernando that she had not realized that he had not turned in a single assignment until the class was over and felt like a failure in her first time teaching. She knew he commuted to campus and saved money over the past few years to pay for his tuition.
Discussion Questions
- What was Dr. Aurelio’s responsibility in this situation?
- What additional training should have been provided to CCD 101 instructors?
- What responsibility does Kara have in this situation? What about Dr. Aurelio, Fernando, the advising center director, others?
- What are Fernando’s options in this situation? What campus resources might be useful to him as he navigates this experience?
- What should Kara do regarding Fernando?
Author Biography
Lisa M. Rubin (she, her, hers) is an Associate Professor in the College of Education at Kansas State University. She serves as Co-Editor of the NACADA Journal. She is a recipient of the National Association of Academic and Student-Athlete Development Professionals (N4A) 2020 Research Award, 2019 Professional Excellence Award, and 2009 Professional Promise Award. She received the Big 12 Faculty Fellowship and the NCAA Innovations in Research and Practice Grant in 2018. Rubin was named one of the Top 25 Woman Leaders in Higher Education and Beyond by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education in 2017.