So How Did I Grade The Student Who Did Not Show Up For His Team Presentation?

Last Thursday I posted on a student who did not show up for his team presentation. He emailed me the day after the class stating that he had had car trouble, did not have his cell phone with him, and did not get home from having his car towed until after class was over. My first thought was that if he could call a towing company, why did he not call his teammates? Or call a friend to pick him up and bring him to class? Or call a taxi? There seemed to be a solution other than the one he chose which was to leave his team scrambling to fill in for his part of the presentation. Thus as I mentioned in the blogpost, my inclination was to give him zero points (out of 100 possible). After all, the assignment was not just to research the topic, the assignment was to present this information orally to their classmates and to me.

I decided to ask one of our Associate Deans at the University of South Florida-St Petersburg for his advice. He assured me that as long as I was following my syllabus, I could assign the student the grade I thought fit the situation. His main question for me was, "Would I be able to sleep at night with the decision I made?" I assured him that I was only providing the consequences to the decision that the student had made.

Later the Associate Dean emailed me the following:

"When you talk with the student, ask him the following. Assume that the mechanic that worked on his car went to the parts area, pulled the parts together, and put them on the work bench. [However] that mechanic did no more--never fixed his car. Instead, another mechanic had to come along and finished the job from beginning to end. How much would he be willing to pay the first mechanic for at least putting the parts on the work bench?"

Interesting question...

Phil Gerbyshak shared his thoughts on the situation:

"From a business perspective, the answer is simple: did they make the sale or did they not make the sale? It's pretty much all or nothing in business. The only way to get a C would be if the client delayed making a buying decision and scheduled another meeting. Now if the rest of the team delivered the presentation and this person helped in creating it, and the stated goal was a team presentation using this person's information, you could probably cut some slack. After all, the presentation was 'delivered' just not by this student. The question could be asked, 'Did you buy it or or not?'

Tough call, no matter how you slice it."

Thanks, Phil, for your perspective...but I'm still struggling with what to do.

I then heard from Tim Johnson, one of my Drake University colleagues, who commented:

"For my classes, it all comes back to the syllabus. I make it clear to the team that everyone on that team receives the same grade. However, there is also a peer evaluation (worth 10% of the over all course grade). If a student fails his/her team, it can affect them by an entire letter grade depending on the team's reaction. I also make it clear to teams that they can divide up roles appropriately. Some are better writers than they are presenters. Not everybody has to get up and talk. Learning how to effectively allocate resources is important. Finally, I make it very clear in my syllabus that every team should have a backup plan and a risk mitigation strategy. Excuses the night of the presentation are not permitted. These three things generally keep teams out of trouble on presentation night."

OK, I didn't talk about backup plans with my students. I'm now thinking I need to add to my syllabus for next semester. But I'm still not sure what to do right now...

I then decided to email my student's teammates to ask for their input although I did assure them that I would be making the final decision. They all agreed that even though they were very angry with him, that he "did his fair share of the [research] work and showed up for all meetings after class and on the weekends." The consensus seemed to be that they thought he should get partial credit. One student thanked me for asking and even put a positive spin on the experience saying:

I feel his not showing up "helped re-emphasized that it is important not only to know your responsibilities in the group presentation, but [that] we have to be able to adapt to changes that could occur. This could happen not only in school but in our future career. All in all, even though he didn't show up, it taught me an important lesson."

So sometimes the learning that takes place in the classroom isn't just what we think we are teaching. I've decided to give the student half the points that the rest of the team received. This will reward him for the work he did do but also be fair to the students that made the final presentation.

Comments

Very fair answer Delaney. Half credit is good, and your student is right: it is a GREAT lesson to have to go forward without a team member. What would happen if a key player left your company moments before the big sales pitch? You'd still have to go through with the presentation, and make the best of it.

Excellent lesson for all of us!

Posted by: Phil Gerbyshak | December 11, 2006 at 11:00 PM