Participation Policies
Creating and maintaining clear expectations around participation helps to create the classroom atmosphere and tempo we want for the semester. Ensuring expectations are clear to students is crucial in order to set them up for success. Similarly, setting the tone on participation and reviewing the policies with students is a particularly helpful practice early in the year to ensure that the course runs smoothly.
Below we've provided policy options, as well as rationale for using each of them—or not. Feel free to use the language below in your syllabus, and adapt as necessary.
Participation Not Expected
Participation Encouraged
Participation Mandatory
Rubric-Graded Participation
Participation Not Expected
Participation in class is not expected, and therefore should not be part of the grading system.
Sample Syllabus Policy: "This course is designed for you to jump in with questions if you have them—and I'm available to meet with you in Office Hours—but participation during class will not be "graded" or tracked. I expect you to engage with the course material, and with me and other students to the extent you think it will help your learning."
| Rationale For | Rationale Against |
|---|---|
| This is a clear policy for classes where student contribution is not possible or not encouraged. Aligns well if attendance policies are open. | Student learning and retention is improved through engagement and interaction; thus, a class where no-one participates may be suboptimal for learning. If attendance is expected, but participation not encouraged or rewarded, students may question the value of being in class. |
Participation Encouraged
Class participation is not expected or graded, but is encouraged.
Sample Syllabus Policy: "Participation and contribution are strongly encouraged throughout the course. In-class contribution and participation and student engagement in courses is associated with improved learning, retention, and sense of belonging; thus, participation can be a tremendous asset to our collective learning and class climate."
| Rationale For | Rationale Against |
|---|---|
| Student engagement in courses is associated with improved learning, retention, and sense of belonging. Student participation in the classroom can foster discussion and tie-ins with the material to their own lives leading to improved learning. Allows for students who do not excel in written work to partake in their learning and the content in a different way. | Ungraded or unrewarded in-class participation can lead to students feeling they are performing better in-class than they do on graded assignments. This can also lead to grading difficulties for the faculty member. |
Participation Mandatory
Class participation is expected and graded in in-class assignments.
Sample Syllabus Policy: "Given the interactive style of this class, participation will be crucial to learning and your success in the course. Attendance is particularly important also because in-class assignments and discussion will be a critical component for your learning and grade. As such, each in-class assignment will be graded for both content accuracy and contribution and that will take the place of a traditional ‘participation grade.’ (See below for how percentages correspond to different letter grades.)"
| Rationale For | Rationale Against |
|---|---|
| Student engagement in courses is associated with improved learning, retention, and sense of belonging. Student participation in the classroom can foster discussion and tie-ins with the material to their own lives, leading to improved learning. Allows for students who do not excel in written work to partake in their learning and the content in a different way. Rewarding participation and contribution to the course content with specific on-topic assignments allows for students to operationalize class-time to work with others, directly impact their grade, and get immediate feedback from the faculty member on assignment questions or clarifications. In-class assignments can incentivize attendance. In-class work increases the value of in-class time and encourages more students to participate leading to more student voices represented in the classroom. Also, in-class assignments can be easy to grade as they’re mostly based on the provided deliverable. Optimally, in-class assignments would be a fusion of pair work, group work, and individual work. | Some students are very uncomfortable with in-person, verbal participation and might be penalized by this policy. |
Rubric-Graded Participation
Class participation is expected and graded with a specific rubric. Points may be assigned for certain levels of participation that are clearly outlined in the rubric.
Sample Syllabus Policy: "Participation in this course will be directly measured using the following rubric [insert rubric]." or "Participation in this course will be directly measured including synchronous contributions, e.g. asking questions and engaging in discussion, and asynchronous contributions, e.g. to canvas discussion boards. These contributions will be graded for quality and quantity using the following rubric [insert rubric]."
| Rationale For | Rationale Against |
|---|---|
| Student engagement in courses is associated with improved learning, retention, and sense of belonging. Student participation in the classroom can foster discussion and tie-ins with the material to their own lives, leading to improved learning. Allows for students who do not excel in written work to partake in their learning and the content in a different way. Rewarding participation and contributions in-class increases the value of in-class time and encourages more students to participate, leading to more student voices represented in the classroom. | Having no fixed rubric or a highly subjective rubric allows for biased grading. Having no rubric for contribution and just rewarding participation may lead to simply grading attendance, versus class contribution or engaged learning. Subjective rubrics for participation may be subject to grade contests. May be punitive for students for whom the live-class atmosphere is a difficult participation space. |
