If students receive a grade for an assessment that they believe does not accurately represent their performance in a given course, students can submit a written grade-change appeal (via email) to the faculty member who awarded the assessment grade. Appeals must be submitted by students within one week of receiving the grade and no later than the end of the following term that the grade was awarded.
Students must include in their written appeals the specific reasons they disagree with the grade they received, as well as the evidence they feel justifies a grade change (e.g., “I disagree with my grade of 70% in the ‘cold call’ row; if you look at 2:35–2:55 in my video, you will see that I asked the question, waited a couple of seconds, and then stated the student’s name, per the criteria for strong cold call that we learned in class.”).
This grade-change-appeal procedure recognizes that:
- Every student has a right to receive a grade assigned upon a fair and unprejudiced evaluation based on a practice that is not arbitrary. Below are the reasons for which students can appeal to change a grade for a course:
- The grade awarded by the faculty member is not an exercise of professional judgment,
- The grade awarded by the faculty member does not accurately represent the student’s performance on an assessment,
- The grade awarded by the faculty member was a mistake.
- Faculty members have the right to assign a grade based on any method that is professionally acceptable, viewable on Canvas, and applied equally.
The grade-change-appeal process is not intended to be a means for students to resubmit coursework to boost their grades in a given course unless it is found that a grade was not given fairly or based on a prejudiced evaluation.
- Faculty members have the agency to approve student appeals.
- If faculty members approve an appeal, they will communicate the new assignment score to the student and directly update the score on Canvas. If the grade appeal is for post-end-of-term score changes, after the faculty member communicates the new assignment score to the student, the faculty member will then proceed with submitting a grade-change process form to the Registrar’s Office so that students’ transcripts can reflect the updated course grade.
- If faculty members deny the appeal and students would like to appeal that decision, students may appeal to the Senior Instructional Lead/Dean for a second consultation. The Senior Instructional Lead/Dean's decision will be final. Students will receive notice from the Senior Instructional Lead/Dean of the status of their appeal within one week. If the Senior Instructional Lead/Dean approves the appeal, the Senior Instructional Lead/Dean proceeds with updating the score directly on Canvas for interim grade appeals or proceeds with the grade-change process for post-end-of-term score changes.