Björn C. Mitzinneck

To effectively help students achieve their learning objectives, understanding their learning progress is crucial. I thus engage in continuous and varied assessment to tailor my teaching efforts. The results of in-class group exercises as well as contributions to class discussions form important input to guide my teaching. I also make use of multiple written assignments over the course of the classes I teach to offer feedback to students as they progress through the course.

 

All assessments I use are as naturalistic as possible. That is, I strive to use assignments that are germane to the professional contexts students will be entering upon graduation and not just academic artifacts. Asking students to prepare, for example, executive briefings, reports, memos, or presentations instead of taking stylized exams, has the advantage of offering students a practically relevant learning opportunity and more authentically assessing their skills. It also offers motivational benefits by making assignments more pertinent to students.

 

In grading, I strive to be as transparent and criterion based as possible. I make use of grading rubrics, laying out to students the criteria that will be used for grading prior to submission of an assignment. Rubrics do not only allow students to better understand the shortcomings and development possibilities of their work but also allow students to proactively diagnose and improve their work themselves. The posted assignment and rubric example taken from "Managing and Leading in Organizations", which I taught in Fall 2016 at Cornell University, illustrates these principles.