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Educator's Voice

Volume 4, Issue 11
November 12, 2003

"Fairness" in Courses: The Student Perception

"Of course I'm fair. That's the way I conduct my courses. Just ask my students." The large majority of online instructors (and most classroom teachers and professors, for that matter) would agree that the previous statement describes their instructional behavior. On the other hand, studies have shown that a relatively small number of students rate their professors as high on the "fairness scale." Why does this disparity in views exist? One explanation is that the perception of fairness, the very definition of fairness, often differs between instructors and their students.

In order to create a climate in online courses that students consider "fair," instructors must understand how students perceive fairness in an educational environment. Dr. Rita Rodabaugh's typology of perceived fairness provides an excellent starting point:
Interactional fairness--the nature of the interaction between instructor and student(s),
Procedural fairness--the policies for assessment and course administration, and
Outcome fairness--the distribution of grades among students.

Interactional Fairness
The majority of students consider interactional fairness as key to a fair course environment. The prevalent view appears to be that if interactional fairness is present, then fairness in grades and other important (to students) areas will follow. Fairness in the interactional area is perceived to include:

Respect: Students commonly enter a course respecting the instructor, and they want to be respected in return. Respect includes being polite to all students in the tone that instructors use in Announcements and the Syllabus, and calm and professional with individual students in postings to discussions, e-mails, and feedback on assignments and exams. If a student must be corrected in any way, it should be done in a private manner.

Impartiality: Students expect an instructor to treat everyone in the course equally. In the online environment, equality of treatment is most apparent in the tone and frequency of an instructor responding to individual students in a threaded discussion or chat room interaction.

Concern: Students want their instructors to care about them and their success in pursuit of their educational goals. Concern can begin with an effort to get to know students--such as by using an Introductions threaded discussion site and by introducing instructors to their students in the course syllabus. Having an online office, e-mailing students who seem to be struggling, and providing constructive feedback on assignments, can also show concern.

Integrity: Integrity revolves around clarity in presenting course policies and procedures and consistency in applying them to all students in all situations. This argues for a well-written, thorough course syllabus that ensures students understand policies and procedures and any consequences for failure to comply with course requirements.

Propriety: Students expect instructors to act in socially acceptable ways and to follow the rules. In the online environment, propriety is most clearly applicable in communications with students whether in discussion postings, e-mails to individuals or teams, or comments on written assignments and exams.

Procedural Fairness
From the student viewpoint, procedural fairness also ranks above outcome fairness. Again, if procedures are fair as established, and followed fairly, then students believe that fair outcomes will logically follow. Fairness in the procedural area is perceived to include:

Policies: Policies should be seen as fair by students. To this end, policies and procedures should be clearly set forth and explained in the course syllabus. Policies of particular concern to most students involve such items as participation in discussions, plagiarism, other students' participation in team assignments, and the handling of late assignments. The degree to which policies are applied equally reflects upon perceived instructor integrity, a factor in interactional fairness.

Workload: Students must see the required workload as reasonable given the type of course and course overview/objectives as stated in the institution's catalog. What is reasonable will depend, to some degree, on the type of students in the courses and the level of students in the program or institution. Obviously, at the college level, the workload will be higher for graduate students than undergraduates and higher in upper-level courses than entry-level courses.

Assessments: Students appear to consider a number of factors when deciding if assessments (exams and quizzes) are fair. For example:

• Do the assessment questions align with the learning objectives in the syllabus?
• Do the assessment questions relate to content presented in the course?
• Is the level of difficulty of assessment questions appropriate for the level of the course and the students?
• Are the assessment questions well designed?

Feedback: Students consistently provide high ratings to online courses where the instructor presence is visible. Providing constructive feedback on assignments and assessments helps ensure that students (1) view these activities as fair and (2) view the course in a positive light.

Student Input: Student involvement in the educational process increases the likelihood that they will view a course as "fair." One way to involve students is to periodically solicit their input on the course.

Outcome Fairness
Grades, obviously, are important to students. In general, students want (1) to know the policies and rubrics by which they are graded and (2) their grades to reflect their actual performance. Fairness in the outcomes area is perceived to include:

Information: Students believe that fairness requires they be given detailed information, preferably written in the course syllabus, specifying:

• The assessment tools and graded assignments that will be used to determine their course grade.
• The weight each assessment tool and graded assignment will have in determining their course grade.
• The grading rubric in a percentage or point basis as well as information about grade determination. For example, is a preset cut-off score used or relative standing in the student group?

Policy Change: Students expect that the grading policies and rubric set in the course syllabus will be firm and applied equally to all students. If a grading policy is altered for any reason, the rationale should be explained fully to the students.

Multiple Assessments: Students commonly feel that the use of multiple assessment tools is "fairer" than reliance on a single type of assessment, such as a mid-term and final exam. In the online environment, instructors frequently use a mix of exams and quizzes, written assignments, individual and team assignments, and participation in discussions. This "portfolio" approach to assessment is generally well-received by students.

Individual Performance: Almost universally, students believe that fairness requires their grade to be based on their individual performance. This holds true for team or group projects as well. Students feel that their grade should reflect their contribution to the team assignment and not what the team achieved overall.

In Conclusion
Student perceptions of instructor "fairness" can contribute to student/faculty success in a course or lead to discontent that can negatively impact student success and even retention rates. Apparently, unimportant omissions or actions, from the instructor's viewpoint, can negatively impact students' perceptions of the instructor's fairness. Many online instructors have found it useful to conduct their own "fairness audit" of their courses. They then use their conclusions to decide how they can enhance their students' perceptions of the fairness of the courses and the instructional activities.

Reference:
Rodabaugh, R. C. (1996). Institutional Commitment to Fairness in College Teaching. In L. Fisch (ed.) Ethical Dimensions of College and University Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

       --Ken Switzer, Ph.D.

 

TIP

Placing HTML Pages Inside Course Frames

Instructors may have noticed by now that if they type a URL address into eCollege's Visual Editor, when students click on that link, they are taken to that site within the main frame of the course. However, if instructors use the Link Wizard to create that same URL, a new window will open when students click on the link. Have you ever wondered why, or wished you could get documents to also open up inside the course frame? You can!

To the right of the Navigation Tree and under the Course Management Tabs is the main course frame. This frame holds content that instructors create such as tests, Webliography postings, etc. When users click on a content item, information for that item appears in this frame. However, if instructors link an HTML page within this frame, another browser window opens. This new browser window holds the HTML page and is called an "external" page. So, what if instructors would rather have their external page open up within the frame instead? Here's how they can do this:

1. Create an HTML page in Word. (When saving the file, select 'Save As' a Web Page or HTML page.)
2. Use the Link Wizard in the Visual Editor to link to this page.
3. After linking to this page, Save Changes and view it in the course view (this is always a good idea to do first). The document should open in a new browser window.
4. Once the page opens, go back into Author view and toggle to the HTML view.
5. Scroll through the HTML text until the link tag appears--here is an example of a link tag: <A href="/ec/courses/CRS-EDU104-1135056/Educators_Voice.htm" target=new>Click here to view the document</A>
6. Once the link tag appears, find the piece of code that says "target=new"
7. Simply remove this piece of code (be sure NOT to remove the carat (>) after the word 'new'). The new code will look like this: <A href="/ec/courses/CRS-EDU104-1135056/Educators_Voice.htm">Click here to view the document</A>
8. The link will now open within the course frame. (This will also work for links to Web sites.)

(NOTE: It's ALWAYS best to link to an HTML document [.html or .htm] rather than a Word document [.doc], because if a student does not have Word on their machine, they won't see the file. Also, the download time for an HTML page is much less than linking directly to a Word document. So, save your Word docs as HTML instead.)

       --Jeff D. Borden, M.A.