Inside the Grading Inferno

Like many teachers at this time of year, we are currently in the depths of what feels like 'the Grading Inferno' where there are many levels of punishment for our past deeds...or so it feels.

Below is PHDComic's version of Dante's Inferno for graduate students and postdocs:

The Academic Edition of Dante's Inferno (Jorge Cham 2015)

Our Grading Inferno might be described as more like: 

1. Post-grading haze
2. Office hours filled with students wanting to know how they can do better next time
3. Office hours (and emails) filled with students wanting to know how they arrived at the mark they did
4. Office hours filled with students who think something went wrong (with their assignment or the marking process) *levels 2 - 4 come from Menzies' 2015 blog post*
5. Carting home piles of papers from campus to home (only to cart them back again before end of term)
6. Scrolling through emails for students' work (for those who couldn't find the online dropbox)
7. Online learning management system woes
8. Emails from students (or calls from parents!) asking why they received the grade they did (or to argue about plagiarism or late penalties)
9. It's on the Syllabus...

How are practicing anthropologists and candidates experiencing their end-of-term? Tweet us @anthrolens (though we probably wont have time to respond because of the Grading Inferno...)

Quick Links:

• Jorge Cham's 2015 Dante's Inferno (Academic Version)
• Menzies' (2015) Grades: “In Full Honesty, My Paper Deserves A Better Grade.” on Anthropology @ UBC blog