Adapting Learning-Objective-Based Grading for Sophomore Math Methods Course

In Spring, 2023, I experimented with a more traditional standards-based approach in my low-N 4^th-semester math methods course. Due to student feedback and my own concerns about the time required for large-scale reassessment with a larger N, I did not repeat the experiment in 2024. This Spring, I adapted a different, “Learning-Objective-Based Grading” approach based on a talk by Andy Royston.[1] Royston used the approach in a large-N calculus-based introductory course. My course involves very different types of test questions than introductory physics, so I had to adapt Royston’s approach. In this talk I will discuss the challenges in defining learning objectives that were “just right” (not too broad yet not too specific), what adaptations I made, and feedback from myself and my students.