Outcomes-based grading criteria

LH216V Develop the Learning by Using Grading Criteria - a shorter course for KTH teachers

KTH has developed a shorter course to make it easier for teachers to implement grading criteria in their courses. All teachers interested in learning about implementing outcomes-based grading criteria and assessment are welcome to attend the course. 

Read more and register here

LH216V Develop the Learning by Using Grading Criteria 1.5 credits

The course consists of four meetings and is given in period 4 every year. In the course, you will develop grading criteria and assessment for your course and discuss these with the other course participants and the teachers of the course. The course is in the field of Higher Education and accounts for 1.5 higher education credits. The course has been held since 2012, and is free to attend.

The course teacher and examinator is Viggo Kann, professor of Computer Science at the EECS school. He has several years of experience in using grading criteria. Other contributors to the course are Camilla Björn, doctoral student in computer science education, Hans Havtun, teacher at KTH and pedagogical developer, and Emma Lundkvist, expert at grading criteria from the University of Uppsala.

Rules regarding grading criteria at KTH

The student must meet the objectives of the course syllabus in order to achieve a passing grade. For higher grades, additional goals may need to be met and these goals should then be provided for in the course syllabus. The objectives must clarify what knowledge, skills, judgement and approach the student must demonstrate after the completion of the course.

Grading criteria specify the requirements that the student must meet for the different grades and shall be designed based on the course syllabus objectives. 

Grading criteria shall be available for all courses and course modules with the seven-grade or three-grade grading scale. For course modules graded according to the two-degree grading system, no grading criteria need to be developed as the goals themselves constitute grading criteria. The examiner decides on grading criteria before the start of the course.

In the case of written assignments, the course syllabus or the grading criteria must indicate what the consequences will be if the assignment is not submitted on time

Information about the course's completion must be provided in writing no later than at the start of the course. This information must, among other things, include:

• If applicable, grading criteria (see above).
• What goals are examined at what time and how the results affect the final grade.

The examiner will assess the student’s performance. The student's individual performance should be assessed independently of the performance of other students. The assessment shall be made based on the objectives of the course syllabus, the examination form or forms specified in the course syllabus and, where applicable, grading criteria and compulsory parts. 

Complementary tasks shall be designed based on the objectives that the student has not achieved so that the student can show that the objectives have been achieved at the lowest passing level. 

The assessment according to the assessment criteria must be documented and made available to the student. For examinations that have resulted in the highest grade, the grade and grading criteria for the examination can constitute the documentation. 

If a student requests it, the examiner must justify his or her assessment, either in writing or orally. The justification must be individually adapted.

[Excerpts from Guideline on course syllabus, grading system and examination at education on all cycles , valid from 2021-07-01.]

In the previous guideline on learning outcomes and goal-related grading criteria ( Anvisning för lärandemål och målrelaterade betygskriterier för KTH-kurser (pdf 48 kB) ) from 2017-10-16 there was a more detailed explanation of the grading criteria: 

The grading criteria connect the grades to the levels of satisfaction of the course's intended learning outcomes, where a passing grade shall imply a basic understanding of the goals. The grading criteria for higher grades can, for example, be based on the student's quality of execution, the level of difficulty, how different parts of the course content are combined, and the levels in Bloom's Taxonomy .

Workshop on outcomes-based assessment and grading criteria

 This three-hour-long workshop will help teachers to start formulating assessable intended learning outcomes and outcomes-based grading criteria. The workshop has been given to many different KTH departments since it launched in 2018. The workshop leaders are Hans Havtun  and Viggo Kann . Please contact Hans or Viggo to order the workshop.