Blog: Empowering Students: The Role of Transparency at Global Health Engineering
Transparency in grading and expectations towards students is crucial for their success and for academic fairness. At Global Health Engineering, we took this labour-consuming step to provide students with all the necessary information before they commit to a project with us. The result: they are provided with clear guidelines and rubrics for multiple aspects of academic work.
Benefits of Transparency
Transparent grading practices and clear expectations offer several advantages:
1. Improved student performance: When students understand what is expected of them, they are better equipped to meet those expectations.
2. Reduced anxiety: Clear guidelines help alleviate student stress and uncertainty about assignments and evaluations.
3. Fairness: Transparent grading criteria ensure that all students are evaluated consistently and equitably.
4. Enhanced learning: Students can focus on learning objectives rather than guessing what the supervisor wants.
GHE's Approach
GHE's student wiki is one example of how to implement transparency in academic settings. We do it by providing detailed information on:
Grading criteria
Communication expectations
Data storage and data management guidelines
Presentation standards
Proposal and thesis writing requirements
The wiki serves as a comprehensive resource for students, ensuring they have access to all required information to succeed in their academic endeavours. It is accessible to all students without the need to log in and is linked to our website under Information for Students.
Fostering a Positive Learning Environment
Transparency in grading and expectations creates a more positive and productive learning environment. It encourages open dialogue between supervisors and students, promotes trust, and allows students to take ownership of their learning process. As former students ourselves, we have used our own positive and negative experiences to inform our current strategy and are hopeful that in removing the guess-work from student life, they are freer to excel and succeed.