Grace periods can bridge the gap between deadlines and accessibility, streamlining and fostering equity and accessibility in education for all
When finals season is upon us, as dread and deadlines fill every crack and corner of the libraries, an extension is nothing short of a miracle. Grace periods, reformulating extensions into universal systems of accommodations built into assignment deadlines, can be a game-changer in creating flexible and accessible learning environments.
Grace periods refer to a window beyond the original deadline, during which students can submit assignments without incurring penalties.
Such in-built buffer periods streamline the daunting process of asking for extensions as students or having to coordinate back and forth as educators. Grace periods give students an equitable opportunity to display academic competency in a more forgiving manner. They allow students to maintain academic performance and flexibility, without added administrative duties like MSAFs.
Traditional deadline and assignment structures are often based on the assumption that students have equal opportunities, roles and responsibilities with equal barriers. In contrast, grace periods are a more realistic and streamlined way to alleviate the impact of unequal barriers while maintaining the integrity of assessments.
Grace periods are a more realistic and streamlined way to alleviate the impact of unequal barriers while maintaining the integrity of assessments.
Additionally, grace periods help reduce the pressure of hard deadlines which can significantly lower anxiety for students facing challenging circumstances. This flexibility fosters an environment where students can focus on producing quality work rather than rushing to meet deadlines.
While some might argue that grace periods are glorified or free-handed extensions, adhering to hard deadlines has never directly correlated to the specific learning goals of a course. This is especially true in a university setting, where a lot of learning is self-regulated.
Instead, hard deadlines primarily facilitate standardization for evaluation. This can still be fulfilled through grace periods while also accounting for students' diverse needs and circumstances.
Hard deadlines primarily facilitate standardization for evaluation. This can still be fulfilled through grace periods while also accounting for students' diverse needs and circumstances.
The flexibility that grace-periods offer also more accurately reflects how deadlines work in many professional settings. In many such cases, projects are aimed to be finished by certain set time periods, but when difficulties are encountered, a whole project is not shut down. Instead, work plans are adapted with the goal of still in the end producing a good product.
Grace periods overall maintain a level of objectivity and standardization for students to be evaluated according to while also recognizing the diverse circumstances of individuals. Considering this and how they streamline administrative duties for both students and faculty, the university is moving in the right direction by including these in more and more courses.
Studies suggest that taking care of household plants is a simple method to take care of yourself and enhance your performance in university
The beginning of the academic year often has students seeking ways to improve their study habits to the benefit of their performance relative to their previous years. Many students are researching productive note-taking methods, watching videos on active study techniques, or experimenting with various ways to stay organized.
What you might not have expected is that investing in houseplants for study spaces can be a great way for students to become the best they can be academically.
The benefits of caring for houseplants within a study space are vast. Ke-Tsung Han, a member of the department of landscape architecture at the National Chin-Yi University of Technology, published several articles researching the benefits of the presence of plants on humans' well-being and cognitive function.
According to their research study on the benefit of plants, houseplants improve emotional states, health and reduce mental fatigue. The study also showed higher test scores for students that had many houseplants within their study space.
The benefits of houseplants are also connected with improving psychological and physiological health, contributing to enhanced academic ability.
Having and taking care of houseplants have also been shown to improve mental and physical health, contributing to enhanced academic ability.
For example, Neil A. Bradbur uncovered that an increased capacity to pay attention allows students to study attentively for longer before losing focus. A longer attention span also helps students obtain more information and complete tasks efficiently because they can focus on the goal for an extended period.
Furthermore, by preventing mental fatigue, plants can help combat burnout, a phenomenon most students experience during the school year.
Within elementary classrooms, a study conducted by Ruth K. Raanaas and her research group, discovered that plants within a study space increase attention capacity, decreasing the consequential fatigue that follows tedious and demanding work.
Another study concluded that regular interaction with houseplants reduces stress. In addition, it was stated that houseplants suppress diastolic blood pressure and activity of the sympathetic nervous system resulting in feelings of calmness and of being in control.
Although there are numerous scientific papers published on the vast benefits of having and caring for houseplants, many individuals may still be skeptical. While houseplants can't spontaneously make you do better on a test, they improve your mental state of being to improve your ability to focus and learn. So, when someone tries to criticize the number of plants you have in your study space, tell them that becoming a plant person transformed your academic abilities for the better!
At McMaster, there are many opportunities for students to purchase plants through the pop-up booths at MUSC. For example, I bought an aloe vera plant for my desk due to its ability to encourage a sense of optimism.
I don't have a green thumb, and as a busy university student it makes me the worst plant mom ever. However, if you're starting out and are looking for some easy to care for plants, I have suggestions that may be worthwhile!
Succulents are amazing because they're tough to kill. They don't require much water to survive, and they help to reduce stress. I also would recommend buying an aloe vera plant because they're resilient to their environment. Lastly, snake plants are another great addition to your study space. They're low maintenance and they have been shown to boost productivity and concentration.
Considering the evidence, it may be beneficial to incorporate some greenery into your study space to improve your state of being and in turn boost to your academic abilities. Having this study technique in your back pocket may be just what you need to achieve that 12.
Yoohuyn Park/Production Coordinator
Do grades have to be everything?
By: Hadeeqa Aziz, Contributor
This one is for all the first years. So you’ve heard your grades will drop and you’re rather terrified of what the next couple of years will bring. And rightfully so, because according to data collected by the University of Waterloo, the average Ontario high school student’s grades will likely drop by a factor of 16 percent. Some of you may not worry too much because you’re confident in the way your high school conditioned and prepared you for post-secondary education.
After all, you’ve earned your way into your program, haven’t you? The feeling of accomplishment is even more incredible now, especially since admissions averages have been steadily increasing over the last few years. For example, according to student observations on r/OntarioUniversities, McMaster’s life sciences gateway program has seen an increase in cutoff averages since 2019, from high 80s to low 90s.
There’s nothing short of a plethora of reasons to explain these increases, from larger applicant pools to better overall student performances, especially in light of online learning. There’s one factor, however, that remains prominent — one that we all know exists but seldom find the courage to thoroughly talk about: grade inflation.
It’s a sensitive topic because implying the existence of grade inflation is an implication that not everyone sitting in your lecture hall has rightfully earned their way into their program. The onus, however, is not on the student, but seemingly on the high schools they come from.
All Ontario universities value grades when assessing high school seniors for undergraduate admissions, taking the form of an average of your top 6 courses in Grade 12. It appears to be the most plausible evaluation tool, as it’s supposedly designed to gauge your competence as an academic. Here’s a shocking revelation though: not all students have been to the same high school. What does this mean? It essentially implies that a 95 percent average at one school may not hold the same value as a 95 percent at another.
Grade inflation is often rooted in a decrease in academic standards or when faculty don’t have clear expectations of their students. This leads to grade inequality, meaning that equal qualities of work are assigned different grades across schools, departments or courses.
Many speak to the problematic nature of grade inflation, while others outright deny that it’s even a problem. When inflation leads to increased admissions averages, it sets grade standards to an all-time high, so much so that some career prospects may be taken away from students who fail to reach those standards.
The process of achieving the ridiculously high grade requirements for the University of Waterloo’s engineering programs, for instance, is not the same for all students. Those who don’t reap the benefits of grade inflation would have to work much harder than those who do. Here, universities risk being unfair to the students who have more rigorous marking standards. And we haven’t even touched upon other factors that contribute to student issues such as socioeconomics, race or geographics.
Entering university with inflated grades isn’t all that fun either. If inflation leads to misinterpretations of a student’s competence and studying habits, perhaps it can lead to similar misinterpretations on a student’s fitness for their program of entry. Students unprepared for the demands of university education may be more vulnerable to mental health issues such as stress, anxiety and depression.
In an attempt to be fairer to high school applicants, the University of Waterloo used data from their engineering program to develop a list of what they call “adjustment factors” for each high school. This factor uses a student’s admission average and their first-year average to gauge the effects of grade inflation by measuring the “gap” between the two grades. Essentially, the higher the gap, the higher possibility that the student’s grades were inflated in high school. The faculty supposedly take this adjustment factor into consideration during the admissions process.
Schools at the top of the list argue that Waterloo’s student sample is too small to reflect the hard work of their teachers and students. From their perspective, it’s quite difficult to collect robust data on inflation and adequately prove such a claim.
Instead, more individuals wish to see a discussion on whether or not standardized testing can play a role in the solution. Standardizing students, however, comes with its own set of issues and instead, I think most students would appreciate more individualized assessments of their accomplishments. If universities continue to treat grades as “everything,” they’re effectively missing the bigger picture.
