Thanks to the introduction of Elements of Success into a business course, students better understand their performance and emails to the instructor after final grades were posted were nearly eliminated. 

Eaan Crawford, associate professor of Management and Entrepreneurship and Henry B. Tippie Research Fellow in the Tippie College of Business, teaches Introduction to Management, which averages 580 to 600 students per semester. Coursework includes exams, homework assignments, in-class participation, discussion section attendance, experiential learning activities, and team projects.

“The course uses a curve, and the first semester I taught the course students were confused by their final grade posting because it didn’t align with their expectations from a raw percentage scale,” says Crawford. “I received upwards of 70 emails within minutes of posting final grades.”

Realizing he needed a better system to help students understand their grades, he worked with his course coordinator to draft a personalized email to every student, updating them on their progress and current grade standing. This process required the coordinator to download the gradebook, calculate the curve grades, and use mail merge in Outlook each week.

While students had more insight into their performance, the weekly messages required too many resources and were reduced to three times per semester. 

In 2019, Crawford learned about Elements of Success, an easy-to-understand, visual format that helps students better understand their current course performance and ways they can improve or maintain their grade.

“We realized that Elements of Success would automate the grade projections we were doing every month, and it would do it daily,” explains Crawford. “We adopted it right away and haven’t looked back since.”

He most often highlights the current percentile standing in the course and current projected grade. However, Crawford also takes advantage of the My Updates section to post specific information and advice for students such as, “You could be getting more out of the MGMT Chapter Quizzes. Here's how...” and “Want to do better on the next Midterm and Final? Read on for my specific tips!”

To encourage students to interact with the tool, he emphasizes the importance of providing evidence that it is an accurate forecaster.

He exports the Elements of Success grade forecast prior to the final exam and compares it with the final grade. For 84% of his students their final grade is the same as or within one grade level (e.g., A to A-) of their pre-final grade projection. For the remainder, 13% have a grade that moves up two or more levels because they perform exceedingly well on the final. Only 3% have a grade that moves down two or more levels because they performed unusually poorly on the final. This trend has been consistent for the five years he’s used the tool.

Instructors with at least 25 students in their course, can add Elements of Success into a course today. 

Want to learn more about the platform? Register for Getting Started with Elements of Success to be held on Thursday, April 24, from 2 to 3 p.m.