Problems with Excelsior

[confusedinnj]

Hi everyone! Long time reader here, first time I've ever posted!

I'm nearly done with the Excelsior curriculum(thank god, never again), on my last nursing course and currently in week 5, but I've been running into many problems with this class, not with my work, but with the grading and the uphill battle the school has implemented.

Last semester was my first actual class that I took online, as I've been successful with the credit by exam tests up until LS2, so I switched to the online courses. The discussion requirements that are needed for each week are outlined with an assignment as well as the writing requirements, which I have met each week, yet this semester, my grades are nowhere near as high as they were last semester. When I inquired about the grades, as it almost seems that the instructor is just clicking the lowest grades in the highest category, ie: 27 out of 30 points, which is the top scoring bracket, I was told by the professor that "The instructors are now required to grade strictly by the rubric therefore many students who are used to getting grades in the high 90's are surprised that they are now earning mid to low 90's."

If you're a student, you have access to the rubric, which states 250 words with at least 1 professional reference. I have typically posted nearly 600 words with 3-4, sometimes even 5 sources properly cited with APA format. The responses that we are required to make each week must be 100 words or more and have 1 source, which, again I post 300+ words with most of the time 2 sources, admittedly sometimes it is hard to find more than 1 relevant source.

Now here's my issue. Why all of the sudden the grading change? Why when I'm clearly meeting the requirements of a perfect score am I getting low 90s? There has been no answer from anyone at the college except for the one from the instructor, which clearly makes it seem as though the college is trying to keep grades lower in order to have more failed courses.

To further my point, I now have been documenting all of my quizzes and answers before submitting, because three times this semester(coming up on week 6) I have found discrepancies in the grading, and have been able to prove the given answers incorrect. I actually caught one question last week where I was told that I had responded with a completely different answer than I had actually given.

I have reached out to some other students in the course and they as well have seen that their grades are not where they should be for the amount of work that they are doing and have also seen the same issues with the quizzes. This week we were given a short answer question about teaching for a patient newly diagnosed with a disorder(specifically reads "important points to teach..."), and I responded with a relevant answer about dietary modification which is pertinent to the patient that can be directly cited back to the assigned textbook readings, and upon my appeal was told that "the question is not about education it is regarding management these are two different things in nursing."

It most certainly seems that they are trying to force failure. Has anyone else had any experience like this with the college? What can be done about this? My last semester was a breeze, I put in more than the required work and at the end when it came time for the second big exam, I needed a 20% to pass the class, which was by my own design and hard work. It's almost as if they're trying to force people to go into the final exam with a low average grade, so as to make it similar to the credit by exam style where you take 1 test and if you fail you have to repeat.

[NotMyProblem MSN, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN]

Questions to consider:

Is it possible that with the instructors being told to 'now grade specifically according to the rubric', it revealed that you were only producing "low 90s" quality work?

Did your instructors ever caution against overkill in your discussion posts? (It is possible to lose your intended audience if your posts are too wordy).

Is it possible that whatever happened that caused you to leave the exams for the courses still be somewhat of an issue?

I did the exams 7 years ago for the ASN. But I did EC's BSN and am very familiar with the rubrics and discussion posts. Online learning is not easy. So this last question is just something to think about, not necessarily for an answer. Is a low A really worth being stressed out over?

Based on your statement above, it seems the instructors were grading on a curve and now have to follow the straight and narrow. Had they done this from the beginning, you may not have received the higher marks.

With the low 90s as a track record, I seriously doubt you're going into the final exam with a low average. Keep up the great work!