Faculty Resources

Grading Policies

Grading Recommendations

The MBA Committee recommends the grade distribution outlined below. This distribution is intended to encourage some uniformity in grading in the MBA program(s) and to set expectations for the students. In addition, the distribution will give new faculty and adjunct faculty clear guidelines for grading purposes.

Program A Range B Range C, D, F range
MBA-PM Entry Core
(6N:211 thru 6N:216)		 <=50% <=45% >=5%
MBA-PM Core <=50% >=50% As needed for lack of mastery
MBA-PM Electives <=60% >=40% As needed for lack of mastery
Full-time Core <=50% >=50% As needed for lack of mastery
Full-time Electives <=60% >= 40% As needed for lack of mastery
EMBA <=70% >=30% As needed for lack of mastery
Intl. Exec MBA <=50% >=50% As needed for lack of mastery
  1. The distribution is only recommended.
  2. The distribution will not be suitable for all classes. For instance, faculty teaching a small-enrollment elective or seminar may not choose to give any grades of C, D, or F. Similarly, the grading distribution would not be appropriate for directed readings courses.
  3. From time to time, a faculty member may decide that the distribution does not apply to a standard class. For instance, the class may perform particularly well or poorly. The faculty member should, in his or her syllabus, reserve the right to vary the distribution.
  4. We recommend the faculty use total enrollment at the end of the first seven weeks of class or when the Attend List is made available, as the measure of the number of students in the class on which to base the percentage of various grades. Students who drop after this day may be counted in the percentage of students receiving an F for the course.

Early Grade Reporting

Given MBA-PM students are anxious to get reimbursement for classes, they need an early grade listing on official letterhead from our office each semester indicating the course they took and the grade they received to receive employer reimbursement.

If possible, we would like to receive your grades within two weeks of the course end date, given our fall and spring semesters are 12-13 weeks in length versus the on-campus length of 16 weeks. Within a week of you posting course grades, we will mail early grade listings to students.

Online Grade Reporting—OSIRIS

The university requires that all grades be submitted online. Because of this requirement, all faculty, including adjunct faculty, must have a HawkID and password. Please contact your academic departmental secretary to obtain the account. Class lists will be available only electronically and will no longer be sent to you from the MBA-PM registrar.

Please consult with your departmental secretary to confirm the process for submitting grades for graduate courses. (Some graduate-level courses may have different or additional procedures to what is noted here.)

  • Login to OSIRIS at osiris.uiowa.edu with your HawkID and password.
  • Click on the "Attendance, Midterm, and Final Grades" link to see the courses you are assigned to teach in the current session.
  • Click on a course's corresponding "Edit" icon under the "Final" heading to report final grades.
  • For additional information on entering grades, reviewing course lists, submitting attendance reports and grades electronically, and uploading courses from a spreadsheet, click on the "Help" link in the top menu bar.
  • If you need further assistance in using OSIRIS, contact your departmental secretary.

Grade Changes—OSIRIS

  • Log in to OSIRIS at osiris.uiowa.edu.
  • Click on the "Attendance, Midterm, and Final Grades" link.
  • Select the session in which the grade was originally recorded.
  • Select the course and section from the list of courses.
  • Click on the "Change Grade" link.

NOTE: You can also get to the grade-change feature from the OSIRIS main menu by clicking on the "Grade Change: Instructor" link, selecting the session in which the grade was originally recorded, and then typing the department, course, and section and clicking "View Roster."

  • You have the option of changing the grade of one or more (or all) students in that section.
  • If you are changing a previously reported grade, provide the reason for the change in the space provided.
  • If you are changing a mark of I (Incomplete) or O (No Grade Reported) to a grade, no reason is required.
  • After you have completed the grade change(s) for that section, click the "Submit" button to route the grade change(s) to the administrative home departmental executive officer (DEO). You have the option of saving your work without submitting it if you want to return later to complete grade changes for that section.
  • When a grade change has received the necessary approval, the new grade will appear in the "Final" grade column. The original (replaced) grade will remain viewable but it will be grayed out.

FERPA Training

The college strongly recommends that you complete the 15-minute online FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) training even though it is not required for you to submit your grades or have access to your class list via the web. FERPA training provides you with the most up-to-date information regarding the proper use of student information (posting of grades, information that can be used or not used in recommendation letters, and the release of information to third parties, to name a few).

To sign up for a training session:

  1. Go to the Registrar's website at www.registrar.uiowa.edu.
  2. Under "Faculty/Staff," select "FERPA/Privacy Information" from the dropdown menu.
  3. Click on "Online FERPA Training/Certification Course" and follow the registration instructions.

Reminders Regarding Grade Posting and Student Privacy

To avoid violations of FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), the university requires that you DO NOT:

  • at any time use any part of the social security number or student ID in a public posting of grades
  • ever link the name of a student with that student's social security number in any public manner
  • leave graded tests in a stack for students to pick up by sorting through the papers of all students
  • circulate a printed class list with the student's name, social security number, student ID, or grades as an attendance roster
  • discuss the progress of any student with anyone other than the student without the consent of the student
  • provide anyone with lists of students enrolled in your classes for any commercial purpose
  • provide anyone with student schedules or assist anyone other than university employees in finding a student on campus

Faculty may find additional information on the Office of the Registrar's website.