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How do you respectfully give a teacher feedback about their teaching?
My teacher's teaching style isn't working for me, and he asked for feedback about the class and how he could teach it better.  He teaches with powerpoint and gives quizzes that are all about rote memorization of the slides.  Most of the class finds these quizzes to be of little help in understanding the information, but nobody knows what to say to the teacher about it.

What about "I think your quizzes are of little help to me in understanding the information"? You have already pretty respectfully formulated your issue here, I see no problem in saying pretty much the same to your teacher.

Just write an email. Explain the problem and suggest a better approach.

When you say a teacher asked for feedback did they suggest a particular format, for example verbal in-person feedback, email, anonymous in-class feedback forms, anonymous online form, etc.? (The few times that I have taught a class I gave anonymous midterm feedback forms to the students. A professor of mine from college created an anonymous online feedback form for every class. It seems strange to me that a faculty member would ask for non-anonymous feedback during the semester.)

@AruRay While I agree with everything you said, it could always happen (even if not the case here, it's not a big stretch in generalization) that the student simply wants to give feedback, because he genuinely wants to improve the course, and is looking for a best way to give suggestions more (in volume or importance) than a suggested (anonymous) form.

With few exceptions, I've only had excellent teachers soliciting (anonymous) feedback, and crappy teachers not asking any feedback at all.  Although where I did my Master degree, the university had an online system for anonymous feedback after every course.  They even used this to award prizes and such.

I like all of the recommendations below. However, I think negative feedback does not have to be perfect in order to be valid and legitimate. At the end of the day, the lecturer has to improve their lecture, not the student. (Hence, I do not fully agree with @JukkaSuomela.) Also from the side of the person giving the lecture, I would rather have a not-so-constructive (but respectful and honest) feedback than no feedback at all.

Does the teacher check the answers to the quiz? If so, having a very good score would be the best possible feedback and the hint that quizzes are useless and should be dropped/made more challenging.

You can ask the teacher how the quizzes should improve the knowledge about the matter. Most probably this is obvious for the teacher but simply by asking the question you can get the teacher to reconsider.

Basically, I agree that what xLeitix said is the gist of if: as long as you are respectful, you should be fine.
To elaborate a little, my only experience with giving feedback back to the professor is a bit specific: a fairly young professor, that just got the course for the first time and was trying to improve it. Like in your case, he also said that he would appreciate feedback.
I'll try to give some specific advice, with a specific example of my situation:

again, be very respectful
(In my situation, this meant that I didn't start loudly complaining in class as the reading material quality (made by the prof) steadily degraded during the year. Rather, when I found enough time, I passed by the professors office during the office hours and asked him if he would be interested in my feedback on his reading materials.)
be as informed as you can about the coursework for which you disagree with the teaching approach
(Basically, why would I take your advice on how to teach X if you don't even have a rudimentary understanding of X?)
be specific, and give argumented reasons
(For me, this meant, when he agreed to listen to my feedback -- he actually scheduled a meeting outside of his office hours for that class suspecting it will take some time -- I didn't just come and said the materials were getting worse. I had specific examples of pages and exercises that I had trouble solving, marked in the script. I also offered information like "it took me X hours to finish and understand the first script (good quality), while it took me 4*X hours to finish the second one (worse quality), and they are supposed to cover approximately the same amount of coursework". For you, it might mean explaining how and why you don't think the feedback you're getting from quizzes is not helpful.)
make specific recommendations or suggestion (but don't demand anything)
(Again, in my case, alongside some of the things I marked, like exercises and definitions I had trouble with, sometimes I had my own versions of definitions, or I would re-phrase the examples in a way that made it easier for me to understand. It also help pointing out the ambiguities in the original and saying why you think your formulation resolves it.)
be committed. The bigger the change you want to make, the more committed your will need to be.
(As you can see form the above, making a substantial change, at least according to me, will probably require you do to a substantial amount of work on your own -- without the professor's help -- to be able to give suggestions well supported by arguments. Of course, you don't have to take all the points super-seriously if you just opt for a short 5-minute chat giving some suggestions and examples.
On the other hand, in my case, where I loved the course, I thought it was important, I thought the prof was great and trying really hard, and I had a (young and naive) wish to make a change for future generations, I took a few days to prepare my notes, I came to Uni a few days after the summer break has started in order to have time to give all my comments in as much detail as the professor wanted, and it did help that the prof actually knew and remembered me from the courses and valued my opinion at least a little.)

Very good answer. One point to add: when you're done writing it, have someone else proofread it. You want to be as certain as possible that you're not accidentally insulting the teacher.

@eykanal In my head, I was giving the advice on how to do it in person (which is why I had the points "be informed" and "be committed" instead of proofreading). But I agree, if you're going to do this in writing, somebody proofreading it might be a good idea. It might be a bit difficult to proofread it for "correctness" (as compared to politeness), if the prof is the only know authority on the subject and his teaching is something that needs improving.

Do other Universities not have official anonymous course evaluations at the end of every course? I've attended two, and they both had them. But maybe this isn't widespread? We would answer a number of 1-5 questions, and provide open-ended feedback as well. Everything was done through the school's computer system.

If the quizzes are of little help to everyone, and the teacher is asking for feedback on his teaching style, and nobody says anything, then the blame is on the students. If the teacher is sincerely asking for feedback he will not be offended by your comments (given you express them in a polite way). Tell him politely (and directly) what the problem is. He will surely appreciate the feedback.
As an example, I am teaching programming to some students with little programming experience. They are struggling and I know some of the concepts are difficult to understand. At the end of every two classes I ask if the explanations and exercises are being helpful, if they are helping them to understand the topic. I always get positive feedback. That makes me a little nervous- if they are failing to communicate their difficulties I will fail to make them understand the topic. I would prefer constructive criticism than misunderstood politeness.

"If the quizzes are of little help to everyone, and the teacher is asking for feedback on his teaching style, and nobody says anything, then the blame is on the students." I would say that the blame is on both the students and the teacher at this point.

@PeteL.Clark not sure if agree. The teacher is giving the opportunity to change the problem. The students are not taking that opportunity. The teacher can change things after evaluating the students if most of them fail. But until then, what else can he do? If you have any suggestions on this I would appreciate your comments!

Well, I think all of these are part of good teaching: (i) having the judgment/experience to run the course in a useful way from the start, (ii) successfully soliciting meaningful feedback from the students and (iii) implementing that feedback in a helpful way.  If you start out too far off the mark then you will, honestly, lose your chance with some of the students.  There are also more and less effective ways to ask for feedback: the instructor could, for instance, have students turn in feedback for some course credit.  So like most things in teaching, it's a two-way street.

@PeteL.Clark This is a quite a problem for me. I just started teaching one course and it's a first time in my life I actually teach a group of people. So ad 1) where should I get the experience/judgement if the students aren't cooperative?

@jinovacho: I think the honest answer is that though some are more naturally gifted at teaching than others, for almost everyone it takes a certain amount of time to develop good teaching instincts and practices.  Also, I don't mean to present too much of a Catch-22, but: getting useful feedback from your students is also a skill.  Saying to the whole class "Please give me feedback about how to teach better" is distinctly better than nothing but may or may not be enough to get the desired response.  How to elicit meaningful student feedback sounds like a great question for this site!

If it were me, I would leave an anonymous typed note that cannot trace back to me. No one responds to emotional feedback (that only makes a person defensive and even more resistant to improvement), but make sure the feedback is highly constructive, and entirely unemotional and not accusatory in any fashion.
When I was in school, I did confront bad teachers. I can confirm that direct, accusatory methods do not work. Now that I am older, I can say with certainty that the most unemotional and constructive methods will work best.
If you have to, first write the note when you are emotional, and then come back some time later when you are no longer emotional and rewrite the note, and then, only then, give it to the teacher. Try to give it to them anonymously, because if it's really a bad teacher, they might single you out, and that's the last thing you want.
Alternatively, if you have built a strong relationship with the teacher, then you can use your relationship to try to help them and give them valuable feedback, as a friend. People usually listen to their friends who speak out of a kind heart.

I didn't actually get the feeling that he's dealing with a bad teacher, just a bad lecturer... but then, you did mention the other case as well, so no harm done I guess.

This response should be clarified. Students should never leave anonymous written notes for their teachers with feedback. There should be an official channel for reporting feedback. Also, no matter how close the relationship the student has with the teacher, giving them feedback "as a friend" is inappropriate.

Send him a respectful email that you are having trouble understanding the concept and if he could please change the style a bit to what you want. That way, it "feels" like you are the one doing something wrong and are asking him of a favor, and you are less likely to offend him.

It would be even more convincing if you left it on his pillow.

@APrioriRainbows Don't blame naive sophomore me!!


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Second author being lead presenter on paper at a conference?
I am second author of three on a recently published conceptual paper (i.e., no data). The first author is a a student I co-supervise, although the paper did not stem from his thesis but is a contribution we were invited to submit for a special issue. Authorship order accurately reflects paper contributions.
We had discussed submitting an abstract to present this paper jointly at an international conference. The submission form allows multiple presenters but one must be named as the lead. My thinking was that this should be the student, since he is first author on the paper, but that I would contribute at least 50% of the preparation. However have found out that the conference funding from my department is only available to lead presenters. The student has funding for travel to the conference regardless, as he will also be separately presenting his thesis work. He has also stated it is no issue for him if I submit the abstract as lead presenter (I would of course credit him and provide the accurate citation for the paper with him as first author, or even present jointly as per the original idea if he wants to do this).
BUT - as a relatively new academic I would really appreciate opinions as to:

Whether this is not the right thing to do even if he says he is ok with it - perhaps I should just sit this one out and leave that material to the student to present at a later conference if he chooses; and
Whether it would actually just be weird for the second author to be taking the lead on the conference presentation i.e. being the named lead presenter, particularly if the first author is also present at the conference and/or involved in the presentation?

As a little bit more context, I am interested in attending this conference for the networking and learning opportunities, and don't have anything else to submit as an alternative being so new in the job. I have previously presented all my previous work.

Welcome to the site! I edit the formatting of the post a bit - I hope you don't mind and feel free to rollback if you like.

I've just been involved in some conference abstract submissions.  It was possible to set any of the authors as the presenting author, and any as the corresponding author. By default both of these were set to the first author but that's all.  This is in a field where author order matters (especially first).

What makes one a good first author is not quite the same as what makes for a great oral presentation. Though less applicable here (e.g. who is able to make it to the conference & have time to prepare), there are also other good reasons why a team of authors might choose a lead presenter who is different from the first author.

As far as I see there is nothing particularly strange with any of the authors presenting while any other authors also attend the conference. (Well, I am from mathematics where there is no such thing as "order of the authors" but I also work with people from other disciplines which do have this notion.)
So having the second author presenting while the first authors is in the audience seems totally OK for me. (It could just be that the presenting authors is the "best presenter of the group" or, by contrast,  should train presenting…)
Also it is totally OK for you to be first presenter, especially since the student agreed. There are many different things influencing who presents some paper/poster (some of which you already stated such as funding, time to attend) and I think the audience would not even think about the issue much. In general, all authors should discuss who should be presenting and as long as all authors agree, the outcome is OK.

As mentioned before: if he agrees there's no problem. Just like your PI could present your work, you can present the work of your student. If you contributed more than only supervision: even better. But I answered especially to say that usually there's no such thing as "leaving the material to present at a later conference". In my field at least, some work is presented on multiple conferences, recycled in big presentations by PIs and incorporated in the presentation on the follow-up publication. Of course he'll not be invited to present the same thing at the same conference next year, but somewhere else he could very well be.

If you have a department head you could consult, I would consult them on whether or not this would violate any standards and practices for your department or academic field - just briefly summarize what you and the student intend to do, and ask if there are any restrictions on it.
Also review the requirements for 'lead presenter' at the conference you are attending - make sure there aren't any qualifications necessary to be considered lead presenter (there might not be any rules at all - just so long as you are part of the paper itself).
If both of these check out, and as you said before you've talked it over with the student and he's fine with it, then I see no problem with representing your paper as the 'lead presenter'.  You did after all contribute to it, so it's not as if you aren't familiar with the content.

I think there are two different issues here: (1) the learning experience for the student, and (2) academic politics.
The best learning experience (assuming the student doesn't have a track record of being terrified by doing presentations!) is to let them do the bulk of the preparation and presentation work themselves, but give advice on the first draft(s) of the presentation material and be around at the conference to pick up any hard (or hostile) questions from the audience if the student gets out of his/her depth. You can't learn how to do presentations without actually doing them, any more than you can learn to ride a bike by watching videos or reading books.
I wouldn't see anything particularly strange in the lead author of an already published paper being less involved in a conference. Quite likely the student would be working full-time on this single problem, but the lead author would have other responsibilities that might conflict with even attending the conference. Of course if the paper was written only for the conference itself, that would be a different situation.
I'm not qualified to comment on (2), except for the general observation that "here be dragons".

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Are sleep stations on-campus effective in promoting productivity of students?
Several universities in the United States have begun setting up areas (usually in the library) for students to rest, ideally for those doing all-nighters. Its purpose is to help its students cope with the lack of sleep.  Not much has been said about its effectivity.
The student government of our university has been discussing employing the same concept  on-campus. I would like to know if this is a good idea or if it is more likely to promote a culture of lethargy.

My opinion would be that it would encourage unhealthy sleep practices such as all-nighters, and would be treating a symptom rather than the cause (procrastination, unhealthy course loads, bad prioritisation of students personal time, etc). Unless these are bunks for students to get a few hours of rest in, I think promoting sleep-hygiene would be better. But that's just my opinion

Is it only for students?  There's nothing bad about taking a nap.

My library in undergrad was used for that purpose unofficially anyway.

Unfortunately, I am not aware of any particularly significant study that analyzes the effectiveness or convenience of on-campus sleep stations.
There is, however, significant research on the effectiveness of "power naps" for restoring mental performance, especially in somewhat sleep-deprived individuals. E.g. [1],[2].
Personally, I think that it seems somewhat unlikely that it would encourage a culture of lethargy. In fact, I would be more concerned with the opposite; that it would promote a culture of sleep-deprived students (either due to bad time management or to being overworked) that rely on shortcuts to temporarily restore their mental capabilities while maintaining the relatively unhealthy habit of not sleeping properly at night.
 [1] Mednick, S. C., Nakayama, K., Cantero, J. L., Atienza, M., Levin, A. A., Pathak, N., & Stickgold, R. (2002). The restorative effect of naps on perceptual deterioration. Nature neuroscience, 5(7), 677-681.
[2] Naitoh, P., Englund, C. E., & Ryman, D. (1982). Restorative power of naps in designing continuous work schedules. Journal of human ergology, 11(Supplement), 259-278.

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Would it be arrogant for me to offer my professor material on the module they teach?
I am a first year CS undergraduate taking a module on differential equations. For part of this module I did a personal project on the motion of simple harmonic systems (damped and undamped) which I recently found out was in fact something we would briefly cover at the end of the module. From my project I have a very nice set of interactive graphs which I made to aide my learning and understanding of the subject. When I found out that the subject of my project was something that would be covered in the module it occurred to me that this might be worth offering to my professor to possibly share with other students or something to that end. However as soon as I thought this I realised that it might come across as arrogant and I'm now unsure of what to do. Would it be worth emailing my professor about this?

Do you have a class LMS site you could just share it on y our own instead?

Providing material to your teachers is all about HOW and WHY you provide that material. If you're providing this material purely as an extra resource than provided you approach it as that, you shouldn't appear arrogant. If you are doing this to prove your knowledge of the topic or to try and 'one up' the instructor, then yes this is gonna be seen as arrogance.
I suggest an email similar to the one below:
"Dear xxxx,
Looking ahead in the topic I noticed that we are covering yyyyyyy. I have previously done a project on this topic and thought that it might be useful in trying to explain the concepts. I have attached all documents on the project for you to review and would love an opportunity to discuss my work with you.
Thank-you for your time,
I look forward to hearing from you,
"
Etc...
That should get your point across without portraying arrogance. How you conduct yourself in any meetings or class however, that is really up to you.
Also be aware that the teacher may choose not to use your project or other materials. That is their choice and their right. They may choose to include it in subsequent versions of their topic.

Thank you for your reply - I absolutely understand that her using anything I've done is entirely at her discretion and I would completely understand if she chose not to use it. I suppose I mostly wanted to show some initiative and passion for a subject I really enjoy while also possibly helping someone. I'll send her an email and see what she says

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Effect of cold temperatures on exam performance
Recently, at a university I know, students sat one of their exams in a room that was (apparently) about 40 Fahrenheit (4.4°C) because the heaters had broken. They also had to take their coats off due to exam condition rules.
The students have subsequently complained and there is a proposal to scale their marks.
Is there any research on the effect of cold temperatures on exam results?
Note: I haven't independently verified what the temperature was. This is a general theoretical question.

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Here is another study on this topic.

link to the meta discussion for completeness.

Recommend that the Celsius estimate be edited to 4°. The original estimate only has one decimal place of accuracy, and is a rough guess anyway. Classic example of spurious precision on unit conversion.

It is well-established that both hot and cold temperatures can affect cognitive performance negatively. See for example these meta-analyses

Falla et al., "The Effect of Cold Exposure on Cognitive Performance in Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review". Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health. 18, 9725 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fijerph18189725

The main findings of the current systematic review are that in most of
the experimental settings (either cold air or cold water) cold
exposure induced an impairment of CP [cognitive performance] even in healthy participants and
before accidental hypothermia was established. The majority of the
studies show that a single acute exposure to cold may impair
attention, speed of processing, memory and executive function and
these effects might depend on individual physiological responses to
cold as well as the extent of the exposure in terms of duration and
temperature reached. Despite the fact that data are scarce, males and
females seem to have a different response to cold exposure even in CP.
Repeated exposure and possible acclimation effect seems also to have
an impact on CP, but further studies are needed to confirm such
preliminary findings.

Pilcher, Nadler and Busch, "Effects of hot and cold temperature exposure on performance: a meta-analytic review". Ergonomics 45, 682-698 (2010) https://doi.org/10.1080/00140130210158419

The current results indicate that both hot and cold temperature exposure had a negative effect on performance in a variety of different types of tasks. As expected, the greatest detriment in performance occurred under the coldest conditions (<55°F [10°C]) and the hottest conditions (>90°F [32.22°C] WBGT [Wet Bulb Globe Temperature]) - a 13.91% and a 14.88% average decrement, respectively. The Cold1 (50 - 64.9°F [10 - 18.28°C]) and Hot2 (80 - 89.9°F [26.67 - 32.17°C] WBGT) temperature conditions resulted in a smaller decrement in performance, whereas the Hot1 (70 - 79.9°F [21.11 - 26.62°C] WBGT) temperature condition had little effect on performance.
Furthermore, the effects of temperature exposure on performance varied by the type of task. Cold exposure (<65°F [18.33°C]) resulted in a large negative effect on performance on reasoning, learning, and memory tasks whereas exposure to hot environments of 80°F (26.67°C) WBGT or above on average resulted in a small improvement in performance on these types of tasks. In contrast, attentional and perceptual tasks were more negatively affected by hot exposure (>80°F [26.67°C] WBGT) than by cold exposure. Similarly, performance on mathematical tasks and
on reaction time tasks was negatively affected by hot exposure (>80°F [26.67°C] WBGT) but not by cold exposure. Although these data may seem confusing when attempting to break them down as was done in tables 4 and 5, figure 1 provides an easy way to estimate the effect of temperature exposure on performance. This inverted-U shaped function may be especially useful when examining a typical work environment where the employee may be involved in a variety of tasks and a variety of environmental conditions, such as length of task duration or length of temperature exposure, simultaneously. In this type of real world setting, figure 1
provides the best estimate of the effect of temperature exposure on performance.

I have to confess I don't understand how mathematical tasks are defined in order to be so disjoint from reasoning tasks...
I would also note that test taking often involves fine motor skills such as handwriting, drawing etc. that are harder to perform in cold temperatures. My impression is that the meta-analyses tried to focus mainly on cognitive effects. Thus the above effect sizes may underestimate the impacts on exam performance. In addition, the stress of suddenly finding out one needs to take a test in adverse conditions may well affect one's performance too. Thus, especially in light of the individual and gender-based differences in physiological responses highlighted by Falla et al., a simple scaling of exam results seems unlikely to recover the expected scores had the exam been held under normal conditions, even if we assume no students were affected by hypothermia or preexisting medical conditions.

In the second paper, I love the way temperatures in °F are measured to one significant figure, and then converted to °C at four significant figures. Measurement precision, created out of thin air! And someone should really introduce the authors to the concept of indicating uncertainty in plots, e.g., using standard error bars.

From experience on backcountry trips, both hot and cold impact different people to different degrees. So extreme temperature deviation from ‘normal’ is not equally felt by the students.

I second @JonCuster's observation. Everyone who has spent days in the backcountry in very cold temperatures (say -20 Celsius and below) knows well that (i) cognitive ability is impaired, and (ii) is impaired to different degrees for different people. -20 C with adequate winter clothing of course translates to much warmer temperatures without winter clothing.

@JonCuster and let's not even touch the point that hot for some is cold to others.  Having lived both in the mountains and in coastal tropical places, 76F can be both "very warm" and "cool" depending on who's voicing their opinion.

@WolfgangBangerth Indeed. Physical activity makes a big difference too, even in much colder temperatures than you mention.


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Algorithms textbooks/lecture notes for the blind
Algorithms textbooks and lecture notes are largely inaccessible to the blind. If you can get them in pdf format, today's readers do a terrible job of reading math and make no effort to explain diagrams.
Are there are textbooks or lecture notes that are available in plain text so that a reader can read them correctly?
There are two main obstacles:

Getting hold of LaTeX source of a standard textbook
Finding a tool that can read math in an intelligible way.

The third problem is getting written descriptions of any diagrams.
If one could get hold of the pdf of a standard textbook then the problem would be to find a reader that could read that intelligibly, complete with the math contained.

I'm trying to comprehend a math textbook (yes, including algorithms) that doesn't use, well, math. I do not doubt it is a problem, but the answer is not in finding a non-math algorithms book. https://www.reddit.com/r/LaTeX/comments/112airt/braille_readers/ has some good pointers.

@JonCuster I am not looking for a math free textbook. I am looking for a textbook which is available in plain text and not just pdf.

In the US, a student would have access to an office whose job it is to help with this sort of thing. Is that available to whatever blind person needs this?

@AzorAhai-him- Not really. I mean there is an office but I don't think they provide this sort of help as they know nothing about math and nothing about algorithms.

@Simd - OK, I guess to me when someone says 'plain text' that pretty much rules out all but the very simplest math expressions. I don't consider a integral sign to be plain text. The link did point to devices that can handle docx equations, and I did not read further to see if LeTeX could be handled by something.

Go to that office. They may not know math, but they DO know how to get resources from publishers. Moreover, explaining diagrams and math formulae is a very difficult problem. It needs a solution of course.

@JonCuster One problem, even if that is solved, is how to get hold of LaTeX for a standard algorithms textbook.

The MAA has advice on this (PDF): https://maa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CUPM-Guide_Resources-for-Teaching-Blind-or-Visually-Impaired-Students.pdf

And this announcement from ~4 years ago may have progressed: https://aimath.org/aimnews/braille/

@Simd You don't think, or you asked them and they said, "Sorry, we can't help, because it's math"?

@AzorAhai-him- I asked  and they didn't have anything useful to say.

Wild suggestion: Some high schools require service hours as part of graduation. See if that office could work with you on seeing if there are any good math students (taking AP classes) at the schools who would be willing to do their service hours helping you. Maybe asynchronous--after training on what you need, recording descriptions of equations and diagrams. The office might have to 'certify' the hours.

And a few questions over on Mathematics Educators: https://matheducators.stackexchange.com/search?q=braille

There may be a specialized library which could help? I remember this one: https://katalog.blista.de/ (in Germany), there may be something similar in the country you live in.

This is a summary of recent comments that should be captured. It is flagged as Community Wiki so that people feel free to edit and add resources.
In the US, at least, most colleges and universities will have an Office of Assistance for Accessibility and/or Disability that should be able to help. In particular, they should be able to obtain resources from publishers.
An internet search should turn up some possibilities, though many are for elementary age students.
The MAA has advice on this (PDF).
The AIMath does also.
A search at matheducators turns up some questions and answers.
A redit post  has some pointers.
There is a discussion group for blind mathematicians that may be able to offer advice.
Feel free to add resources.


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How to find your contract and employee handbook in the UK?
When talking to employment lawyer friends about workplace issues, they always suggest you read your employment contract and the employee handbook. But as far as I can tell these things don't exist at the universities I have worked at, at least for academics.
There are university web pages that generally discuss policy for all staff (academic and non academic) and include lines like "All staff should have a job description for their post which will be provided on joining the University".  Maybe this counts as an employee handbook. But I have no idea how to get hold of my contract.
Has anyone worked out how to get a copy of their employment contract at a UK university?

Try searching for the word "contract" in whatever email address you were using to communicate with the university before you were hired.

@deee that is too long ago now sadly.

The official letter that offered you employment, together with your job description and the university general terms and conditions of employment (which apply to all staff) jointly constitute your contract. At both universities I have worked at,  the terms and conditions have been linked in the offer letter.  You might also find them by searching your intranet for terms and conditions.

To add a bit more detail, all of mine start with the words "I am please to formally offer an appointment as Position X in University Y". The last bit in all of them is "I am pleased to accept the offer of appointment as set out in this letter and in the enclosed statement of main terms and conditions" (and then has a line for a singature and date). I found that the older of my documents are scans which have my physical signature (with a pen) scanned it. The latest one I have is not signed; I suspect that's because post-covid, they decided that "an approval through e-mail" is just as valid.

And then I also have a document (which I received with my offer letter; but that was the current version at the time and it is possible that it changed) titled "University of X Statement of Main Terms and Conditions of Employment For Academic Higher Education Staff, Grade 7 – 10". I'm guessing that's the "employee handbook" to which the OP was referring

@penelope We have a "Summary of terms and conditions" and a (much longer) "Full Terms and Conditions". The Full Terms and conditions makes reference to the "HR Policy Website".

You should have signed a contract before you started working. As Ian writes, it may not have said "contract" but "offer letter", but either way, it spelled out the terms of your employment, your duties, your remuneration and other perks, and if applicable, the length of your employment. You should have gotten that in duplicate, one to return signed, one to keep. This is your contract, and yes, you should keep this in a secure location. (If you are paranoid like me, you scan it and keep the PDF on external hard drives in three separate places.)
Your employee handbook is typically somewhere on the intranet, or you can ask HR about it. The fun part here is that this can and will change, without this being announced. If you take some action based on your understanding of the handbook, it is always good to check first whether your understanding was correct. I have seen perks disappear silently: one year, everyone would get reimbursed for a public transport half fare card, one year later it would only be "with manager approval". And yes, such unilateral changes are usually quite legal. (If you are even more paranoid than me, you keep time-stamped local copies to show that what you did at point in time X was in accordance with the handbook at that time.)
Overall, this is really more a question for Workplace.SE.

If you have been at an organization for a non-trivial time, you may have accumulated letters of modification to your contract (most commonly in the form of any changes to your pay), such that the actual state of your contract may not be in a single document.

Per the comments, it seems like you no longer have your copy of the contract that was agreed to when you started. You may have some luck requesting a copy of your contract from HR as they will certainly have a copy.
The "employee handbook" is likely to be a collection of pages on your intranet which may or may not be coherent or easily accessible.
If you have problems getting your contract from HR, your union branch will probably be able to help. CC'ing your union rep on an email to HR often helps with issues like this. Similarly, if you have a question about a workplace issue then your union may be able to answer, as the reps are likely to be fairly familiar with relevant employment law, university policies, and the arcane machinations of university administration. If you don't have a local branch then the place to contact is your regional office.
(If you're not a member of your union branch, consider joining - it's not very much money and gives you access to a support when you're having the kind of issues that mean you're looking for your contract. In the UK it's generally UCU or Unison - academic staff have to join UCU and professional services staff can join either.)


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Informative questions to ask in a faculty interview?
I have been in a number of faculty interviews where my overriding feeling was that we were judging how good the candidates were at being interviewed. This isn't necessarily useful information for the job they are being hired to do.
What questions are most informative to ask in an academic interview that will help provide useful information about the candidate as a potential faculty member?
Examples
These are questions I have seen that I don't think were useful in hindsight.

What is your approach to large class teaching?
Name some people at this university who are not in the department.
Why do you want to work here?
What skills would you bring?

I think the answers will be very subjective and your question is quite broad. It depends on several factors (university, country, department, field, etc.). Do you have any specific question in mind, that is, do you want to lead with a few examples, at least?

Are you required to ask the same questions of all candidates? If not, I would look at their CV and application materials. Presumably they've told you about what research they've done, what classes they've taught, and what service activities they've engaged in. I'd ask about anything that appears interesting or potentially valuable to your department.

I find the "name people not in the department" question thoroughly confusing.

I voted to reopen this. The current answer demonstrates that there are answers not based on opinions and I expect that more helpful answers are possible.

While getting my degree in psychometrics I learned a few things:
First, interviews are almost useless, but are slightly less useless if they are highly structured. People form an opinion in the first 15 seconds and then they unconsciously adjust the interview to match that. Also, many people think that they are the exception to this rule, but ... they aren't.
Second, one useful metric for many relatively high level jobs is the "in basket" test. Broadly, you assign the person tasks similar to what they would have to do on the job.
EDIT:  What might this look like? Well, to some extent, it depends on the school and department, but you could have the person give a class or, if that's too time consuming, have them teach something to the interviewers (with preparation). You can look at past research, of which there should be some, and you could ask them to, say, search the literature for a relevant paper, or design an experiment or study. And whatever else the person will have to do, if hired.

Could you give an example of an in basket test for a faculty job?

I added to my answer.


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How to cite a military tribunal?
I would like to cite

The United States of America v. Otto Ohlendorf et al: Opinion and
Judgment and Sentence’, Military Tribunal, No. 2, 9 April 1948

I am not sure the right way to do  this. I assume it is not a journal but I am not sure what sort of publication it is.
It exists online as well.

Isn't a tribunal a legal proceeding like any other? Cite it like a court decision.

https://www.scribbr.com/apa-examples/court-case/

The point of a citation is not to satisfy some abstract administrator who is intent on making sure that rules are followed, but to make it possible for a reader to find the work you are referencing.
So, if the style you are using does not have a specified way to reference what you want to reference, then make something up. The guideline to follow is: Does however you provide the reference make it possible and easy for your reader to identify which document you are referencing?

I suspect none of the standard bibliographic guidelines or packages have an entry for this (I assume you checked). So invent something that provides the information your reader would need to find the reference for themselves. When your paper is accepted for publication an editor will make the final formatting decision.


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How to find GPA distributions for US universities
I have been tasked with making a grade equivalence table for a small list of US universities to translate to grades at a European university.  To do this I thought it would be easiest just to look at the GPA distribution and try to map percentiles. However, I am having problems finding them.  Can this data be found for

University of California
University of Maryland
University of Texas at Austin
University of Wisconsin

This is for students in their third year of university who will be spending one year in the US.
The subject of particular interest is computer science but any data would be better than none.

Are you trying to figure out GPA conversion scheme (may be a duplicate of How to convert from one grading scheme to another? or GPA distribution (you may have a shopping question)?

@scaaahu  I would like to make the conversion scheme myself by using the GPA distribution.  I am not sure what a shopping question is.  My question is simply for data which I haven't managed to find.

"Shopping" questions, which seek recommendations or lists of individual universities, academic programs, publishers, journals, research topics or similar as an answer or seek an assessment or comparison of such, are off-topic here. (See this discussion for more information.)

@scaaahu Thanks for the definition. I don't think it is one of those in that case.

http://meta.academia.stackexchange.com/q/1736/546

I doubt universities are willing to disclose this information.  No matter what the distribution is, it will look bad to some interested party.

@AnonymousPhysicist What about public universities? Don't they have some obligation under Freedom of Information laws?

@Lembik The asker could try that approach.  I do not know how privacy rules and FOIA would balance in this case.  The law is different in each state (and may be different depending on the status of the particular university).

@AnonymousPhysicist A FOIA-like request may work, I'm not sure if that information would necessarily be covered (but probably). There shouldn't be any FERPA concerns at all, though, since reporting an institution-wide aggregate wouldn't be releasing anything that is identifiable with any one student

I would point out that you will be still comparing apples to oranges. You might be able to average out the weight differences but the taste won't be the same.

Stuart Rojstaczer maintains a web page with information about average GPA at many universities in the U.S. The data on that page was last updated in 2009, and is next scheduled to be updated in February 2016 (according to a note from the author on the page.)
At the end of that page, there are links to the historical GPA at each of the schools for which he has data. It also indicates the source of the data, so you can find out whether the school actually publishes the data, or whether the school simply made the data available to the author.
For example, if I click on his link for University of Wisconsin - Madison, I learn that this data was collected from the registrar's website. While the particular link he cites is no longer alive, searching the registrar's site yields this page that allows me to find out grade distributions from any course and term. Similarly, I found out through his page that UCSB publishes this data through its office of institutional research, which led me to this page of reports that include average GPA by major.
You can follow a similar procedure to find grade distribution information for other schools if available, but it may not be available for the schools you are interested in. Universities are not obligated to publish this information.


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expectations when applying for an adjunct position
I applied for an adjunct lecturer position through a university's web site at the beginning of August.
I assumed I would be put into an 'adjunct pool' of some kind, or simply be declined . . . or something.
However, no one has reached out to me. I've logged into their application site several times since and my application is still active, supposedly. I have never taught before so I guess I'm not sure what my expectations should be. Is this normal? What should I be expecting?

Institutional practices vary.  You could contact the HR department at the institution to ask what's happened to your application but don't be surprised if the answer is simply that it's on file and you might be contacted in the future.

In the US at least, if you applied in August most institutions are done with all hiring and no one may have even looked at the application - but this varies even within the US, and may have no relation to other countries policies. You'll definitely need to speak with someone in the institution to have any idea how their unique process works.

In industry, hiring decisions are typically made very quickly.  When I was at Microsoft, if everyone on the interview loop liked a candidate, we tried to let them know before they even left the building that they should expect an offer.  We had to, because in industry, good candidates only stay on the market a few days before they get and accept good offers elsewhere.
But it's a completely different story in academia where hiring decisions often take months.  It's likely your application will have to be put to a faculty vote before they can make an appointment, even for an adjunct position, and often the votes are batched.  You say you applied in August, but Fall quarter probably didn't start until September.  And even after everyone's back for the start of the new academic year, it could be several weeks before their first department-wide faculty meetings.
Also, realistically, adjuncts are bottom of the heap at a university.  You're part-time hired help brought in as cheap labor to cover classes when they need you and ignored when they don't.  So deciding what to do with you is unlikely to be a high priority.
Bottom line is that what you're experiencing is pretty much what you should expect.  Sorry to deliver the bad news.

May I suggest that you edit the second-to-last paragraph to be slightly less graphic and offensive? I think "Also, adjuncts have less priority than tenure-track faculty since the contracts are temporary" would have done the job just as well.

I think my language is honest and yours not so much.  Sometimes the truth is not pretty.  Is it possible you're not actually aware of how adjuncts and affiliates are treated and paid?  For more:  http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/05/the-cost-of-an-adjunct/394091/

What you say is true in general, but 1) there are universities that treat their adjuncts a lot better than others, in which case you are not being factual, and 2) if you are being honest, they know it and you don't need to add salt to the wound.

The OP is obviously new to this and doesn't know it.  2) If you know of universities that treat their adjuncts "a lot better" it would helpful if you could identify them.  My impression is they do not exist, at least, not in the US.

I do not see why you think the OP is obviously new to this. My own institution "tenures" lecturers (our name for adjuncts), but since I'm choosing to stay anonymous, I am not going to disclose my department.

I know he's new because he says he is:  "I have never taught before so I guess I'm not sure what my expectations should be."


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To what extent might a non-faculty staff member expect -- or demand -- academic freedom?
Faculty and students are generally regarded as having some degree of academic freedom (tenured faculty sometimes having more than non-tenured).
Non-faculty staff seem to be a different matter. Specific institutions might have policies addressing this, but I'm asking more from a general / philosophical standpoint: is there any basis upon which a non-faculty staff member at a university might expect -- or demand -- academic freedom? Or should non-faculty staff basically assume they do not have academic freedom?

What kind of academics are non-faculty staff doing, anyway? I've seen faculty defined as the academic staff of an institution, which would leave non-faculty as non-academic. Since these people by definition aren't performing academic activities, their freedom to do so seems irrelevant.

Obviously the answer to this question depends highly on the legislation that you're looking at.

Let's consider library staff: academic output might be of tertiery importance for such a role -- and, at many institutions, there might be no official expectation as such. Nonetheless, I wouldn't assume they simply never engage in research/teaching/studying.

"Academic freedom" is a very broad and subjective concept, and I don't know what would be a clear distinction between "having" or "not having" it.  Can you be more specific?

Fine, lets take the librarians (and get to know them well - they are really useful and knowledgeable). They will of course participate in professional librarian activities, including professional conferences, associations, and training. What 'academic freedoms' do you think might be impaired that would keep them from carrying out their profession?

@JonCuster: Professional librarians conduct research and publish in their field, so there are the usual academic freedom issues there.  (At my institution this sort of "scholarly activity" is a formal job requirement, librarians have faculty status, and can be tenured like other faculty).  They may also teach courses on library science or general literature-search skills.  Librarians are also entrusted to acquire materials for the library, which can raise academic freedom issues if those materials are controversial.

@NateEldredge - clearly that is correct. The question was leading the witness to reconsider the 'no official expectation' of academic freedom for librarians. To further the point (to the OP), at least in various parts of the US, librarians have (sadly) been the face of fighting the banning of books. If anything, librarians are quite aware of what academic freedom means and exercise it regularly.

It's not clear to me what non-faculty staff are, or precisely what "academic freedom" is. Possibly these are US-specific concepts, tied in with notions of tenure?

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has a set of Recommended Institutional Regulations concerning Academic Freedom and Tenure, which has the following to say about academic freedom for staff:

Other Academic Staff

a. In no case will a member of the academic staff who is not otherwise protected by the preceding regulations that relate to dismissal proceedings be dismissed without having been provided with a statement of reasons and an opportunity to be heard before a duly constituted committee.21 (A dismissal is a termination before the end of the period of appointment.)
b. With respect to the nonreappointment of a member of such academic staff who establishes a prima facie case to the satisfaction of a duly constituted committee that considerations that violate academic freedom, or of governing policies against improper discrimination as stated in Regulation 10, significantly contributed to the nonreappointment, the academic staff member will be given a statement of reasons by those responsible for the nonreappointment and an opportunity to be heard by the committee.
...
21 Each institution should define with particularity who are members of the academic staff.

Essentially:  those staff that an institution chooses to define as "academic staff" should be able to bring grievance against a "duly constituted committee" if they believe they have been terminated (or not reappointed) in retaliation for speech or actions that should be protected under the umbrella of academic freedom.

That's a very narrow aspect of what academic freedom is about. And even in that aspect, that sounds like a deatist and cowardly phrasing of a principle on part of the AAUP.

I would say that all human beings are entitled to academic freedom, i.e. freedom to think, freedom to learn, freedom to form an opinion, and freedom to express an opinion.
Specifically in university content, academic freedom is sometimes understood as freedom to express an opinion which may displease the management of the University employing the faculty member. It is commonly accepted that if the opinion was properly substantiated by research methodology, the University can not make any repercussions towards that faculty. I strongly believe that it is the same for postdocs, librarians, and other staff, although I can not imagine a practical situation where such conflict may arise.
Of course, specifics depend on legislation and laws / customs / contracts in your University, and the practical situation may differ from this theoretical model.

Well as a counter example, I'm a staff programmer. My boss is a tenured professor. My job is to write programs that support my boss's research activities. Academic freedom means that the university can't tell my boss which topics to study and which not to study. On the other hand, as staff, my boss has complete control over the topics I work on, and can fire me if I don't carry out their plan of research.

@CharlesE.Grant Well, the job description and the role requirements still exist, don't they? Similarly, we all have freedom of speech, but some speeches are off-topic on academia.SE and will not be allowed here. You are hired to do research, and you will not be fired if the results of this research say something your boss does not want to hear.

Your usage of the nonstandard term “non-faculty staff”, along with certain other assumptions that seem to be implicit in your question, suggest that you have some misguided notions about what various groups of people employed at a university do. To take your example of librarians, they are part of what is generally referred to as “staff”. They do an important job and can be highly educated and skilled, but they generally do not engage in academic research or teaching as far as I’m aware, and thus the concept of academic freedom does not apply to them. Note that this is a different statement than saying that they do not enjoy academic freedom; rather, the question of whether they enjoy it or not doesn’t even make sense. The same would be true for other groups of staff members who play a supporting role in the life of a university but do not teach or do research.
I should add that none of what I write above should be regarded as in any way disrespectful towards librarians or any other group of university staff. In fact, as a professor in STEM, and more specifically pure math (which seems to be as uncontroversial and apolitical as a research area can get), I also feel that the question of academic freedom is essentially irrelevant for me, and almost as meaningless for me as it is for librarians. Although in a technical sense I can be said to “enjoy academic freedom”, and although it may be fun to fantasize about one day going in to teach my calculus class and spending the lecture time discussing controversial political topics instead of math, knowing that if anybody gets upset I can invoke my supposedly sacred academic freedom, in practice this so-called freedom is a purely theoretical notion; it has never come up in any practical context, and almost certainly never will.

@NajibIdrissi agreed and good point. I did not mean to imply that academic freedom is irrelevant for all STEM scientists, since that’s far from the case of course. Edited my answer to sharpen the point.

I'm not sure librarians are a good example here, and I would gently ask how familiar you are with what they actually do.  At my institution, librarians have tenure-stream faculty status, and are expected to conduct research in library science which they publish/present in journals/conferences in their field.  (I looked up a couple librarians at your university; they don't all have CVs posted, but some had substantial publication records.)  They also teach courses about how to find scholarly resources, conduct literature searches, etc.

So here, they are covered by the same academic freedom principles as faculty, and it seems clear to me that this is important and proper.

@NateEldredge I admit I’m not very familiar with what librarians do. I also never heard the term tenure-stream faculty, so I’m curious what that means exactly. Any relevant links you can provide would be appreciated.

@DanRomik: "Tenure-stream" is just shorthand for "tenured or tenure-track".  I can try to find more information on librarians in general when I have more time.

@NateEldredge ok, thanks. By the way, if the librarians at your institution have the status of tenure-stream faculty, then it doesn’t sound like they meet OP’s description of being “non-faculty staff”. And yet OP specifically asked us to address the example of “library staff”. So I’m not sure how the question can be answered meaningfully.

Not everybody who works in a library is a librarian. At least at my school, 'Librarian' is a formal academic title, like "Assistant Professor", and they are considered faculty. The librarians direct the work and deal with the big picture, and they are supported by a number of staff positions that are not considered faculty. So for example, the librarians are busy coming up with a policy on support for open source journals, and the staff are shelving books, maintaining the infrastructure, supervising student workers.

academic freedom may apply to librarians in certain respects. For example - stocking the library with publications expounding views and approaches which may not be favored by university or faculty management, or the state in which the university exists; and the display and enabling-of-access by students and faculty to such publications. Now, you could argue that librarians should have absolutely no discretion in the choice of material - but that's not because academic freedon is irrelevant to them, but because thet have been denied it.

"I also feel that the question of academic freedom is essentially irrelevant for me" <- So you mean that it is ok if, say, university management tells you what you should and should study as a researcher, and what you should and should not teach your students? I certainly hope that's not the case.

@einpoklum no one tells me what to research, and no, of course it wouldn’t be okay if they did. The fact that no one will ever try to regulate my research in such a way is why the issue is irrelevant for me. As for teaching, they do tell me what to teach when I get assigned to teach, say, calculus and not something else. The specifics of how I teach a given subject are up to me, so in that sense I enjoy academic freedom in teaching. But in practice I don’t take advantage of the freedom in the way some researchers who study politically controversial topics do. So again, it’s mostly irrelevant.

"@einpoklum no one tells me what to research" <- Good, then you enjoy academic freedom. I would venture to say perhaps you think it irrelevant because you have been able to take it for granted.

@einpoklum no, mostly it’s because I research things that very few people care about...

@DanRomik: ... and again, you can do that because you are not pressured into, say, researching more applied matters which your funding state/corporation/billionaire wants progress on right now.

Non faculty staff are rarely research-focused, grant seeking PIs. If they are adjunct professors, they're hired for the purpose of teaching, thus the question is moot as research isn't a focus. If they are research staff (research professor, post doc, etc), they are hired for the purpose of supporting the advising PI. True academic freedom (to study and pursue whatever topic of interest) is earned through tenure, though non tenured research faculty retain a degree of academic freedom too, as long as their efforts secure funding and/or promote the reputation of the department (if not, tenure would be unlikely).

True academic freedom (to study and pursue whatever topic of interest) is earned through tenure -- Where do tenure-track faculty fit in here? (I am on the tenure track, and I don't get the feeling that my tenured colleagues have any more freedom to research what they want than I do.)

@MadJack Very fair question. I guess I'd say TT faculty have 'implied' academic freedom. With a TT clock running, and fresh off the hiring process, I don't see a lot of room to pursue this and that. I guess it's possible but probably less common?

This answer is specific to some fields. In other fields (e.g. computer science), researchers generally have academic freedom as soon as they are capable of doing independent research. After all, what would be the point of accepting a research position without academic freedom, when you can earn twice as much doing the same job in the industry.

Thanks for following up. Being in electrical engineering myself (with lots of industrial opportunitie$), I relate to the norm described in Jouni's comment.

@MadJack and Jouni: I don’t think academic freedom is a binary thing where you either have it or don’t have it. Rather, it is a utopian ideal to aspire to, of having the absolute freedom to pursue your intellectual interests without any limitations and without fear of repercussions to your career or livelihood. I think it’s fair to say that no one enjoys an absolute level of academic freedom, but that tenured professors generally enjoy it to a greater extent than untenured ones, since the former can afford to take bigger risks in their research and intellectual discourse than the latter.

thus the question is moot as research isn't a focus — Downvoted.  Academic freedom also applies to teaching.

Academic who are "hired for the purpose of teaching" are having their academic freedom drastically curtailed, by preventing them from devoting some of their time to research - restricting research to a smaller privileged minority than would be possible. "Academic freedom... is earned through tenure" is an overly restrictive policy. Not to mention the fact that tenure is often arbitrarily denied. Finally, as @JeffE notes, academic freedon also regards what and how one teaches.


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How to scale grades to take into account how strong the students are?
I am interested in different methods for scaling grades from a class test, say. In this case there is only one test and this gives the whole class grade. I remember from years ago a method that took into account the relative strength of the students taking the class by looking at their grades in other classes. However I can't remember the details at all.  The idea was that a hard test taken by strong students would be scaled up more than an easy test taken by weak students.
Is anyone familiar with this idea and how it might work mathematically?

In response to comments let me give an example. Say there is an optional class on Semiotics and Structuralism that the strongest students typically choose to take. The mean for this unit is 60% typically, say. Say there is also another optional class on how to spell the words in Harry Potter book one that the weakest students take. Say this gets the same mean of 60% typically.  It would be interesting to know what formulas have been used to scale the former class  so that the mean is higher than the latter.

Are you sure that the goal is to judge the students on some larger scale, or is it to assess whether they've learned what the course offers? "Education as filter", or "universities as status-gatekeepers" are a bit ugly, I think. Can you clarify your goals?

@paulgarrett The structure of the degree requires that your grade for each optional class is comparable. That is ideally you can’t get higher grades just by choosing easier classes.  That’s all the scaling is designed to address.

In some sense this kind of comparison is routinely made, at least implicitly, when comparing CVs. Is it better to publish a lot of papers in mediocre journals or a few papers in strong journals? Is a transcript with solid grades in graduate level courses better than one with superlative grades in undergraduate clases? What is not typically done is to rescale grades within a class based on factors external to that class and its evaluation system. In most university systems such a scheme would be against the rules, and would certainly generate a sense of injustice in the students evaluated.

@DanFox Scaling is very common isn’t it? See https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8261/how-to-scale-or-curve-the-grades-for-an-examination?rq=1 for example.

Common and awful.

Handing out different grades for the same results sounds like a great idea. Your students will love it.

@Anush: Such practices are mostly peculiar to the US, and mostly limited to forcing grades to conform to some preestablished distribution, which is different from rescaling based on factors completely external to the evaluation of the particular class, such as would be a given student's performance in a different class. For example, such a practice would be plainly against the rules (even the  law) in most European countries (I can't speak of other areas simply because of ignorance, but I suspect it would be similarly viewed). Even in the US, such a rescaling would be quite unusual.

@DanFox I think there must have been crossed wires. I am talking about scaling all the grades for a class according to some formula. Not scaling individual students differently from each. That would certainly be very bad.

@GlenPierce  I am sorry if I have been unclear. As an example, say there is a class on the theory of advanced semiotics that always attracts the most talented students. Say the mean grade is typically 60% and there is another class that always attracts weaker students but also has the same mean. The idea is to scale the students from the first class to something so that the mean is more than 60%. You don't look at each individual student and scale them separately which would certainly be bad.

Your two question halves are totally separate; are you talking about scaling tests or class grades?

@AzorAhai They are the same thing for the purposes of my question. That is the mark you get from the class test at the end of the class is your grade for the class.

@Anush Then you should clarify that; most classes don't have only one test that is the whole grade for the quarter.

So if I take the 9:00am class with the nerds I'll get a worse grade than the 3:00pm class with the jocks? I'm REALLY confused how this isn't giving different grades for the exact same coursework.

@GlenPierce Let's say the hard class that attracts the strongest students is called Semiotics and Structuralism. In my university it would only be offered once per year.  If the class mean is 60% but all the students who take it (assume there are >50 say) typically get 80+ in other classes then this may indicate the class was harder than typical.  Maybe a fairer mean for the class is closer to 80% to reflect their true ability.

@GlenPierce If you take an easy class full of weak students but the mean mark was 60%, than it may be fair to expect a strong student to get much more than 60% in that class. If the scaling were done right, the final mark the strong student gets, will be the same as it was had they taken the class with lots of strong students. That is it gets scaled up in one case, and down in the other, but maybe (hopefully) to the same mark.  This is clearly an inexact game but as I say elsewhere, this sort of scaling goes on informally all the time.

I don't see how this helps anyone and it seems to hurt students who are interested in complex subjects but didn't come from a background that supports them. This policy seems like it will further structural racism. Don't do it.

@GlenPierce It just helps people get the marks they deserve, if done right.   In other words its the direct opposite of what you say. For example, take your hypothetical student who is  interested in a complex subject but didn't come from a background that supports them.  Without the scaling they can be punished for taking the hard class if the mean is set to the mean over all classes despite its typically being taken by very strong students on average.

How about letting students know the level of mastery they need to achieve to earn a particular grade, giving exams that fairly assess the level of mastery, and using them to assign a grade?

@ScottSeidman That makes sense but doesn't fully address the issue. As I mentioned elsewhere, if the mean grade for a class is much higher than the mean grades for other classes, some explanation for this will need to be given to the department.  A typical explanation that I have seen is that the students who took it were really strong on average. Evidence for this is the grades those students got on other classes.  At least where I know, just stating that you as professor designed everything perfectly doesn't wash typically.

Recommended: New York Times, 2016: "Why We Should Stop Grading Students on a Curve". https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/opinion/sunday/why-we-should-stop-grading-students-on-a-curve.html

@DanielR.Collins That is interesting but not directly relevant. The setup I am discussing is quite different from grading on a curve.  Everyone could get 100% for example. In fact in some sense, it is the (really an) opposite.

are you asking about just converting everything into standardized scores?
In which case, you take the mean of relative performance (for example, if you are teaching a senior level course, you might take the major gpa distribution rather than overall gpa distribution) assign everyone a z-score based on their position in the calculated normal distribution.
you do the same for your test, standardize the score. For example, if your test average is a 50 with an SD of 10, a person who got a 70 has a z of 2 while a 45 has a z of -.5.
Now if you are planning on basing their recorded grade based on expected performance you are probably opening up a serious can of worms.  For example,  a student who consistently scores in the z score range of 1.8-2.1 and then only scores at a 1.5 is given an 75 (assuming mean 80 score, and 10 sd) while a student who consistently scores at a -.5 to -.8 range and scores a zero is given an 85 on the test.
If this is your plan, I would seriously rethink it. Not only will it upset students, it penalizes high performing students and rewards low performers.

Thank you.  I am not sure I understand " it penalizes high performing students and rewards low performers" though. If strong students choose a particular hard optional class, the idea is that their grades would be scaled up. So this benefits strong students.

@user37208 You definitely need at least 50 students. But all scaling comes with risks of unfairness I think.

I think you are best served by piloting your course for a semester and then build up a norm for your tests. The reality is, we as academics are trained in our field, not necessarily in writing a good instrument to measure student understanding and knowledge in that field. I firmly believe that if you plan to put this plan into action, that it might be worth reaching out to the psychometricians in your university's college of education. They will be more able to properly guide you to putting your plan into action with fidelity and high probability of good results.

Thanks @JWH2006. To be honest it was more out of intellectual interest as I know they used to do this in some major universities I studied at, but I can't remember what the exact formula was.

I strongly recommend to look at this idea from a legal standpoint. At least in Germany, we would just not be allowed to do that. The result in one test may never affect the grading in an other course, even if they are closely related (e.g. I'm teaching Intro to CS and Programming for first semester students, both courses are highly interwoven with each other, sometimes even sharing or exchanging time slots, but the results are completely independent from each otherm which sometimes result in students which have to re-take only one of the courses next year).
An other thought: Students might be interested and high performers in topic A, but dislike topic B. If a good grade in A would affect the grading in B, this would be just unfair.
The only thing you can do (in my opinion) is, to give all of them high grades if they deserve it. But you will need your own mental model of which performance is required for each grade. You should define this prior to the exams and change it only if you made serious misassumptions.
This might have an interesting effect btw: The level in your course will lower over time, since "optimizing" students are recognizing, that all peaople in your corse are getting good grades and so they start taking it ;-). But usually you can demonstrate the required performance level by some short tests on the first weeks or so.

That's very interesting and slightly surprising. Something similar to what I have described is standard practice in a number of leading universities (although often carried out without an explicit formula).  I wonder if this comes under the category of things that are both impossible and commonplace :)

In fact you are implicitely doing it. I'm teaching an elective course which is only taken by very strong students. The grades are usually either very good, or the students quit after a few weeks because the workload is too high. I'm inviting very good students to select this course because I want to have them in - so in fact I'm pre-selecting them based on prior performance which has a similar effect. But I'm defining in the beginning, what are the requirements for good / very good grades.

Yes and at some point, if your university is anything like the ones I know, you will be asked by the department to justify why your students get higher grades in this class than the mean over all classes.  There is no way to do this other than showing data that your students are stronger than average by using data from other classes that they have taken.

This is the good thing about German universities - at least for now no-one cares ;-))). But I would respont that they should show me statistical evidence that the individual students are getting better grades in my class then they did in others. And if the effect occurs, that it is not because I'm teching better ;-). That should keep them busy ;-).

You make German universities sound great :)  Your sensible choice of reply to ask them to give statistical evidence that the individual students are getting better grades in my class then they did in others touches on the same as issue as my question. In the end you have to look at the grades those students got in other classes, which is exactly what the formula I can't remember was meant to address.

You need to re-use questions over several years
A small subset of well-vetted questions needs to be reused across years to help distinguish the difficulty of tests from the skill of students.  Let's say the mean percentage getting these questions right is 60%.  In a year with a strong cohort of students, more than 60% will get them right.  If these same (strong) students perform poorly on the other questions, it's a sign that the other questions were too hard, and indicates that the scores should be curved.
NB: care must be taken to avoid these questions being "leaked" to other students.  In our course (I teach in a large coordinated course) we have a pool of vetted questions that we shuffle every year to reduce the potential for leaking/cheating.

Thanks for this. I am really referring to a class that always attracts stronger students.

@Anush ah -- sorry I see your edit and this doesn't address your clarified question

[added after the edit to the question] First of all, this is a phylosophical decision. In some countries / universities / models, votes are intended as an absolute measure (how well does this student know Calculus I with respect to an unwritten golden standard of mathematical expertise?). In others, they are a relative measure (how well does this student know Calculus I with respect to the rest of their class?). From what I understand, the 'relative' thinking is more common in the US, and the 'absolute' one in Europe. You need to decide which one you wish to go for. Both have their merits and their drawbacks.
As for "how to do it in practice", I'm definitely not familiar with it, but you might be referring to models like the polytomous Rasch model.
Basically the idea is that the result of a test is given by f(difficulty of the test, ability of the student) + error, and you can obtain the two independent variables by fitting.
This produces an estimate of the difficulty of each test and the ability of each student, which you can then reuse to rescale things at your will.
There is plenty of software to compute these scores, for instance R and Python packages.

"Scaling" to a curve, and adjusting the grade to reflect your expectations of a student's performance are two different things.  The first is a common practice, though not without some controversy, and the second is a confirmational bias put into practice, and should be avoided.  Every student in a course is entitled to the same treatment.

Your last sentence is entirely right of course. The question is, what do departments do in practice with a class where the mean is too high or low? Don't they look at the students who took the class and see how strong they are to work out what actions to take?  I suppose if they scale to a curve this never happens.  But then the department needs to worry that giving the same mean for every class is unfair on those taking the really hard classes.

@Anush -- no.  You don't look at who the students are and figure out what grade to give them.  If you give an exam, and the mean grade is 95/100, you may well choose to make that mean grade an A- or some such, but not based on who the students are.

I am not sure what the mapping from numbers to letter grades is, sorry.  Is that like scaling the mean to the mean over all classes in the year?

At least in universities that I know, if the mean is too high for a class there is a departmental discussion about what to do. One argument for not scaling the mean down that is used is that really strong students took the class. I think you would argue that that shouldn't be taken into account but it is something that is commonly said.