Instructor Guide: Facilitating and Grading in the AMA Course

Instructor Guide: Facilitating and Grading in the AMA Course

As an instructor in the AMA course, your role is to guide, encourage, and evaluate students as they move through case studies and discussions. Because this course relies on group work, it’s important to balance fair grading with active facilitation.

Key Responsibilities

Facilitating Case Studies
  1. Students will complete Case Study Assignments as groups.
  2. Use the rubrics provided to grade these assignments consistently and transparently.
  3. Each group member should receive the same grade, unless it has been clearly communicated that one or more students did not contribute.
  4. Encourage students to voice concerns early if group participation becomes uneven.

Managing Discussions
  1. After groups submit their Case Study recordings, post the links in the Discussion forum. Use the comment feature to start threaded replies for each group. Learn more about Threaded Discussions. 
  2. Encourage students to engage with one another and model constructive, professional responses.
  3. When it comes time to grade, use the Discussion Rubric to evaluate contributions.
  4. The “Stats” tab in the discussion automatically tallies student activity (e.g., number of comments, replies). You may use this as a reference point when grading, alongside quality and rubric criteria.

Grading Group Work in Populi
Populi does not have a built-in “group assignment” feature. This can make grading feel cumbersome, but there are some workarounds:
  1. Enter the grade for one student in the group.
  2. Open the Gradebook > Edit Gradebook, and then apply the same grade across the rest of the group members.
The gradebook will auto calculate based on the weight of each item. All you have to do is grade out of 100 based on the rubric.
Handling Group Challenges
  1. Group work sometimes leads to tension or uneven participation.
  2. Encourage students to resolve issues within the group, but stay attentive to signs of conflict.
  3. If a student reports that group members are not contributing, you may adjust individual grades accordingly.
  4. If problems escalate or become unmanageable, bring them to leadership for additional support.

What's New in AMA Week

We’ve made several important updates to how this course is taught, based on feedback from both instructors and students:
Groups in Populi
Threaded Discussions
Streamlined Grading Rubric
Clearer Assignment List
Groups in Populi
Students now have the option to use course groups in Populi for discussions, chat, and file sharing. This gives them a designated space to collaborate. They don't have to use this option, but we thought it might expediate group work. 
Threaded Discussions
Instead of each block having multiple separate group discussions, there is now just one discussion per block. All cases and groups will contribute within that single, threaded discussion, making it easier to follow conversations.
Streamlined Grading Rubric
Previously, one combined rubric covered the discussion, presentation, individual assignment, and case study questions. These are now separated so each activity is graded within its own space (e.g., discussions are graded in discussions). This simplifies grading for instructors and makes expectations clearer for students.
Clearer Assignment List
You’ll notice more individual items listed in the assignment view (peer evaluations, recordings, individual submissions, etc.). While the list looks longer, this structure makes it much clearer what students are responsible for completing. This change directly addresses student feedback about unclear expectations.

Instructor Takeaway

Your role is to facilitate learning, encourage engagement, and support collaboration. By leaning on rubrics, discussion stats, and grading workarounds in Populi, you’ll keep the course running smoothly while maintaining fairness for all students.

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