Requiring requests for reconsideration in writing compels a student to marshal thoughts and arguments in a clear-cut, logical way. It also imposes the same necessity for logical thought and clear presentation on me, and satisfying a student's questions about a specific test question is actually easier on paper than verbally. It doesn't seem to have any adverse effect on overall grades, however. There has been no perceptible difference in average course grade between the classes in which I've used the AGS and those in which I didn't. If a student in trouble refuses to come forward, the Associate Dean for Instruction is notified about the situation through the departmental office, preserving anonymity.
Most veterinary schools are relatively small places, and physically compact.
This can be both good and bad. Casual contacts foster concern and a willingness to help, both of which speed learning if those relationships are unthreatening. Anonymous grading provides a means for isolating the personal and professorial interactions from each other, so that both can develop to the student's best advantage. It facilitates nonjudgmental and nondidactic learning, and neither the professor or the student need be concerned with anything beyond the passing of knowledge from one part of their mutual profession to another. References and Endnotes 1.