Online gradings

[sensei8]

Nowadays in the world we all live in with the Covid-19 pandemic, MA schools are needing to reinvent themselves to survive and succeed. This is where on-line grading just might be the most appropriate and responsible thing for MA schools to embrace.

I am seriously considering on-line grading, being remote versus on-location grading; still tossing the idea around. Those students that still don't want to return to the floor during this pandemic, just might be receiving class and on-line grading remotely.

Change is inevitable, aka, Who Moved My Cheese; change or die, in a business sense.

[ashworth]

We completely put our club on hold throughout all of this, I have offered students videos of stuff they can do at home, but definitely wont be doing any kind of gradings until we are back into the dojo properly.

They all understand we may need a bit of a recap when getting back to it, just before we stopped there was a big group grading where most of them graded to their next belt anyway. I have even had one student say he would want to re-do his last grade. Which isn't going to be necessary, we will just have a recap period to dust of the cobwebs and resume as normal.

[SLK59]

We completely put our club on hold throughout all of this, I have offered students videos of stuff they can do at home, but definitely wont be doing any kind of gradings until we are back into the dojo properly..

My dojo is much the same: online Zoom training sessions for existing members, and no gradings until in-person training can resume. However, our organization is a non-profit and the instructors do not make their living through teaching karate, so they can afford to do this.

Cheers,

Scott

[aurik]

Our CI has moved to a hybrid model -- he runs some of his classes via Zoom, and he also has in-person classes (with restrictions). He has different pricing plans for the different (in-person vs online) options. He prefers to do gradings in person whenever possible, but he also understands parents' and students' concerns about the pandemic.

The pandemic has been particularly hard on his brown belt students, because in order to advance to 2nd kyu or above, you have to spar on your test. With our current COVID restrictions, sparring or any form of contact between students is essentially verboten. What he has done instead is he's modified the curriculum for 3rd kyu and above. Traditionally, he wouldn't start teaching students seisan (required for shodan) until 1st kyu, and he would expect students to take roughly a year to gain enough competence before testing. Now he is teaching seisan at 3rd kyu, and he will be able to reduce the time-in-rank requirements at ikkyu because of this.

Hopefully now that a vaccine is starting to become available, this means that an end to COVID is in sight. However, it's still a long ways ahead of us.

[DarthPenguin]

One reservation i would have is with the concept of a 'testing video' . I've always been told that one of the important parts of a typical grading is how you deal with the pressure of the grading itself.

A testing video allows the student the possibility to edit the file if needed or reperform and only send the good segment to the examiner.

If it is to be done remotely then i can't see anything other than how a live video chat could be used. This then would allow the examiner to view it in real time. There would be issues with the angle potentially, but there will always be issues with the view even in person.

Another approach would be to use a more 'bjj' style assessment for junior grades whereby the coach/instructor decides that the student is of sufficient standard and promotes them on that basis. (i recall my bjj blue belt promotion being a tap on the shoulder followed by a 'wear a blue belt to class next time').

Your coach sees you every day and knows your abilities and when they promote you you are representing them. Can see how this could be an issue for senior grades but should be fine for the first few belts i think