The merits of guaranteeing final grades prior to an exam

Can guaranteeing a final grade prior to an exam encourage student creativity? This was the question posed by Business Professor Rangapriya Kannan-Narasimhan as part of her ongoing effort to put greater emphasis on risk-taking and innovative thinking in her school’s MBA program. The author notes that one of the greatest killers of creativity is the fear of risk, which is why Kannan-Narasimhan told her students that they were guaranteed at least a B in her course before they took her final exam. The author notes how she helped mitigate the risk of students submitting subpar work by incorporating a peer feedback mechanism. In the end, the author notes that the experiment produced excellent results and could serve as a model for future efforts to boost student creativity. Inside Higher Ed