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What are best practices for incorporating alternative grading in conjunction with UDL (specifically with alternative assessments)? How do we introduce these practices without overwhelming students?

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Does it measure or reflect something? What? What and who is it for? What does it or should it do?

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Faculty and department resistance and skepticism

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Faculty and department resistance and skepticism

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How do we engage our faculty and departmental colleagues who are resistant to and skeptical of alternative grading? How do we advocate for alternative grading in ways that still address instructors' affective/attitudinal/emotional issues with alternative grading premises?

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I'm at an institution with students who are typically high-fliers with high confidence (a double-edged sword). If it's required to show mastery to pass an assessment, I know students who don't pass will try to argue that their work is of high enough quality to be rated a pass. Then I feel like I'll be in a time-sink where I have to defend my position over and over. What suggestions do you have for avoiding this?

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I'm at an institution with students who are typically high-fliers with high confidence (a double-edged sword). If it's required to show mastery to pass an assessment, I know students who don't pass will try to argue that their work is of high enough quality to be rated a pass. Then I feel like I'll be in a time-sink where I have to defend my position over and over. What suggestions do you have for avoiding this?

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I care a lot about helping students to write more clearly and cogently, but feedback on writing is extremely labor intensive, and my attempts at peer review have yielded critiques that are typically overly praising and therefore less useful. I would love to hear about successful strategies for improving student writing, including effective peer review, that won't eat all my time (for context, I'm at a R1 university).

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Speaking of equity and diverse learners, what if a student or a few students only want to receive "standardized" grading? Do you use multiple grading techniques for your courses or do you only do ungrading? 

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Speaking of equity and diverse learners, what if a student or a few students only want to receive "standardized" grading? Do you use multiple grading techniques for your courses or do you only do ungrading? 

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How do you explain ungrading to students and administration? 

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How do you explain ungrading to students and administration? 

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I presume whether alternative grading is better than traditional grading depends on a number of factors including the students, instructor, subject, course level, and school. My question is how to determine if alternative grading is the best option for the scenario.

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Addressing expectations of other faculty

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Addressing expectations of other faculty

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I feel like there is a growing divide among some faculty at my college about repeat attempts on tests. Some feel that students should be able to take a test with one attempt and are frustrated that I give my students multiple attempts. My students eventually go on to other classes and say things like "Well my other professor let me take the test twice, why won't you?"

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I tried an alternative grading format once while I was in grad school, and my students absolutely rebelled against it. Those students, like the students I teach now, were high performers, and got where they were by earning As. One of the things I would really like to know is how people have built buy-in with their high performing students.

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As a person who is not neurotypical myself, I've found ungraded classes less motivating and harder for me to prioritize. How can we accommodate students whose neurodivergence may benefit from traditional grade-based incentives?

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Where can one find examples and resources?

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Where can one find examples and resources?

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Is there a good collection of syllabi to look at to see how people structure courses using standards based grading?  How does one come up with a bank of questions that all test the same topic/standard without being overly repetitive so that students can have multiple attempts?

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How to make sure a new grading system is transparent to students without increasing their cognitive load? How to help them see "where" they are in the class/semester without requiring too much extra labor?

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Flexible Coverage with Standards-based Grading

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Flexible Coverage with Standards-based Grading

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I am wondering if it is possible to use standards based grading for courses that I have not taught enough to be sure of the exact coverage. I would be comfortable writing down exactly what I expect, say, a calculus student to learn in advance, but when it comes to a course I am less familiar with, like complex analysis, I wouldn't be able to accurately predict exactly what we would cover in a given semester. Is there a way to adjust on the fly with this system?

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Reconciling alternative grading with course objectives

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Reconciling alternative grading with course objectives

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How can I use alternative grading systems and ensure (myself and my colleagues who teach next course in progression) that students have accomplished the learning objectives for my course?

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I'm using an adaptive homework system (Knewton Alta) for homework assignments in my course. Alta grades assignments based on mastery of instructor-selected learning objectives. This is somewhat similar to standards-based grading in the sense that students work on exercises within each learning objective until they achieve mastery (as determined by Alta). Their grade on each assignment is determined by the percentage of objectives the student has ultimately mastered. Can anyone comment on the use of adaptive homework systems, or Alta specifically, regarding practices supporting standards-based grading? 

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I'm using an adaptive homework system (Knewton Alta) for homework assignments in my course. Alta grades assignments based on mastery of instructor-selected learning objectives. This is somewhat similar to standards-based grading in the sense that students work on exercises within each learning objective until they achieve mastery (as determined by Alta). Their grade on each assignment is determined by the percentage of objectives the student has ultimately mastered. Can anyone comment on the use of adaptive homework systems, or Alta specifically, regarding practices supporting standards-based grading? 

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I have struggled with doing various levels of ungrading in my freshman composition classes because their other classes are so grade-oriented. The students have been conditioned, and as one student told me, since kindergarten, to be scored on everything. If I don't give a test or a quiz, my coursework gets put on the back burner.  How do other instructors work with these students to open up to them an ungrading mindset?

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I have struggled with doing various levels of ungrading in my freshman composition classes because their other classes are so grade-oriented. The students have been conditioned, and as one student told me, since kindergarten, to be scored on everything. If I don't give a test or a quiz, my coursework gets put on the back burner.  How do other instructors work with these students to open up to them an ungrading mindset?

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In several of my courses, I have certain assessments (not all) that give students (lots of) opportunities for either revisions or new attempts (depending on the subject). However, I have found that many students procrastinate (harming their own learning) by either not putting in a good-faith effort early on (keep trying without making progress, wasting their time and mine) or simply waiting until the last day (and possibly failing to demonstrate mastery). How do I encourage students to genuinely engage with the (generous) process when they think they can always just "do it later," especially when they are faced with more "traditional" deadlines in their other courses and must juggle those trade-offs?

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I've heard from some colleagues using specifications grading that many students (most) earn an A in the class even if their work seemed subpar for most of the semester compared to the cohort. What has been your experience with grading distributions and how does that equate to effort/learning?

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I love the ungraded classroom, but I probably wouldn't have tried it if I hadn't felt a certain level of freedom during the online teaching period during Covid. However I became convinced of it's many benefits after one year. I'm moving to a new institution next fall and would love tips for approaching the topic with colleagues and admin.

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I teach in a nursing program (BSN) in which students will take a high stakes exam for licensure (NCLEX). The culture of my program is a very heavy emphasis on exams to prepare students for licensure - How have people navigated this and how can I help my colleagues to consider alternatives?

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Where to start in a "traditional grading" world?

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Where to start in a "traditional grading" world?

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Being new to alternative grading, I interested to learn where to start coming from a traditional grading world of post-secondary where every course has a dictated breakdown of assessments and weighting and each assessment must count as a percentage and giving opportunities for growth (resubmissions) is frowned upon.

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Any tips for supporting students in doing metacognitive self-assessment? 

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Any tips for supporting students in doing metacognitive self-assessment? 

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In what ways OTHER than grades/assessment are we living out those principles in our classes? Reflection? Equity? Anti-racist, anti-ableist policies?

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In what ways OTHER than grades/assessment are we living out those principles in our classes? Reflection? Equity? Anti-racist, anti-ableist policies?

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I often use tools like WebAssign, MyLab, or Webwork when teaching. I like how I can give students unlimited attempts and easily extend assignments, but these systems are also quite easy to cheat with by just copying answers from classmate. What are some ways to encourage students to see this as a tool when they can learn the material by repeated reassessment?

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Most of my students are premeds. How can I use alternative grading to prepare them for medical school?

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I'd like to make more writing assignments in my math classes. I currently do this for my Math for Education Class and my students who do URE's make a small literature review of math articles. Has anyone done portfolios or essays in classes like College Algebra and Calculus sequence? I'm new to this so I don't know if this goes under Ungrading.

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How do people deal with faculty time needed to provide feedback involved in alternative grading in a 60 student class (Introductory Biology with flipped classroom) without getting overwhelmed and behind?

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How do people deal with faculty time needed to provide feedback involved in alternative grading in a 60 student class (Introductory Biology with flipped classroom) without getting overwhelmed and behind?

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What are some good strategies to allow for self-paced learning, something that seems to be a natural outcome, or even prerequisite for, an alternatively graded classroom?

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What are some good strategies to allow for self-paced learning, something that seems to be a natural outcome, or even prerequisite for, an alternatively graded classroom?

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Where to start as a grad student instructor?

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Where to start as a grad student instructor?

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Hi everyone, I'm an avid reader of ungrading work (books, blogs, articles) and think I have a solid conceptual grasp on things, including my own values as they relate to the many flavors of proposals out there. Where I'm struggling is with how exactly to get started, especially as a graduate student instructor of a course. What does (or might) the first attempt at implementing alternative grading or ungrading look like? (I recognize I have given you nothing about my specific course/s or context, but that's because I'm curious to see if folx have any ideas or like a roadmap for onboarding, for getting started.)

Cheers!

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How can I have brightspace help with alternative grading. also looking for good examples to use (cell biology courses) as I implement alternative grading in my own course.

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How can I have brightspace help with alternative grading. also looking for good examples to use (cell biology courses) as I implement alternative grading in my own course.

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I am interested in more examples and ideas of how alternative grading can be integrated into a long-held traditional grading philosophy BSN program who wishes to be CBE or standards based. How do you introduce these ideas to a wider faculty group? Are there some classes it would never work in?

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As I learn about alternative grading for the first time, the ideas which most resonate with me pertain to choosing a semester grade with greater intentionality, as described under Standards-Based Grading in the conference handout. Some aspects of traditional grading (in math) seem like they would work well with this macro approach, though some do not. Has anyone figured out some specifics of this?

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Ways to implement alternative grading strategies for CURE labs

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Ways to implement alternative grading strategies for CURE labs

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I teach Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience or CURE labs. In these labs students are learning and performing experiments, where there isn't a specified or known outcome to the results that they will get. One of the major lessons we teach is how to handle failure of the experiment, but still maintain motivation to continue and try again. Because there isn't a 'correct' result, it's impossible to grade based on correctness, therefore we've been using methods of Specifications grading with heavy feedback. I'm looking for additional resources and exposure to different ideas of alternative grading so I can begin to implement more of it into my lab courses. I'd also love to learn about more sources that have published on the impacts of alternative grading in lab courses as a way to build support for this at my institution.

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How does one submit an end of semester grade (as required at my, and I assume most, institutions) when using narrative feedback instead of grades throughout the semester? 

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How does one submit an end of semester grade (as required at my, and I assume most, institutions) when using narrative feedback instead of grades throughout the semester? 

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I'm curious about strategies that folks have found effective for helping students who are very accustomed to traditional grading understand how they are being evaluated. When I tried out Standards-based grading this year, students seemed to really get the "standards" at an assignment-level, but some had trouble navigating how the assignments and standards across assignments fit together.

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For a course like Biology (heavy on content and details), is there a good way to move away from points grading on summative assessments that are typically mostly multiple choice q's? 

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For a course like Biology (heavy on content and details), is there a good way to move away from points grading on summative assessments that are typically mostly multiple choice q's? 

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Can I mix ungrading in with regular grading?

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Can I mix ungrading in with regular grading?

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I am new to ungrading, can I try it withouut jumping in all the way and have X% of the grade come from a form of ungrading

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How is alternative grading informed by (social) equity? What implications of equity are there for alternative grading?

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What are different ways to understand and practice feedback in alternative grading?

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What strategies do you use to allow students to use AI tools like ChatGPT in their assignments or tests? How do you assess their academic merit and honesty?

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I'm curious if others have experience reworking their grading system within the course outline of record? (I teach at a CA Community College). I've gotten a lot of department support about some practices, but pushback against others because of the way my course outline is written. I have no control over the course outline in the short term, but might be able to convince the 15+ instructors teaching from the same course outline that we should change it in the longer term (5+ years from now)

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This was my first year ungrading. Student feedback was mostly positive, but the most common concern was students reporting that they didn't know where they stood throughout the semester (even with detailed audio feedback). What is the best way to overcome this?

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Students' lifelong relationship to grades

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Students' lifelong relationship to grades

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By the time students enter college classrooms, they have been pretty much 'brainwashed' into believing that grades are the only means of determining the value of their academic work. How do we help them 'unlearn' these lifelong habits and break their addiction to grades through alternative grading methods?

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Does anyone have experience with incorporating open pedagogy assignments or other open education resources in courses where you are focused on ungrading and authentic assessment? I'm interested on developing learner agency though open pedagogy and I would love to do it in an ungrading environment.

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Currently, I am doing all reassessment in class in case students cannot make it to my office hours. I was hoping to be able to do reassessments outside of class to allow for more learning while in class. Has anyone found a nice way to do this? Asynchronously? Oral reassessments?

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Does alternative grading help in any way to reduce cases of academic misonduct? If so, how?

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I have used specifications with some success and can make a pretty good case to my students. But many of my colleagues are highly skeptical. This not only limits my enthusiasm to keep at it (since I don't like to be "that guy"), but it also means I can only implement it in courses I don't teach with others, which isn't very many. Have others found ways to either overcome the resistance, or not letter it bother them?

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Alternative Grading in Classroom to Traditional Grading Assessments

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Alternative Grading in Classroom to Traditional Grading Assessments

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How does implementing alternative grading in the classroom affect the outcome of a more traditionally based assessment for accreditation? Our institution uses an ACS exam as our measure of student performance in their second year as a chemistry major. I am wondering, since I am just now learning about alternative grading methods, how the students performance compares to traditional when taught using an alternative grading style. Especially when their assessment at the end of the year is a traditional multiple choice exam. Are there any statistics on this?

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Time for Assessments with Multiple Attempts

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Time for Assessments with Multiple Attempts

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When implementing a specifications grading system in which we use quizzes to assess each learning target and allow multiple attempts, I have found that finding the class time to administer the quizzes has been one of our bigger challenges. Have any of you found good solutions to that problem?

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"Selling" the value of the educational experience

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"Selling" the value of the educational experience

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In my opinion, education works best when students see the value of what they are learning, regardless of the grading system. What are some of the ways that you "sell" your content to students so that they see the value?

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I have been wondering if there are some guidelines for which math classes we should be using tests as the main way to assess student learning versus other assessment methods? What are some other type of assessments you use and why?

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If I teach ~40 students in a class, will this add a bunch more to my workload or make my current workload harder?

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How can we ensure alternative grading practices are equitable?

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Is there any research on how alternative grading impacts students’ transition into “real life?”
I know it was quite a shock for me as a student when I moved from traditional grading in undergrad to pass/fail oral exams in grad school, and I wonder if alternative grading might have eased that transition. And in most jobs, getting things right 93% of the time won’t cut it.

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What are good ways to prevent faculty burnout? I've been doing some form of standards-based grading for the past 5 years and in the last few years (most especially this past spring) it has regularly felt like I care more than my students about their learning.

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I have been using a version of ungrading for a few years now - and notice that students do not prioritize my class "enough". Should I go back to specifications grading to force a better work attitude? Or should I be glad that students have at least one class with less stress?

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I'm struggling in my courses with less than half of my students attending after the first month has passed. And this is with 10% of their grade going to attendance! I'm wondering how alternative grading schemes can encourage attendance and course engagement in different ways so that students aren't "checking out".

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Do alternative grading systems often increase faculty workload? Is there a tradeoff between a higher workload when you start using an alternative grading system and a lower workload later on?

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What steps do you recommend for making gradual changes towards alternative assessments given that it takes a lot of time and intention to completely redesign a course's grading structure?

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What are the essential levers to implement alternative grading across a group teaching a particular class or across a department?

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While I have been working with Portfolios since dinosaurs walked the earth :) -Just kidding! Since 1996 :) I am eager to learn more!! Excited about the Grading With Portfolios session on Friday!

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Deciding what alternative grading framework is right for your course

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Deciding what alternative grading framework is right for your course

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What advice do you have about choosing an alternative grading framework for your courses? For example, does 'ungrading' mostly work for upper-level, seminar-type courses?

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how do I make canvas do alternative grading or what other platform can I effectively and efficiently use? (maintain confidentiality etc)