(107d) Ungrading in Process Control: Attempting to Eliminate Exams, Deadlines, and Anxiety By Refocusing on Learning Instead of Grades

Modern means of assessment require approaches that consider fair and equitable means of determining students' understanding and performance. For example, students frequently connect exams to stress and anxiety, and thus believe them to provide inaccurate representation of their ability level. On a broader level, centering the focus of a course on what is necessary to achieve the highest grade drives students to focus more on their numerical scores than on the depth of their learning; effectively, the course outcomes become achieving a grade instead of student understanding.

Ungrading provides an approach that shifts the emphasis of each course back onto learning and what students should be able to do at the end of a course. Grades are de-emphasized in exchange for greater levels of discussion and feedback focused on how well students have learned, processed, and applied the instruction in the course. There are many approaches to ungrading such as contract grading, but the broader approach allows an instructor to provide less stressful, more equitable assessment.

In a process control course, an ungrading method was applied that eliminated exams and most deadlines in the course. Students were provided a number of optional problems and exercises that could be conducted that aligned with each of 14 course outcomes. Exercises could be submitted for feedback throughout the semester, allowing students to correct their work and assemble a completed portfolio of work demonstrating their mastery over the course outcomes at the end of the semester. Some course outcomes could be completed by work on a semester-long course project, while other exercises were simply homework and exam problems from previous iterations of the course restructured to allow students to process their understanding and better apply their skills for a more considered performance of understanding. Students completed a number of self-assessment assignments throughout the semester, and a final grade was determined for each student in discussion with the instructor based on a reasoned consideration of their efforts and completed correct work.

This paper will discuss these ungrading efforts in the course, student feedback throughout the semester, and recommendations for other instructors interested in applying an ungrading approach in their courses.