(120c) Starting to Ungrade Chemical Engineering: Practical Considerations and Instructor Reflections

Ungrading is a broad assessment approach that works to intentionally focus students on learning by moving beyond traditional grading practices. Strategies that fall into this assessment approach include contract grading; self- or peer-assessment; mastery- or competency-based grading; and portfolio assessment. Students benefit from ungrading over traditional grading schemes by helping to reduce stress; providing flexibility in how they are able to demonstrate mastery of content and concepts; facilitating involvement in their own assessment; and increasing accessibility and equity in the course. Studies outside of chemical engineering also indicate these approaches can increase deep learning and retention. However, there are multiple factors in deciding to implement ungrading, the approaches that may be most effective in different contexts, and practical challenges to implementation, especially in chemical engineering, where there are few examples of ungrading from which to draw.

In this presentation, we aim to share a wide range of instructor experiences of using approaches that fall into the ungrading umbrella–from three schools and across the chemical engineering curriculum–to help address the few existing examples within the literature base in our field. Where previous presentations and papers have focused on the effectiveness of ungrading on student learning, our talk will complement previous work by instead considering the instructor’s point of view. Instructor reflections and practical considerations for implementation in the classroom and chemical engineering curriculum will be discussed so that our peers in chemical engineering can bring this assessment approach into their own classrooms.

Examples of ungrading in chemical engineering that will be shared in this talk include:

• Mastery-based graded first-year introductory chemical engineering course focused on increasing student motivation at School A
• Achievement-based graded core Materials & Energy Balances and Thermodynamics courses at School B
• Ungraded core Transport and Controls courses at School C
• Competency-based graded chemical engineering core post-baccalaureate course for non-chemical engineering M.S. students at School D