Upgrade to Ungrade: Online Class Discussions, Assessments, & Opportunities for Ungrading
Open discussion with Clark Mathematics faculty, 2022-06-01.
This list of resources compiled by (and copyright to) Sally Keely is a work in progress.

Pre-Discussion Reading Email: Pre-reading suggestions for June 1st Mathematics Dept Special Topics meeting

Online Class Discussions

Why incorporate discussions in online classes? Good andragogy, best practice, RSI - it’s the law!

SK: Online classes should be designed to include frequent and ongoing quality communication and collaboration with a significant portion of class points from online discussions (in large or small groups) with student-student conversations that include robust instructor engagement. Through frequent communications I come to better know my students, their work ethic, and their content knowledge. However, this level of interaction is very time consuming. Low class caps help balance the workload.

AMATYC Position Statement (2019-11):
DE in College Mathematics in the First Two Years
Well-designed online (DE) courses will have, among other attributes, “A variety of activities and instructional materials promote frequent and substantive engagement with the content, other students, and faculty.”

US Dept of Education: “Good online instructors engage in regular and substantive interaction (RSI) with students to promote a strong sense of instructor presence in the online classroom.” 

Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI):
Nitty Gritty: Tarrant County (TX) College's RSI page
2021 Full Law: 600.2 from Cornell Law
2020 Fact Sheet: US Dept Educ’s Summary of Distance Education and Innovation  
2020 Presentation: US Dept Educ, Financial Student Aid’s Distance Education and Institutional Eligibility
Even more from Online Learning Consortium (OLC): Regular and Substantive Interaction: Background, Concerns, and Guiding Principles

How to do online discussions? OL discussions could include active facilitated discussion board (DB) threads, structured weekly discussion question (DQ), open Q&A board for non-graded discussions. Commonly used structured threads include “work out a homework problem”, “share a tip or resource”, “muddiest point”, weekly summary, or self-reflection.

SK: Discussion Board Posts in an eLearning Mathematics Class: Examples and Tips for Success (2012)
You’ve likely read this document before. I wrote it for students to have a better idea as to what discussion posts I’m likely to tag as “substantive” which is one criterion I use for grading discussions. Note my weekly discussions earn points for quality, interactivity, frequency, and quantity. Also, until the pandemic I had never used structured weekly DQs in my Clark classes.

WA SBCTC: WA Course Design Checklist (V3)
“Course design engages students” takes more-the-merrier approach to communications with online students.

Online Assessments

• Much discussion lately on unproctored vs proctored tests, online vs on-campus testing, lack of trust and having to be the cheating police is changing the relationship we have with students.
• Open book, open note, open calculator style tests may make more sense in fully online class.
• Frequent low-stakes quizzes rather than big exams.
• How the test question is asked can reduce chance of app solving it. E.g., theory question not pure calculation; find the error; directed to use technology and then have student describe why it gives the answer(s) it does; provide solution and some steps have student fill in gaps and/or reasoning. More ideas?
• Oral testing option: give exam up front and let students work on it, then have short remote discussion with student where you have student explain a few randomly selected Qs from exam. Grade is given, but based on a more collaborative determination.

Opportunities for Ungrading

What is ungrading?

SK: Ungrading does not mean “not grading”, it means finding alternative ways to assess student learning that may not include traditional tests.

Jesse Stommel: “Not the same as abolishing grades! May be the goal for some, but not all ungrading advocates. Most institutions still require a final GPA/Letter grade at the end of the class. However, instructors have WIDE latitude in how they arrive at that final grade!”

Caleb Hutchins: “Ungrading is any reflective teaching practice that actively interrogates and deconstructs traditional grading as a necessary or desirable component of assessment, with a goal of increasing student agency, self-reflection, critical thinking, and intrinsic motivation for growth.”

Stephanie Bartlett: “Focus on discussion and activities, not tests. Add questions that require personalized values. Create grading rubrics that focus on process.”

Why ungrade?

• Academic Integrity
  

See Stephanie Bartlett’s Designing for Academic Integrity (slides), more linked in Resources, below.

Also, MIT’s Academic Integrity Handbook for Students encourages collaboration in mathematics classes.

• Improved focus on learning, not grades.

Alfie Khon in The Case Against Grades, linked in Resources, below, says, “Grades tend to diminish student interest in learning. Grades create a preference for the easiest possible task. Grades tend to reduce the quality of student thinking.”

Susan Blum, writes about ungrading (as far back as 2016), “I emphasized that I wanted my students to learn, to focus on what we were doing. I also encouraged them to try new forms of presentation--blog posts, podcasts, infographics, movies, photo essays.” More Dr. Blum in Resources, below.

• Equity
  

Christine Nowik’s Ungrading for Equity (recorded webinar). “Power dynamics and inequities are baked into both higher education and the grading process.” More in Resources, below.

Anthony Lince writes for National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE), Ungrading to Build Equity and Trust in Our Classrooms (2021), “Going gradeless can lead to a classroom environment that fosters trust—trust in the teacher and trust in peer-to-peer relationships.” and “Only when every student feels that the classroom is an equitable, safe space can we focus on learning.”

• Compassion
  

See Jesse Stommel’s Compassionate Grading Policies. More articles by Dr. Stommel in Resources, below.

• Lastly, thinking about “to ungrade or not to ungrade” in mathematics courses, I’ll refer you to:

Robert Talbert’s Grading for Growth: Entering the Feedback Loop (2021) tells a story specific to Calculus. Dr. Talbert follows-up with Alternative Grading: Ungrading after 11 weeks (2022) in Modern Algebra. Beckie Supiano follows-up further with The Unintended Consequences of Ungrading (2022) in the Chronicle of Higher Education setting-up an interesting debate!

How to Ungrade?

SK: Things I’ve tried over the years include dropping low scores, HW due all at end of term, frequent ungraded collaborative activities (see #6 in my Types of Mathematics Active Learning Activities Explained), collaborative (small group) projects and/or exams, self-reflections (opening discussions with classmates and/or private conversations with professor), and self-grading.  

Caleb Hutchins
In Raising an Eyebrow at Grades. click on Part 2, "Canvas Ungrading Techniques". Excellent list! Specific suggestions described: dropping the lowest grade, complete/incomplete assignments, reassign for revision, assignment rubrics, non-scoring rubrics, self-assessment rubric template, spec grading, muted grading, and automated student self-assessment. Slides also available in Resources, below.

Jesse Stommel
In Alternative Grading: How to Ungrade, scroll down to “Alternate Approaches to Assessment” section for specific ideas. Suggestions described include: grade-free zones, self-assessment, process letters, minimal grading, authentic assessment, contract grading, portfolios, peer-assessment, and student-made rubrics. Several more of Dr. Stommel’s articles in Resources, below.

RESOURCES

Stephanie Bartlett, Prof. of Physics & Astronomy, Shoreline CC
Designing for Academic Integrity [Webinar recording | Slides | Brainstorm]
Presented at SBCTC’s WACCy Wednesday 2022-03-09
Starting at slide 19 Stephanie presents some ungrading ideas. A few more are included in brainstorm.

Ken Bauer, Director UnGrading.net
Website is just starting-up. Not sure where it will land.

Susan Debra Blum
Editor of Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) which since its release in 2020 has, in big part, been credited with making ungrading more mainstream. Website: SusanBlum.com

David Buck
Crowdsourcing Ungrading (2020) e-book includes several interesting articles from a variety of sources.

Leslie Glen, Prof. of Mathematics, Whatcom CC
Ungrading: A Roundtable Discussion (slides) from Washington College Mathematics Conference 2022, hosted by WAMATYC.

Caleb Hutchins, Instructional Designer, Community Colleges of Spokane
Raising an Eyebrow at Grades: Ungrading for Equity, Inclusion, and Student Success [Document | Slides]
Caleb’s document is highly recommended! Excellent bibliography and specific ungrading suggestions for Canvas users. Slides #19-23 develop the definition of ungrading stated above.

Alfie Kohn
The Case Against Grades (2011)
Outspoken opponent of grades and tests. Focuses more on K-12 than CC, but includes a pretty good bibliography. Full website: AlfieKohn.org

Keith W. Mathias
Balancing Ungrading Practices with Institutional Requirements (2020) is one chapter in David Buck's Crowdsourcing Ungrading e-book.

Christine Nowik
Ungrading for Equity (2021) includes links to recorded webinar, slides, and other resources. Hosted by Online Learning Toolkit (OLT) faculty.

Jesse Stommel, Univ. Denver; Co-Founder of Hybrid Pedagogy. One of the foremost champions of ungrading. Lots of information at JesseStommel.com including:
How to Ungrade (2018)
Ungrading: A Bibliography (2020-03)
Ungrading: An FAQ (2020-06)
Grades are Dehumanizing; Ungrading is No Simple Solution (2021-06)
Ungrading: An Introduction (2021-06)
Compassionate Grading Policies (2022-01)