Shifting students’ attention from the assessment grade to the feedback, 30 Nov (online)

30 November 2pm-3.15pm

‘Ungrading’ is a broad term which seeks to shift students' attention from the grade of their assessment to feedback.  

The goal is to enable students to focus on feedback purely as a developmental tool and to subvert the hegemony and potentially destructive power of grades.  

Whilst many who encounter this term immediately dismiss it, assuming it is inappropriate to the UK HE context, it is in fact a challenge to the status quo and to received wisdom about the utility and effectiveness of grades and engagement in debate and consideration of potentials across a continuum of possibilities is entirely possible in any educational context.  

This session will offer some provocations and practical possibilities for colleagues to discuss and potentially employ. 

This workshop will:

• Open a debate about grades and similar behaviouristic rewards (or punishments) as utilised in higher education 
• Offer a range of rationalisations and approaches that can be employed as a way of decentring grades and enabling students to gain greater benefit from qualitative feedback 

After attending this session you will:

• Examine debates about grading and explore some of the rationales for embracing (to an extent) the notion of ungrading 
• Critically appraise own and other colleagues’ understandings of grading and its effectiveness 
• Nuance debate around grading within relevant disciplinary and institutional contexts 

Who should attend

• Early career, mid career, education leaders.
• Any colleagues who design assessment activities from programme level through to single sessions where grading is or could be a feature of that assessment