From co-curricular transcripts to portfolios to detailed comments, faculty are finding holistic ways to measure student understanding of course material. The reason for the shift, they say, is that while traditional grading allows for standardization, it may not always accurately reflect student learning.
Alternative forms of assessment are the focus of an upcoming Provost’s Seminar on November 28. “Beyond Grades” will highlight faculty who are starting to move away from traditional grading, and will encourage exploration of alternative approaches.
“We’re looking for ways to try documenting new student accomplishments and achievement,” said James Holloway, Vice Provost for Global Engagement and Interdisciplinary Academic Affairs. “There’s this realization that in the bicentennial year we’ve done events structured on the past, present, and future. That, along with talking to faculty members, gave us the idea to do a provost’s seminar on how we represent student accomplishments to others.”
The seminar will look at topics such as alternative transcripts, the history of grading, and the stakeholders in the issue of grading.
“We’re at this interesting point in higher education where we’re thinking about the different modes of creating learning environments that range from hands-on social environments to the use of digital technology, to how they’re blended together,” Holloway said. “We’re trying to more deeply understand how students learn and what they actually learn, and how the University of Michigan influences this.”
Ultimately, the seminar aims to find new ways to represent student achievements, and to encourage individual instructors to try new teaching and grading methods, Holloway said.
One professor who has incorporated alternative grading into his classes is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Learning Technologies Barry Fishman. Fishman co-created GradeCraft, which is modeled after gameful learning.
Gameful learning approaches focus on enhancing intrinsic motivation by giving students control over their learning environment. Though gameful classes can be challenging, all students understand that they can succeed, which creates higher engagement with course content.
“In a gameful class, because we create the opportunity to finish where you want to finish, we reduce some of the anxiety about the final grade,” Fishman said. “The grading system creates a path that makes [the students] feel more in control of what’s happening.
Gameful learning approaches are not limited to particular types of classes, such as STEM classes. Fishman believes they are applicable in all subject areas, whether they be used towards strengthening writing by focusing on specific skills, working on coding strategies, or formulating arguments for a discussion.
Other professors on campus have also worked to incorporate similar approaches, as Fishman noted that gameful learning takes many forms. Each professor using gameful learning has tailored his or her own strategies to their specific classes.
Across campus, other alternate approaches to traditional grading are also being used:
- Professor of Geology and the Environment, Ben van der Pluijm, uses mini-essays that require synthesis instead of factoid thinking and peer review in his earth and environmental sciences classes. He believes that creating thoughtful and informed narratives promotes deeper understanding of material and develops valuable skills for future professional careers.
- Professor of History Brian Porter-Szucs has eliminated midterms and finals in his lecture classes, instead administering interactive quizzes during every class session and assigning small weekly writing projects. Reliable research has shown that students retain very little information when they cram for high-stakes exams, whereas frequently rehearsing and applying course material leads to lasting results.
- The Residential College uses both grades and qualitative transcripts that contain narrative evaluations to supplement the feedback students receive for a higher understanding of their performance.
- The course ALA 171: Making the Most at Michigan uses electronic portfolios in which students reflect on course work, internships, study abroad programs, research, and more they have done to better articulate their experiences, values, goals, and skills moving forward.
While it may be difficult to eliminate grading altogether, faculty said, finding alternative ways to grade can help students take more ownership over their learning, which reduces the pressure to get good grades and instead helps them focus on the content itself. Likewise, finding other ways to represent student achievement can more accurately reflect a student’s time at the university.
