TEACHx 2024

Grading: we hate it, our students hate it, and it's not clear whether it does any good. But even when we want to try something else, traditional grading sometimes feels inescapable: course content, university guidelines, and class sizes may seem to prevent easy application of alternative assessment. We won't let that stop us! In this presentation, we'll consider strategies for implementing contract grading, ungrading and other tools in curricula and classrooms where restrictions apply. We'll first consider pedagogy enforced "from above:" ways to use alternative assessment when some aspects of course design are enacted department wide. Several case studies will show different levels of contract-style grading, from traditionally graded assignments with heavy emphasis on a step-by-step process to fully "ungraded" work fit into larger structures. We'll also consider how to grade by contract in larger lecture settings, when class sizes and time restrictions may subvert the typical grade contract. Our case study here will be an 80-person arts and communications course, which used a mixed structure: contracts where it could, and traditional grading when instructors felt they couldn't enforce a fair deal any other way.