Adventures in (UN)Grading: How to stop counting and engage more deeply with students and their work

Join U of T faculty graduates of the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) Effective Teaching Practices course (ACUE-Certified Faculty) as they share insights from the 25 modules they completed over several months. They implemented, reimagined, and extended evidence-based teaching practices to support their teaching, learning and student success at U of T. The CTSI ACUE-Certified Faculty Lunch and Learn Series invites participants to hear from these instructors: their reflections upon what they have learned, and practical examples and tips informed by evidence-based strategies. Facilitators will engage in discussions on sharing these approaches into one’s current practice.

Facilitator: Deborah Tihanyi (she/her), Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Engineering Communication Program, Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education and Practice

Professor Tihanyi experienced "something of an epiphany" while taking the ACUE course and learned about specifications (or outcome-based) grading, through the work of Linda B. Nilson (Specifications Grading (2015); her synopsis in Inside Higher Ed). Nilson’s premise is that outcome achievement isn’t a matter of degree, but an either/or. As a result, she proposes a system whereby detailed specifications—at the assignment and/or the course level—spell out exactly what is required for an A, or a B, or a C, and that students choose which outcome they want to achieve. As teachers, then, we work to facilitate that learning and achievement, with the grade a foregone conclusion (provided the “specifications” are met).

Professor Tihanyi was all set to use specifications grading for a humanities-and-social-science elective for undergraduate engineering students but got cold feet.

In this webinar, hear Professor Tihanyi share her experiences with specifications grading and with “ungrading” (if you’re not familiar with the term, see Jesse Stommel’s blog and UNgrading (2020). Learn from examples and stories about inroads made and where challenges have been anticipated. Webinar participants will be encouraged to reflect on their own experiences with grading (specifications or otherwise) and how we might make the process less painful—both for ourselves and for our students.