Assessment Matters: Ungrading

University of Leeds Staff can view this event here.

In the next Assessment Matters session we will explore the concept of ungrading – a broad approach that questions why we give students so many marked assignments, how this shapes education, and considers how it might be changed - and how this pedagogical approach may be relevant for our practice at Leeds. It is not expected that colleagues are familiar with ungrading – we ourselves are learning about it, and would suggest exploring Jesse Stommel’s How to Ungrade blogpost as a starting point. (For more in-depth considerations, see Blum’s 2020 book, Ungrading: why rating students undermines learning (and what to do instead) available online via the Library). The session will take place on Wednesday December 7^th 10-11 in Esther Simpson SR 2.12 and online- you can sign up here.

The session has been put together in conjunction with LITE and OD & PL by Joy Robbins, George Holmes, and Pam Birtill- all of whom will provide short talks explaining the concept and what it means at our institution before breaking out in group discussions with the participants.

With our Dean of Student Education: Standards and Quality calling for us to rethink not just how we do assessment, but why, the time seems ripe to question grades as the often-problematic driver beneath assessment. We will explore the motivations for ungrading and how it can unlock assessment for learning. We will also discuss the barriers to implementation, and consider how we might bring ungrading into our own practices.