Education

Has anyone tried any form of ungrading in a Biochemistry lecture or lab course?  I'm participating in a discussion group on my campus around this topic and debating about taking the plunge, perhaps with a "baby" step in lab next fall.  We are currently reading Ungrading edited by Susan D. Blum.

Never heard of it. Can you explain a bit?

Has anyone tried any form of ungrading in a Biochemistry lecture or lab course?  I'm participating in a discussion group on my campus around this topic and debating about taking the plunge, perhaps with a "baby" step in lab next fall.  We are currently reading Ungrading edited by Susan D. Blum.

There are different types and sometimes it's called alternative grading.  Specifications grading or contract grading are two types.  You can learn more here:  https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/jrjtXVXPcmGCrbKkdrzlwWbxlvXbnlKZrZFTlTdHlnRJssmNLvtjlBntDKNKsgSBDbkctLSH

Never heard of it. Can you explain a bit?

Has anyone tried any form of ungrading in a Biochemistry lecture or lab course?  I'm participating in a discussion group on my campus around this topic and debating about taking the plunge, perhaps with a "baby" step in lab next fall.  We are currently reading Ungrading edited by Susan D. Blum.

Has anyone tried any form of ungrading in a Biochemistry lecture or lab course?  I'm participating in a discussion group on my campus around this topic and debating about taking the plunge, perhaps with a "baby" step in lab next fall.  We are currently reading Ungrading edited by Susan D. Blum.

Has anyone tried any form of ungrading in a Biochemistry lecture or lab course?  I'm participating in a discussion group on my campus around this topic and debating about taking the plunge, perhaps with a "baby" step in lab next fall.  We are currently reading Ungrading edited by Susan D. Blum.

Seems like some form of ungrading/specifications-based grading would be a good fit for a CURE-type Biochemistry lab. Anyone have thoughts on that?

Has anyone tried any form of ungrading in a Biochemistry lecture or lab course?  I'm participating in a discussion group on my campus around this topic and debating about taking the plunge, perhaps with a "baby" step in lab next fall.  We are currently reading Ungrading edited by Susan D. Blum.

Has anyone tried any form of ungrading in a Biochemistry lecture or lab course?  I'm participating in a discussion group on my campus around this topic and debating about taking the plunge, perhaps with a "baby" step in lab next fall.  We are currently reading Ungrading edited by Susan D. Blum.

I tried a version of standards-based grading the last time I taught Biochem lecture and it was received well by the students. It also helped me think critically about what I was teaching, why, what were my REAL expectations for demonstration of achieving learning outcomes and a lot more.  

Has anyone tried any form of ungrading in a Biochemistry lecture or lab course?  I'm participating in a discussion group on my campus around this topic and debating about taking the plunge, perhaps with a "baby" step in lab next fall.  We are currently reading Ungrading edited by Susan D. Blum.

Hi Teaster,

I love to hear more details about how you set this up.  

I tried a version of standards-based grading the last time I taught Biochem lecture and it was received well by the students. It also helped me think critically about what I was teaching, why, what were my REAL expectations for demonstration of achieving learning outcomes and a lot more.  

Has anyone tried any form of ungrading in a Biochemistry lecture or lab course?  I'm participating in a discussion group on my campus around this topic and debating about taking the plunge, perhaps with a "baby" step in lab next fall.  We are currently reading Ungrading edited by Susan D. Blum.

Hey Pam,

Glad to share some thoughts. 

I call what I did a "version" of standards based grading, because I can't say that I followed through with all the recommended practices. I first tried it with our Biochem II course, which is all metabolism. I thought it would be easier with this course (at least the way I taught it) because it was inherently thematically repetitive, providing students multiple opportunities to demonstrate that they were getting better (or worse) at achieving the intended learning outcomes. I used the core concepts described in the ASBMB accreditation application as a guide for developing my learning objectives and as a model for being clear about my expectations and how they would be evaluated and assessed--for the students and myself. (To be fully transparent, I have to say that because I was bored to tears by the way that I was taught metabolism, which was just memorizing pathways, I was also trying to find a way to make it interesting to me.) I also had to factor in that even though I wanted the students to focus on learning, the students would be mostly concerned with their grades, at least initially. 

I eventually came up with 8 learning objectives for the course. The way I described it to the students was that we were going to use different metabolic pathways to see how each of the objectives is presented in different contexts. I didn't require them to memorize any pathways so they could focus on the principles I was hoping to get across. At the end of each unit, I gave an assessment not an exam. The terminology was important, because one of the principles of SBG is that students have the opportunity to improve. I would remind them that the assessment was a way of letting them know where they are in the demonstration of their mastery of the learning objectives at that point in the semester. For the assessments, there were things that I found to be key for students:

I numbered the LOs 1 - 8 and I mapped each question or problem on the assessment to a specific learning objective number. Before each problem I would indicate which learning objective (e.g., LO1 or LO7) was being addressed so the students would know what I was assessing, what I was expecting them to be able to demonstrate and how I was expecting them to demonstrate it. I found this helped and empowered the students in a couple of ways.

1. 1. It lowered anxiety because they knew what was expected of them. (I'd given examples in the syllabus and in class I would talk about what kinds of responses I would consider to be poor, good and excellent demonstrations of understanding)
   2. In grading, they could see precisely where they were doing well and where they weren't so they could see where they should focus more or less. They also felt like they had more control over their outcomes and didn't necessarily see their assessment grade as a value judgement of their ability and learning potential (side story: I had one student come to my office hours after she scored lower than she had hoped on the first two assessments. I asked her where she thought she had the biggest problems. She was a biology major and she said she had a hard time with organic chemistry. Sure enough, when we looked at her assessments, the questions that mapped to LOs that were heavily chemistry focused were the ones that she did poorly on. She spent so much time struggling on those that her responses in other questions and problems were not as good as she could have made them. So, I just suggested that she consider skipping those and put more time and energy into the other areas where she felt she could do well or better. She could do the math a she knew that she wouldn't get an A, but she didn't feel so bad because it was her choice. She ended up getting a B and she was happy because she rocked every other LO and she could identify why she got a B.)

I found that it helped me keep myself in check in a couple of ways also.

1. Assigning LOs to each problem helped me see if I was under or overemphasizing certain areas.
2. It helped me think about if the question I was asking, and/or the way I was asking it, was really addressing the LO.

This is just a broad overview. There are a lot of other details from my experience that I can share.

(I haven't been in the classroom for 2 years now....I miss it) 

Hi Teaster,

I love to hear more details about how you set this up.  

I tried a version of standards-based grading the last time I taught Biochem lecture and it was received well by the students. It also helped me think critically about what I was teaching, why, what were my REAL expectations for demonstration of achieving learning outcomes and a lot more.  

Has anyone tried any form of ungrading in a Biochemistry lecture or lab course?  I'm participating in a discussion group on my campus around this topic and debating about taking the plunge, perhaps with a "baby" step in lab next fall.  We are currently reading Ungrading edited by Susan D. Blum.