Announcing Collaborative Grading: A Practical Guide

Exciting news on a new project

Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash

It’s been an unexpectedly chaotic summer in more ways than one, but in the midst of this chaos, I have an exciting announcement: 

Earlier this week, I signed a contract to write a book provisionally titled Collaborative Grading: A Practical Guide for Oklahoma University Press’s “Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving in Higher Ed” series! 

If you’re not familiar with this series, you should be. In its former iteration at West Virginia University Press, the series published the now-classic volume Ungrading, edited by Susan D. Blum, along with many other excellent and influential books about college teaching. More recently, at OU press, they’ve released

Cate

Denial’s fantastic volume A Pedagogy of Kindness, with more great work forthcoming from my colleague

Liz Norell

. I’m honored to be in such good company and looking forward to working with series editors

Michelle Miller, Ph.D.

and

James M. Lang

and editor-at-large

Derek Krissoff

on this new project. 

The book, which will provide a step-by-step guide to designing and teaching a collaboratively graded course, will draw on some of the experiences I’ve related here on Unmaking the Grade, as well as my broader work in educational development. My hope is that it will provide concrete advice for college instructors who are interested in involving students in the grading process and looking for guidance on how to do so most effectively. 

You may have noticed that the word “ungrading,” which I often use here, does not appear in the book’s title. There are a few reasons for that. Over the last couple of years, there’s been some debate about that term within the ungrading/alternative grading community, and it’s employed by different people in different ways. Some people use “ungrading” to refer to a constellation of non-traditional grading practices. Some use it to refer to a specific model in which instructors determine grades in consultation with students. Some use it to refer to a general philosophical orientation toward grading and assessment. 

When I started this blog, I elected to use the term “ungrading” because all three definitions applied to my pedagogy: I take an ungrading approach in that I work to critically examine the assumptions behind traditional grading and employ a specific alternative model that brings students into the grading process. 

While the term works for me, I’ve seen it cause some confusion when used among people who have different definitions of it. If we don’t clarify what we mean by “ungrading” at the outset of a conversation, we can find ourselves talking at cross purposes. “Ungrading” may also give rise to a few misconceptions about our practices. For instance, some have taken it to mean “not grading,” when in reality, almost everyone who practices ungrading has to assign letter grades to students at one point or another. 

For these reasons, alternative grading advocates like

Lindsay Masland

and

Jayme Dyer

have suggested the term “collaborative grading” to refer to a specific model in which students and instructors work together to assign course grades. This term is increasingly taking hold within the alternative grading community, and I believe it more precisely describes the type of grading I plan to discuss in the book. 

So, I’ve settled on the provisional title Collaborative Grading: A Practical Guide. I define collaborative grading as a system in which students and instructors determine grades for a given course in consultation with one another, usually through a process that combines extensive instructor feedback with regular student self-assessment and opportunities for students to continuously enhance their understanding through revisions, retakes, or resubmissions. If that sounds like something you do, or would like to do, in your courses, this book is for you!

The book will obviously incorporate a wealth of educational research about student motivation, grading, and assessment. What sets it apart, however, is its foundation in practitioner interviews. I’ve been speaking with instructors from a variety of backgrounds who have experimented with collaborative grading in their own courses. My hope is to capture the perspectives of educators in many different disciplines, at many different institutions, teaching in many different ways. I’m excited to share the wisdom of these instructors with readers, so that we can all learn from their victories and challenges. 

But instructors are not the only people I’m interviewing. I also plan to sit down with students—at my own institution and at others—who have first-hand experience with collaborative grading. There are lots of things I hope to learn from students about this grading model. How does it impact their stress levels? How does it change their relationship to learning? What are some of the things they wish their professors knew about how collaborative grading affects them? Elevating students’ perspectives is at the heart of collaborative grading, so I think it’s important that they’re consulted in any major examination of the practice. 

Readers will encounter student and instructor perspectives throughout the book, as we walk through the process of designing and teaching a collaboratively graded course from end to end. Early chapters will provide an introduction to the practice, along with some reflection guides and advice for conceptualizing and launching your course. Later chapters will consider how to confront common challenges you might encounter during the semester or while determining final grades with students, as well as some things to think about as you reflect on and revise your course at the end of the semester. 

I’m excited to work on this project—even as we enter what I’m sure will be a challenging semester. And I look forward to sharing updates as it proceeds.