Ungrading and the Question of Workload

Does ungrading take more time than traditional grading? The answer is…complicated.

Photo by Brad Neathery on Unsplash

This post is part of an ongoing series of reflections completed during my Spring 2023 writing course. While the post is being published in August of 2023, it was originally written on April 7, 2023.

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April is the cruelest month. It’s definitely crunch time now that we’ve moved beyond spring break and students are starting to worry about their final grades in earnest. 

I have a sense that my students (especially those who were behind on turning in their second major assignment) are starting to feel the heat. Between their third Major Assignment due on 4/17 and the revisions of their previous assignments, I know some are overwhelmed—despite the fact that I have considerably scaled back the weekly readings and low-stakes assignments in the latter half of the semester. I’m really glad that I’ve left the final two weeks completely open so that they can focus on making their previous work as strong as possible.

I’m also feeling the heat a little, as I’m getting a steady stream of assignments to provide feedback on. My policy is that students can revise and receive feedback on each of their major assignments up to three times, though they are only required to submit a revision of one assignment in order to pass the class. Some of my students haven’t expressed interest in revision; some have talked to me about revisions but haven’t submitted them; and some (more than I expected) have been revising everything they write, sometimes submitting multiple drafts. I have the three-revision limit in place in case I get overwhelmed with work. But in practice, I’m usually happy to help enthusiastic students revise their work until they’re satisfied with it. 

This raises the question of workload, which I often hear instructors ask about in conversations on alternative grading. “How much time will this take?” is a very reasonable question in a world where teachers are constantly being asked to do too much. But for me, the answer is a little complicated.

Some people who move to ungrading have found that they spend about the same amount of time providing feedback on student work. I find it a little difficult to calculate. I actually think I spend more time writing comments for students than I did before—but I also think the time is spent a lot more productively, making the process more efficient overall. 

Before, I spent a lot of time worrying about how students would receive the grade I put on their paper, and many of my comments were oriented toward justifying that grade. Of course, that’s not the case now. I can provide formative feedback that’s oriented toward improvement rather than summative evaluation. I also spent a lot of time before trying to adjudicate between an 85 and an 88, a 90 and a 93—totally meaningless distinctions that I don’t bother myself with anymore. 

I also feel like I’m allowed to have higher expectations as an ungrader. This is an important point, because it runs counter to many of the stereotypes about ungraders and the assumption that deemphasizing grades means sacrificing “rigor.” Before, I was always nervous about putting a C, D, or F grade on a paper, especially if the student had put in some effort. There was always a good chance that the student would be annoyed, angry, or despondent in ways that affected their learning and their relationship with me for the rest of the term. Because I’m not worried about the A-F grade scale and all its baggage anymore, and because students can continually revise their work, I’m not as reluctant to honestly tell them when their writing is not up to par. My ungraded courses are in some ways more “rigorous” (if we want to insist on that term) than my previous courses. 

Perhaps most importantly, students are more likely to read the comments I leave on their work when those comments aren’t attached to a grade. This phenomenon is discussed often in the literature on feedback. And it’s an important point. Why would I spend time carefully crafting comments that students may not read and, even if they do read, will probably not consider thoughtfully? 

In summary: I may very well spend more time providing feedback to my students in ungraded classes, but the feedback I provide is more useful, more direct, less conciliatory, and more likely to be read and absorbed by students. If the process takes more time, it makes up for that time by accomplishing my aims more efficiently. 

Plus, as I have heard others observe, providing feedback in an ungraded class is less emotionally taxing and more fun. When I respond to student work, I feel more like a coach and less like a judge, responding authentically as a reader rather than handing down a decree like some kind of grading god. Sometimes giving feedback is still a slog, but I find that I look forward to reading and responding to student work more often than I did before. 

Of course, these are not the only time commitments in ungraded courses. They also require quite a bit of investment in the course design phase. And getting students acclimated to an unfamiliar system usually necessitates some sacrifice of class time. But again: the benefits of enhanced learning and reduced stress usually exceed the cost in time, at least for me. 

I know this is a difficult sell for instructors who are already pushed to their limits in terms of the time they can devote to their teaching. Even if an alternative grading system would be more effective or efficient, who has the time to develop it, to talk with students about it, to provide all that feedback? Or to refine the system when some experiments, inevitably, don’t work as well as you anticipated? 

I don’t think this is a problem we’re going to pedagogy our way out of. I hope that sharing information and materials through blogs, websites, workshops, etc. will help create some shortcuts for folks who are ready to take the plunge into alternative grading. But I worry, too, that skipping the deep reflective work necessary for the practical implementation of new grading systems will lead to disaster. What teachers really need is time. Time to read, research, rethink, redesign, and get creative with their pedagogy. If universities really value student learning, they’ll have to make ways to provide this time.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for next week, when I’ll talk about an exciting co-writing project I’m undertaking with my students!