Hi Syeed, so after reading other blogs, and reflecting more on the matter, I still believe that some sort of assessment (without a grade) or an actual assessment (with a grade) is needed, like previously mentioned in engineering and medical fields… however, the current system is subject to improvement and I think we can arrive to a hybrid where students performance is still measured but not necessarily with a grade all the time… so for example, we can create a teaching pipeline that targets for all students to start the class with an A and finish the class with an A, and the in between evaluation process could be a mixture of perhaps grades for exams but no grades for other assignments… I might be completely wrong and grades could be banished, but perhaps step by step

Hi Grace, you made a lot of good points, and thanks for saying the post was funny, that is one of my goals when writing, to be funny and yet somewhat critical… Now I totally agree that sometimes the learning process kind of disappears when an assignment is graded, however, under current circumstances I think a grade still tells you if you learned the material in a “satisfactory way”, depending on what is being graded… other aspect is that of learning to think and work through the problem yourself, even if the end result is not “correct” that part is not really valued, in general… and if someone is faster than me to finish and does it good, then I am happy for that person, lol… I like professor that really give you time to finish, happy to have encounter a couple of those along the way

I agree with Amy. You’ve got great ideas for encouraging engagement and seem to be succeeding marvelously with your students. I do think there’s a difference between an incentive (extra credit for an extra activity) and “grading” as a kind of assessment (measuring progress, quantifying or evaluating learning).

“Individual blog posts are not graded, but will be considered holistically as evidence of your general commitment to the course and its content.”
(A+)

Yes. Building on what Amy suggests, I wonder if teaching that focuses more on facilitating engagement (cultivating curiosity) and providing formative feedback (interaction with the substance of students’ authentic work) rather than on assessing and measuring progress against absolute standards isn’t the way to go?

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I really enjoyed this post and there has been some great discussion in the comments as well! I love the idea of multiple forms of assessment and evaluation and taking a more holistic view of the topics that we teach as well as the students in our class. And I think blogs are an interesting example of this. I was skeptical of blogs at first but now really appreciate the flexibility that these blogs offer and the discussion and feedback that can follow each post. The author of each post, therefore, can get feedback from the instructor, from other students, and can reflect on their thoughts and ideas following these discussions.

I really enjoyed your post. After reflecting on your own experiences and reading the articles from this week, what are some ways that you could incorporate these ideas into a class that you teach?

I really enjoyed reading your post! I think you posed some really interesting questions. Even with less focus on grades or in the absence of grades, students are still engaged in activities, complete assignments, and can get feedback on their work. Do you have ideas for how you could incorporate the idea of taking away grades into a class that you teach or might teach in the future? How, as a teacher, would you think about final grades if you shifted the focus away from numerical or letter grades in the course?

Thank you for your post! I really appreciate your reflection on the use of feedback to provide students with input on their progress. I am curious to hear about your experiences incorporating this type of feedback into a classroom or ideas about how you would do that!

I really enjoyed your post. And I thought your comparison of the social sciences and hard sciences was really interesting. I would argue that in engineering, we need more discussions surrounding uncertainty in engineering and the impact of engineering solutions on society. There often is not a correct answer but we often teach it that way.