Academic Success Tip: Continual Feedback for Student Assessment

Grading can be a confusing process for college students, with around one-quarter of learners saying they’ve had at least one professor whose grading they didn’t understand, according to a 2023 Student Voice survey by Inside Higher Ed, conducted by College Pulse.

Ungrading is a growing movement among faculty members to encourage students to consider their classroom experiences beyond a scaled metric and more as a forum of learning and development. One professor, Luisa Ruge-Jones, assistant professor of communication at the University of Dayton in Ohio, implemented ungrading in her organizational communication class to reduce student anxieties around earning points and help them focus more on the material and learning outcomes.

“As an instructor, I want to grade to help students learn, rather than grade to justify point deductions,” Ruge-Jones explains.

However, Ruge-Jones still wanted to give students assessments that help them build skills for the future, beyond the classroom, and that center their learning. She decided to implement performance reviews throughout the course to help students reflect on their work, identify areas of growth and better speak about their learned skills.

The initiative has also aided in students’ career development by making them more responsible, stronger self-advocates and better learners over all.

How it works: Students complete a performance review three times throughout the course. Initially, they submit a written reflection on what they already know about the course’s objectives, such as being able to apply theories, Ruge-Jones says. The second is focused on growth in the same course objectives, and the third is on showing quality work.

For the midpoint assessment, students can opt to set up a meeting with Ruge-Jones to talk one on one or complete the written review. The third and final meeting is an in-person review, in which Ruge-Jones also assigns students a final letter grade.

At the start of the course, Ruge-Jones provides clear expectations for how to get a letter grade at the end of the term and makes sure to highlight what quality work means for each assignment as well.

The ungrading model reshapes how students see their classroom experience, and the performance reviews provide essential career preparation in connecting learning to the real world.

“It helps prepare students for their future careers and having a conversation with someone who is responsible for evaluating their performance,” Ruge-Jones says. “It teaches them to advocate for themselves and take accountability for their work.”

The impact: Since Ruge-Jones started the initiative, students have given positive feedback, and she has noticed that they submit stronger assignments as well.

“It also allows students more choice and grace,” she says. “If they are sick one week, they can miss an assignment and show growth on other assignments. If they feel they have already mastered something, like interview skills, they can skip that assignment and focus on an area where they want to demonstrate growth.”

Students must negotiate their final grade based on how they present their strengths and growth, and most of the times Ruge-Jones and the learner are in agreement. When students do believe they’ve earned a higher grade, they’re given the opportunity to share which of the course objectives they’ve mastered and where there’s still room for growth, which is taken into consideration.

“Being able to describe what’s happening, rather than evaluate it as good or bad, is a helpful way to give that feedback,” Ruge-Jones shares.

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