—UBC Alt-Grading 2026

Explore the possibilities, politics, and practicalities of alternative grading

With the rise of generative AI, now is the time to revise our forms of assessment: both what we are assessing, and how we are assessing it. We need to rethink the grade.

AI has led to distrust and uncertainty inside and outside of the classroom. Many instructors feel forced to police student work and/or make their syllabus “AI proof.” Others seek to incorporate AI as best they can. Students are unsure about faculty expectations, and worry that they will be blamed for using tools that are ever more embedded in everyday life.

AI is more symptom than cause in a system in which learning is overshadowed by external events and results. AI offers students a quick fix when they struggle to understand what is being tested or why. Instructors fear that AI further undermines the status of the university, which is already under threat.

How can we rebuild trust? Pedagogical openness establishes a framework and ground. Decentering the grade is another step in the same direction. This workshop and symposium will explore the possibilities, politics, and practicalities of alternative grading.

—About Alt-Grading

What is Alternative Grading?

Alternative grading (sometimes, “ungrading”) covers a range of practices, including self-assessment, peer assessment, specifications grading, and contract grading, in many combinations. It begins by trusting students to participate in their own assessment, giving students the freedom to learn, and teachers the freedom to teach.

This intensive two-day workshop and symposium will provide an opportunity for those interested in alternative grading practices at UBC to compare notes and experiences, and to introduce alternative grading to the university community as a whole, to inspire a rethinking of assessment and a lesson in trust, in our age of AI.