Definition and Rationale
Alternative grading is an umbrella term for assessment practices that de-emphasize letter grades and points in favor of qualitative feedback and mastery of learning objectives. In the age of generative AI, these methods help shift the focus from “getting the points” to “doing the learning.” Traditional grading often measures compliance rather than actual growth. Switching to an alternative grading model can:
- Reduce anxiety for students: Lowers the stakes, allowing students to take creative risks without fear of a “GPA-killer” mistake.
- Discourage academic dishonesty: When the “high-stakes” pressure of a single grade is removed, the incentive to use AI for a “quick fix” decreases.
- Promote equity: Recognizes that students start at different points and have varying access to resources outside the classroom.
Workshop Position Papers and Presentations
- “Uproar in the Classroom? Ungrading, Uncertainty, and Trust in the Age of AI” by Jon Beasley-Murray
Alternative Grading at UBC
- RMST 201: Literatures and Cultures of the Romance World I taught by Jon Beasley-Murray
- RMST 202: Literatures and Cultures of the Romance World II taught by Jon Beasley-Murray
General Resources
Grades and Alternative Grading
- Ungrading: a radical old idea, picking up steam by Firas Moosvi, Celeste Leander, Jaclyn Stewart
- Why I Ungrade, and a How-To Primer by Celeste Leander
- Ungrading: an Introduction by Jesse Stommel
- Ungrading: a Bibliography by Jesse Stommel
- “Undoing the Grade: Why We Grade, and How to Stop” by Jesse Stommel (Hybrid Pedagogy, August 15, 2023)
- Alternative Grading Approaches: Grading for Learning (Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning, 2024)
- Grading for Growth by David Clark and Robert Talbert (Substack)
- ”What to do before you do alternative grading” by Robert Talbert (Grading for Growth, June 13, 2022)
- Unmaking the Grade by Emily Pitts Donahoe (Substack)
- Crowdsourcing Ungrading edited by David Buck (Pressbooks, 2020)
- ”The Meaning of Grades” by Jessica Zeller (Crowdsourcing Ungrading, 2020)
- Teaching More by Grading Less (or Differently) by Schinske and Tanner
- Susan Blum’s textbook
- “Ungrading Five Years On” by Susan Blum (Susan D. Blum Muses, July 25, 2025), with link to Ungrading Five Years On: A Movement, a Backlash, a Rebranding, a Story by Susan Blum
- “The Origin of Grades in American Schools” by Josh Eyler (The Saturday Evening Post, February 26, 2024)
Education and Grading in the Age of AI
- Report by MIT’s Ad Hoc Committee on AI Use in Teaching, Learning, and Research Training (August 13, 2026)
- Responsible Assessment in the AI Era by Stanford Accelerator for Learning, supported by the Educational Testing Service (2026)