Ungrading as a Pedagogy for Teaching Qualitative Research Methods in Computing

The process of learning research methods is complex, often propelling students to shift their worldviews as they work to understand concepts and develop skills. We argue that a pedagogy of ungrading, which eschews points-based grading for feedback-based assessment, is well suited to helping students shift their worldviews because it centers engagement over measuring outcomes. We-a faculty instructor and five PhD students-present this experience report detailing the design and implementation of ungrading in a graduate qualitative research methods course in an informatics PhD program. We explain the course design and present self-reflections that illustrate how a pedagogy of ungrading facilitated meaningful learning experiences among students whose research interests span the epistemological and methodological spectrum.