An Example of Implementing Ungrading within a Quantitatively Intensive Atmospheric Science Course

Abstract Grading can be stressful for both students and faculty within undergraduate courses. Students often focus on the best strategy to achieve the highest grade at the expense of taking time to focus on learning course material. Faculty often stress about the impacts of having a low class-average grade point average (GPA), which, in turn, may impact course evaluation scores considered for tenure or promotion. Research within various STEAM fields has shown that alternative methods for assigning grades that shift the focus away from the more traditional “points” or “percentages” system toward qualitative feedback, content mastery, and student reflection, can help increase student motivation and reduce grade anxiety. This study focuses on the implementation of an “ungrading” framework within the atmospheric sciences. Rather than assigning numerical and letter grades to course assignments and assessments, the coauthors of this study used ungrading within their undergraduate atmospheric dynamics courses which allowed them to provide qualitative feedback to students with opportunities for revision. Using instructor feedback and their own self-reflections, students each met with their course instructor at the end of the semester to advocate for the grade they believed should be awarded. This paper primarily focuses on discussing, in detail, the methods used for implementing ungrading to provide a template for others within the atmospheric sciences community to consider for adoption. The paper also discusses preliminary results addressing the following research question: Do students prefer the use of ungrading over traditional grading? Significance Statement The purposes of this paper are the following: 1) to explain how the practice of “ungrading” can be implemented within upper-level atmospheric dynamics courses and 2) to describe student perceptions of the use of ungrading over more “traditional grading” practices. Ungrading is based around instructors providing qualitative feedback on assignments rather than points or letter grades. This is important because research has shown that ungrading in other STEAM disciplines helps students focus on mastering their understanding of course topics rather than on their grades. Preliminary results suggest that students support ungrading over traditional grading methods, motivating future work to continue to implement ungrading and to collect more data related to student perceptions and performance.