Hear from the Experts on Reflective Teaching and Learning

DR. GLICK: You have thought and written a lot about un-grading.

Can you talk a little about this approach, and why it is so important?

DR. ZINGER: I am very excited to see more interest and implementation of ungrading. For me, ungrading on a basic level means that we, as instructors and students shift focus away from sorting and ranking students to learning in ways that are meaningful to them. As it relates to assessment, it means that I have to consider assessment more expansively and critically. It raises questions such as what counts as knowledge and how can students demonstrate what they know? It highlights our typical emphasis on written assessments and tasks and rote memorization. Ungrading challenges us to scrutinize what we ask students to do and ask if it is really helping them learn. For myself, I found that many of the tasks I assigned to students did not connect as well with our collective learning goals, which resulted in shifts and changes of tasks. This also results in the thinning out of assignments and making sure existing assignments were closely tied in with learning goals.

Ungrading also fundamentally changes the classroom dynamic. I have found that it reduced anxiety for students, creates a more productive and humanizing classroom environment. Students are more apt to ask for extensions so that they can turn in their best work rather than turn in something for the sake of completing it. In my classes we use an approach called contract grading, where students based on our course learning goals, their individual learning goals, and the tasks we engage set their own grade expectations at the beginning of the term. They set and write the goals, and then justify them based on their performance at the end of the term. Students as a whole feel more invested, because the learning is more connected to them and they have greater ownership and investment in it. The quality of work I receive has been excellent and most students use evidence of their work to justify their grades, and it becomes a celebration of their achievement, rather than an indictment of what they may not have learned.

DR. GLICK: An inclusive approach to education means that each individual’s needs are taken into account and that all learners participate and achieve together. It acknowledges that all children can learn and that every child has unique characteristics, interests, abilities and learning needs. Special focus is placed on learners who may be at risk of marginalization, exclusion or underachievement.

For inclusion to work well, schools and classrooms need to foster inclusive environments. How can instructors and instructional designers promote inclusion in their everyday teaching and design work?

DR. ZINGER: This is a great question, and I think it operates on two broad levels, the whole class environment which you have pointed out, as well as the one-on-one or small group interactions between students and instructor. Now I recognize that in large lecture classes, the one-on-one interactions are going to be limited, so I will concede that. But regardless, it all begins with the syllabus, classroom policies, and how instruction unfolds. I think the first part of that is to fundamentally trust and humanize students. I am often reminded that I teach students not standards or content. This means that I want to provide information through at least 2-3 modalities to students to support a wide range of learners. For example, assignments and task are listed on and linked on my syllabus, presented weekly through a narrated video, and built into a module on our course LMS space. Similarly, when I teach, students can respond to most questions and prompts either verbally or in writing, using a digital medium typically.

To your point about learners that are typically marginalized I often also think about how students can present learning. As I mentioned before, we tend to have a very heavy emphasis on formal writing, and it’s not to say that writing is not an important skill, but if I am concerned about student learning, why would I not allow students to show knowledge in expansive ways? So for many of my assignments and tasks, students can submit their learning in writing, using video, info graphics, slides, or other modality that they find most conducive to them. I have seen amazing and creative student work this way. The last piece of this is to connect with students early and often if they do not seem to be on track. Especially with the COVID pandemic, students have been stretched and worn out. It is critical to humanize them and approach challenges as collective and as are our goals. Struggles should be viewed as collective, and I have moved away from the “struggling student narrative.” My approach is about support and collective success. So when students are not meeting goals, it is first important to reach out, and see how they are doing, and then work together towards improvement. This approach has helped me become a much better instructor and recognize how my instruction undermined student success. This includes for example how I present information, using multiple modalities, and often using closed captioning when I talk. Similarly, I have reorganized how I present information and coursework so that students find it less confusing. Again, in my mind the key is to have a cooperative and collaborative atmosphere grounded in humanizing rather than a contentious and adversarial one. As you pointed out, every student can learn, and with that in mind we should be able to find ways to support every student.

DR. GLICK: This is all really very interesting Doron. Thank you!

Dr. Danny Glick is a Research Affiliate at the University of California, Irvine’s Online Learning Research Center, where he develops methods to facilitate student success, retention, and graduation rate in online courses, using early warning systems and targeted interventions. He is a former visiting scholar at the University of California, Irvine’s School of Education where he examined the effects of technology-mediated instructional strategies on the academic achievement of historically underrepresented students. Dr. Glick is also the Academic Director of Edge - Center for EdTech Research and Innovation, where together with colleagues, grad students and interns, he works on a range of EdTech research projects related to AI-powered video-bots, actionable dashboards, and adaptive learning algorithms. He is currently designing holistic data-driven early warning systems, which incorporate four domains – cognitive, affective, behavioral and financial – to identify and support students who show dropout warning signs. Dr. Glick is also the Director of Pedagogical Implementation at Edusoft, a subsidiary of ETS, where he leads a team of EdTech implementation specialists, specializing in designing, implementing and evaluating technology-enhanced learning and assessment solutions, serving K-20 institutions in over 30 countries worldwide. Dr. Glick is author and editor of a wide range of publications, including, most recently, “Early Warning Systems and Targeted Interventions for Student Success in Online Courses”, “Predicting Success, Preventing Failure”, and “Supporting Self-Regulated Learning and Student Success in Online Courses” (forthcoming).