#UngradingCon
#UngradingCon: Assessment for Equity
A FREE Twitter Conference
Saturday — October 15, 2022
12:00-5:00 p.m. (Eastern)
What is #UngradingCon?
#UngradingCon is modeled after some wonderful academic conferences that have happened on Twitter. Our theme will be "Assessment for Equity."
So here's the gist — the entire conference happens live on Twitter with tweeters/presenters doing their thing through a thread of tweets. Each "session" will be 20 minutes in length — 10 minutes for the presenter to tweet their presentation (along with potential images or GIFs!), and then 10 minutes for folks on Twitter to ask the tweeter/presenter questions or add follow-up responses, reflections, or comments. Once a tweet session has expired, the next tweeter/presenter is up and will begin tweeting under the hashtag: #UngradingCon.
There may be overlap between sessions, side conversations, and off-shoot threads — but this is what makes a Twitter conference fun & engaging. Embrace the chaos!
Schedule
The Live Tweeters & Their Sessions
Chris McNutt (@McNuttEdu)
▶ 1:00-1:20 p.m.
It's All Connected: Expanding ungrading toward progressive education — Ungrading is one important milestone in our mission to create spaces that value the humanity of students and educators. This session will cover how changing assessment naturally promotes and necessitates other liberatory frameworks such as restorative justice, purpose-finding, and experiential learning.
Jessica Zeller (@jessicazeller)
▶ 1:20-1:40 p.m.
The Tendrils of Ungrading: Collaborative Feedback — When we start working with ungraded course designs, we immediately notice other elements of our pedagogies and policies that need re-envisioning. This session offers an approach to structuring the feedback process collaboratively with students; a methodology for supporting in real time the equity that Ungrading makes possible.
Nick Covington (@CovingtonEDU)
▶ 1:40-2:00 p.m.
Self-Evident Truths — "What is the purpose of learning? How do you know when you've learned something new? How could you show to someone else that you are learning?" These are questions our students should be able to answer and we should be responsive to. But how can we make that learning self-evident to everyone?
Maha Bali (@Bali_Maha)
▶ 2:00-2:20 p.m.
Ungrading in a Culture That Stifles Criticality and Agency — I have been experimenting with ungrading with university students in Egypt who have previously had their agency stifled and criticality limited by past schooling experiences. It has been an up and down journey.
Michael Weingarth (@LearningPillars)
▶ 2:20-2:40 p.m.
Learning Difference, Neurodiversity, and Ungrading — An examination of the ways we define, sort, categorize, limit, and label through grading, assessment, evaluation, and diagnosis.
Shawna Brandle (@ProfBrandle)
▶ 2:40-3:00 p.m.
What's in a name? — Does ungrading by any other name smell as sweet? I don’t necessarily describe my approach as “ungrading,” and use the phrase “modified self-grading” on my syllabi. Despite this conceptual fuzziness, it’s been fruitful in widely varying contexts- from community college courses to graduate seminars, from Brooklyn to Kyoto. How do you stretch the term?
Africa Hands (@africahands)
▶ 3:00-3:20 p.m.
Rethinking control — Approaching teaching and the classroom from a total control perspective is unrealistic and removes responsibility and autonomy from students. This thread shares a reflection on ungrading as a conduit to reassessing what's within an instructor's control in the classroom.
Rita Shah (@TheRitaPhD)
▶ 3:20-3:40 p.m.
Ungrading at the Master's Level — While we tend to think about ungrading in K-12 and undergraduate courses, it can also be useful at the graduate level. This session will cover how I ungraded master’s level qualitative methods and criminological theories courses and lessons learned from each.
CJ Sobers (@DrCJSobers)
▶ 3:40-4:00 p.m.
Ungrading with TAs — Certain classes require instructors to depend on teaching assistants, with varying interest in student learning, to assess student work. How does ungrading work in this context and what is it like for teaching assistants?
Sybil Priebe (@ihaveabug)
▶ 4:00-4:20 p.m.
Possible Solutions to Ungrading Scenarios of Equity — Unfortunately, just like other forms of assessment, ungrading can cause inequities. However, with some extra reflection and effort, those inequities can be lessened. This twitter thread will take “attendees” through scenarios and solutions.
Jacob Johnson (@gradeslayer)
▶ 4:20-4:40 p.m.
Setting up the LMS and SIS for Ungrading — While ungrading is a pedagogical concept I will discuss how this looks in the LMS and SIS gradebook and how I report grades (when required), sharing the adulations, considerations, and frustrations I’ve encountered along the way.
Firas Moosvi (@FirasM)
▶ 4:40-5:00 p.m.
Ungrading in large classes, at scale — I will share some learning technologies and strategies that I have used to ungrade elements of my courses at scale. I teach large undergraduate STEM classes of about 150-350 students.
Tell us you'll be there!
#UngradingCon Tweet Curation
See below for the tweets!