Alternative Grading

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. It covers a range of practices, including self-assessment, peer assessment, specifications grading, and contract grading, in many combinations. In the age of generative AI, these methods help shift the focus from “getting the points” to “doing the learning.” It begins by trusting students to participate in their own assessment, giving students the freedom to learn, and teachers the freedom to teach.

This intensive two-day workshop and symposium will explore the possibilities, politics, and practicalities of alternative grading. The program will feature two keynote events with international experts, alongside panels, presentations, and discussions involving faculty, students, UBC administration, and workshop participants.

Browse events by day

Keynote: Money in the (Test) Bank: AI, EdTech, and the Value of Grades

Series:

As an educator involved in shaping the field of open pedagogy, Robin DeRosa, has long been an advocate for alternative grading strategies. In her own classrooms, she has found that “ungrading” has positively impacted the quality of her students’ work and shifted class dynamics in ways that cultivated vitality and collaboration. Over time, this pedagogical shift led Robin to explore how the apparatus of assessment is connected to deeper political and economic forces that constrain our educational ecosystems. In this presentation, Robin will focus both on how her personal trajectory around grading has influenced her thinking about educational systems writ large, and also on how the current moment requires all educators to think critically and creatively about how our pedagogies can reflect, resist, and reshape the contexts within which we teach.

Keynote talk:

  • Robin DeRosa, Executive Director, Open Education Network

Upcoming Dates

  • In-person
    October 22, 2026
    5:45 pm - 7:15 pm

Alt-Grading Workshop: Day 1

Series:

On the first day of the workshop, join us for discussions, panels, and lightning talks on:

  • Approaches to Alternative Grading;
  • Rethinking the Grade;
  • Alternative Grading at UBC;
  • Student Perspectives on Being Alternatively Graded;
  • UBC Leadership and Administration Perspectives on Alternative Grading

The “Lessons in Trust” workshop is designed to prioritize dialogue and conversation, and we very much want participants, if at all possible, to be fully part of the discussion and to attend as much of the event as they can. Ideally, registrants for day 1 should be available to attend for the full day.


Upcoming Dates

  • In-person
    October 23, 2026
    9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Keynote: Lessons in Trust: Two Provocations and a Conversation

Series:

What are the key issues right now for alternative grading proponents? How can we rebuild and reclaim trust in the classroom and society at large? What is the role of alternative grading in the age of AI? What are the questions and issues that instructors, institutions, students, and staff have to confront in their classes and beyond? Prepare to be challenged and inspired. In this session, two of the most prominent and thoughtful advocates and theorists of alternative grading will give brief and provocative position papers, followed by a conversation about the state of the university and the place of alternative grading today, trading ideas and responding also to questions from the session moderator and the audience at large.

Keynotes:

  • Asao Inoue, Author of Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the Compassionate Writing Classroom and Professor in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts at Arizona State University
  • Jesse Stommel, Author of Undoing the Grade: Why We Grade, and How to Stop Faculty member at the University of Denver and co-founder of Hybrid Pedagogy

Moderator: Christina Hendricks, Professor of Teaching in Philosophy, UBC


Upcoming Dates

  • In-person
    October 23, 2026
    6:45 pm - 8:15 pm

Alt-Grading Workshop: Day 2

Series:

On the second day of the workshop, join us for talks on:

  • Student Choice, Voice, and Motivation;
  • The Technologies of Alternative Grading;
  • Moving Beyond Grading;
  • What Next? Roundtable Session and General Discussion

The “Lessons in Trust” workshop is designed to prioritize dialogue and conversation, and we very much want participants, if at all possible, to be fully part of the discussion and to attend as much of the event as they can. Ideally, registrants for Day 2 of the workshop should be available to attend for the full day.


Upcoming Dates

  • In-person
    October 24, 2026
    9:00 am - 5:00 pm