A little more about your class:

Human Anatomy (25 students, mostly upper level Human Biology majors)

The issue you’re addressing:

I want to help students focus less on memorizing and regurgitating information and instead build connections between course content and real-world anatomical context.

About your teaching innovation: 

This semester I pivoted from a traditional exam-based system of grading to a gameified grading system. Under this new grading structure, students earn points across a variety of assignments. These included both more traditional open- and closed-note assessment quizzes but also included creative assignments (e.g. lab journals) as well as assignments that connected course content to the real world in clinical, evolutionary, or historical contexts. I wanted students to get a sense of the diverse ways that anatomy touches our lives and give them more opportunities to connect with the material and more choice in how their grade was earned. I was really excited about making in-class exams/quizzes optional, in part because I was eager to see how students relationship with them would change once they were no longer required. I felt strongly that this system could help empower students who may struggle with large course loads or more extracurricular obligations. Since they knew exactly when opportunities to earn points would come, they could plan to do more engagement with course content during some weeks compared with others. I tried to frame it in this way to free them from the feeling of falling behind, which many students struggle to bounce back from. I think implementing this grading strategy during the same semester as I was engaging with the podcast club was really important for its success. I found a lot of what I was feeling surrounding grades and students’ stress levels to be echoed in the podcast episodes so it made it really easy to figure out how to work through some of the hiccups I ran into over the semester.

Your initial takeaways:

I think there’s much room for improvement but as a first attempt, I felt it was a big success! I think students really enjoyed choosing how they earned their grades and it fostered a lot of community within the classroom as students discussed each of their strategies. I worked hard to solicit feedback from students multiple times this semester so I feel I’ve got what I need to move forward and refine the grading scheme further. Next semester, I know I want to be more hands-on with making sure students understand how their grades are calculated. I may encourage students to meet with me to discuss their course strategy, working with them to come up with a manageable way of succeeding in the class.

Suggested “podcast pairing”: 

Susan Blum on “Engaging Ungrading” (Think UDL podcast)