Higher Education and Teaching Commons^™

Exploring The Impact Of Ungrading On Student Engagement And Motivation In A First-Year Composition Class, Mary B. Gruis

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This study investigated the association between student engagement, motivation, and self-efficacy in college-level writing-intensive courses using an ungraded approach. Motivated by disillusionment with traditional grading methods and inspired by texts on equitable grading and culturally responsive teaching, the researcher explored how ungrading could foster deeper learning and equitable educational practices. Grounded in Bandura’s (1997) self-efficacy framework, this qualitative case study examined the lived experiences of first-year composition students at a two-year institution. Data collection included student interviews, student reflections, and an instructor interview. The analysis revealed themes aligned with self-efficacy, engagement, and motivation, suggesting that ungrading positively impacted students' perceptions …

Coaching Undergraduates, A Conceptual And Practical Guide, Anna Carissa Rozzo

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version of this introduction here.

The overall aim of this paper is to provide a holistic orientation to the practice of person-centered coaching while providing tangible methods that faculty and advisors in higher education may be able to integrate into their professional practices. This conceptual paper explores the theoretical and practical intersections of coaching and teaching, presenting a flexible modality to support student-centered learning. The author provides readers with general guidance and templates for goal setting, problem solving, and assessment that practitioners may adapt to their own contexts.

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 9, Issue 2, Fall 2025

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full-length Fall 2025 issue (Volume 9, Issue 2) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version (with downloadable EPUB format) here.

This issue of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence brings together articles that highlight approaches for engaging students and broader communities through teaching, coaching, and assessment in higher education. The contributions examine community-engaged learning in graduate coursework, the use of coaching practices to support student-centered teaching and advising, Cooperative Extension staff readiness for virtual instruction, and alternative assessment strategies aimed at increasing engagement and reducing anxiety in challenging STEM courses. Collectively, the articles …

Emphasizing A Student-Centered Process: Open Pedagogy Course Assessments Across Disciplines, Angela M. Mcgowan-Kirsch, Kelly Soczka Steidinger, Christina R. Hilburger, Heather J. Hether, Jean Hertzberg, Amanda Lohiser

Milne Open Textbooks

Emphasizing a Student-Centered Process: Open Pedagogy Course Assessments Across Disciplines showcases how Open Educational Practices (OEP) empower students as active contributors to knowledge creation. Grounded in constructivist principles, this collection highlights student-centered assessments—from collaborative course design and renewable assignments to generative artificial intelligence—that foster critical thinking, active learning, and inclusivity. Through practical examples and reflective discussions, the book provides educators with actionable strategies to integrate open pedagogical practices across disciplines while addressing challenges such as institutional support, professional development, and resource accessibility.

Storytelling As Assessment And Assessment As Storytelling: Reading And Writing Equity, Julene L. Jones, Mary K. Thompson, Co-Creating Action, Watermark

Library Presentations

Wrestling with both the language of storytelling and the language of narrative, this presentation repositions assessment work as creative and historical, giving a double responsibility to its authors. How we speak of education and how we use this information to improve it begs the questions of character and audience. In these questions is the larger consideration of equity. This presentation explores what storytelling as an art can teach us about the institutional stories we are telling.

Equity Action Makers’ Assessment Projects: What Have We Learned Thus Far?, Julene L. Jones, Mary K. Thompson

Library Presentations

Grand Challenges in Assessment Equity Action Makers poster session

Creating Assessment Rubrics For Final Teacher Education Degree Projects: A Qualitative Case Study, Carla Fernández Garcimartín, Víctor Manuel López Pastor, Teresa Fuentes Nieto, David Hortiguela Alcalá

The Qualitative Report

This paper analyzes the process of creating the assessment instruments for the Final Year Project (FYP) by education faculty based on the opinions of the lecturers. Qualitative methodology was used, with a case study design and the in-depth interview as a data collection technique. Four lecturers participated as relevant informants. The results show that: (a) the faculty decided to create the instruments due to the lack of clear assessment criteria among the lecturers in the first years (2009-2015); (b) work was carried out on three assessment instruments over two years (2015-2017): a tutor's report (without grade), a document rubric (80% …

Plas 439: Organic Farming And Food Systems Faculty-Led Inquiry Into Reflective Scholarly Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Christian Stephenson

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Organic Farming and Food Systems is a senior and graduate level course for students in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. This course was previously offered but has been significantly modified as I have taken on responsibility for the course. Goals for the course include student comprehension of the methods of organic and regenerative farming and the impacts of those methods on economic, environmental, and social sustainability. An additional goal is to build student competency in the evaluation of primary, secondary, and tertiary information resources and critical thinking surrounding issues in food production. Assessment for the course was through diverse …

Vmed 531: Introduction To Animal Welfare A Faculty-Led Inquiry Into Reflective Scholarly Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Amy Walton

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This benchmark portfolio documents course design, student learning, and reflection of teaching methods for VMED 531 Introduction to Animal Welfare. This one credit hour course provides an overview of animal welfare topics and assessment through a veterinary medical lens. Participants are first year veterinary students that have been accepted into Professional Program of Veterinary Medicine (PPVM). This course creates a foundational knowledge base regarding animal welfare topics and fosters critical thinking with how veterinary treatments, surgeries, and animal-use practices influence animal welfare. The ability to utilize critical thinking skills and science-based evidence to create a sound solution is essential regarding …

Teaching And Learning In Stem With Computation, Modeling, And Simulation Practices, Alejandra J. Magana

Purdue University Press Books

Computation, modeling, and simulation practices are commonplace in the STEM workplace, yet formal training embedded in disciplinary practices is not as standard in the undergraduate classroom. Teaching and Learning in STEM With Computation, Modeling, and Simulation Practices: A Guide for Practitioners and Researchers gives instructors a handbook to ensure their curriculum bridges the gap between the classroom and workplace by equipping students with computational skills and preparing them for a rewarding career in STEM. Grounded in theory and supported by fifteen years of education research at the undergraduate level, this book provides instructional, pedagogical, and assessment guidance for integrating modeling …

Deep Change Theory: Implications For Educational Development Leaders, Caitlin Martin, Elizabeth Wardle

Publications

While chapters 1 and 2 explore the promise of theoretical frameworks for making conceptual change that leads to innovative action around teaching and learning in higher education, they also point out the challenges to this kind of work as teams of faculty strive to lead change in their programs and departments after completing the program. To summarize our claims thus far: one of the goals for the HCWE Faculty Writing Fellows Program is to empower faculty who participate to return to their departments to make programmatic changes—changes they identify as central to their work and values and program culture. The …

Teaching Reproducibility To First Year College Students: Reflections From An Introductory Data Science Course, Brennan L. Bean

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version of this article here.

Modern technology threatens traditional modes of classroom assessment by providing students with automated ways to write essays and take exams. At the same time, modern technology continues to expand the accessibility of computational tools that promise to increase the potential scope and quality of class projects. This paper presents a case study where students are asked to complete a “reproducible” final project in an introductory data science course using the R programming language. A reproducible project is one where an instructor can easily regenerate the results and conclusions from the submitted …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 7, Issue 2, Fall 2023

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full-length Fall 2023 issue (Volume 7, Issue 2) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version (with downloadable EPUB format) here.

The Fall 2023 issue presents research and guidance on topics related to educational adaptation. The first article by C. Farrell describes an adaptation of the interteaching method to the hybrid delivery method. The second article by C. C. Loose and R. Jagielo-Manion describes a study of modules on personalized learning to preservice teachers and its impact on their comfort level and preparation to implement personalized learning in their classrooms. The third article by B. …

Grades Or No Grades? Promoting Deeper Learning In A Middle Level Mathematics Methods Course, Shelli L. Casler-Failing

Journal of Practitioner Research

This action research investigated pre-service teachers (PSTs) experiences with ungrading practices in a mathematics methods course designed for middle level PSTs (grades 4-8). This study analyzed archival data through the lenses of pedagogical content knowledge, growth mindset, and self-efficacy to investigate how PSTs’ experiences with the process of ungrading supported their development of pedagogical content knowledge. Throughout the course, verbal feedback was provided during class discourse and the interactive lectures and written feedback was provided for all submitted assignments. The feedback provided was both positive and constructive in nature. Based on the assignment or activity, constructive feedback was either provided …

Reevaluating Student Engagement: Exploring And Applying Alternative Assignments In Higher Education Undergraduate Applied Saxophone, Anthony S. Cincotta Ii

Dissertations, 2020-current

Undergraduate applied saxophone study revolves around the conservatory model. This inflexible model, often referred to as a master-apprentice relationship, can create an instructor-centric power dynamic which does not address the needs of the modern student. A classroom where the power lies so heavily with the instructor can stifle student engagement and can create a sense of disenfranchisement. In this setting, students have limited input on their assignment selections. While curricula have evolved with regards to being more culturally diverse, relevant, and inclusive, the approach that educators use to deliver the material has remained largely unchanged. There is limited research on …

Onward In Higher Education: Business Faculty Perspectives On Authentic Assessment, Farah L. Kashef, Matt Townsley

Journal of Research Initiatives

This mixed-method study explored business faculty’s perspectives on drawbacks and benefits associated with authentic assessment at 10 R1 Midwestern universities. In search of solutions, faculty were also asked to provide recommendations in implementing authentic assessment. Quantitative and qualitative findings suggest most business faculty are in favor of assessment strategies that promote higher order thinking and real-world practices. However, ongoing faculty professional development opportunities and reconsidering the assessment culture of higher education are needed to make this important shift towards authentic assessment.

A 5-Week Personalized Training Workshop To Assess And Evaluate Faculty Members Teaching Online, Felix O. Quayson, Christopher Zirkle

Journal of Research Initiatives

The authors developed the Skills of Inquiry (SoI) model accompanied by a logic model to assess and evaluate faculty members teaching online. The Skills of Inquiry is based on faculty members’ abilities to understand the online environments, skills development pertaining to online teaching, and acquisition of specific online skills. The Skills of Inquiry model was used to personalize a 5-week workshop training and development module specifically for faculty members teaching online. The training workshop is effective in training faculty members to acquire specific online teaching skills through customized and individualized professional development learning. The training is a self-paced asynchronous online …

Exploring How Student Athletes Balance Athletic, Academic, And Personal Needs Through Learned Needs Theory., Michael E. Rutledge Ii

Journal of Research Initiatives

The attempt to balance the requirements of athletic and academic demands prompts extensive research agendas from higher education and athletic stakeholders to examine how extrinsic and socio-environmental factors affect the desired outcomes of student athletes. Reputable motivation literature describes needs as the starting point of motivation and influences behaviors embedded within cultural and systematic structures. Thus, the purpose of this study is to understand how sport participation influences athletic and academic performance through Learned Needs Theory (LNT). This study provides insight to processes of motivation that contribute to knowledge, practical implications, and research that translates to research-based approaches to increase …

Experiential Learning Projects As Assessment In Initial Teacher Education, Renee Crawford, Louise E. Jenkins, Lydia Wan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In a rapidly changing global environment, Initial Teacher Educators (ITE) have a responsibility to role-model contemporary teaching approaches, which develop graduates who think creatively and flexibly in educational workplaces. An important aspect of this work is supporting pre-service teachers (PSTs) to understand how to design assessments which facilitate a deep understanding of student learning. This learning can be achieved through the implementation of assessments which model contemporary practices and enrich student learning in ITE courses. This paper discusses new ways to consider the purpose of assessment by focusing on Experiential Learning (EL) as a form of assessment in ITE. This …

Developing Rubrics Using The New Oru Outcomes, Kim Boyd, Trevor Ellis, Leighanne Locke, Terry Shannon, Rachael Valentz

Academy Resources

The development and examples of key program assessments (KPAs) are shared. Dr. Boyd opens the presentation. Dr. Shannon (B.S. Sports Management) begins by providing an overview of aligning program and ORU outcomes. Prof. Locke (B.S. Mathematics) walks through how current assignments were chosen to be used as key program assessments and then how the rubrics were revised to improve alignment. Dr. Valentz (B.S. Nursing) discusses how to improve the foundational alignment between program outcomes and the criterion (rubric row headings) used to measure them. She shares how criterion can be contextualized in different assignments and demonstrates in Brightspace, by D2L, …

My First Time Ungrading: Approach Used And Reflections, Heather Leslie

Feminist Pedagogy

A few months ago, I began devouring information about ungrading with a fervent appetite. I started with the book Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What To Do Instead) edited by Susan Blum and listened to just about every podcast where she was interviewed about this topic. I then read other books she recommended like Wad-Ja-Get: The Grading Game in American Education by Howard Kirschenbaum and Punished By Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, and Praise by Alfie Kohn. Recently, I have become much more dialed into the ungrading movement by reading articles from Teachers Going …

Reflection Types And Students’ Viewing Of Feedback In A First-Year Engineering Course Using Standards-Based Grading, Heidi A. Diefes-Dux, Laura M. Cruz Castro

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background: Feedback is one of the most powerful and essential tools for learning and assessment, particularly when it provides the information necessary to close an existing gap between actual and reference levels of performance. The literature on feedback has primarily focused on addressing strategies for providing effective feedback rather than aspects of students’ readiness to engage with feedback. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study investigated whether reflection, as a routine pedagogical intervention grounded in self-regulated learning theory, promotes the frequency with which students view feedback. Design/Method: A quasi-experimental design was employed to examine the relationship between the use of four different reflection types, …

A State University’S Assessment Of Acue: Feasible Model For Evaluating The Impact Of A Faculty Instruction Quality Program, Jeffrey Budziak, Daniel Super, Thomas Gross, Douglas Mcelroy

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

State comprehensive universities often stress the development of teaching quality to improve the outcomes and retention of students, especially for recently matriculated students. These universities invest in teaching quality programs, but often lack a feasible method to examine the longitudinal impacts of these programs. The purpose of this paper is to provide a model for universities to evaluate outcomes related teaching quality programs. ACUE, a teaching quality program, was implemented across 30 instructors, which equated to 463 course sections. ACUE instructors were matched to non-ACUE instructors using propensity score matching (PSM) and compared on the rate of end-of-the-semester students with …

The Value Of The Useless: Erin Manning, Impact, Higher Education Research, Progress, Laura Elizabeth Smithers

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

This article brings the work of Erin Manning to bear on common sense practices and conversations of the value of a college education. Manning’s work provides a productive alternative to the neoliberal discourse of college impact that has dominated higher education research for the past half century. Neoliberalism produces the common sense of the value of education as privatized, datafied (or dividuated), and measurable outcomes. This common sense reduces American higher education to the sum of its parts. To produce worlds to which campus marketing departments on occasion gesture, worlds where college produces spaces of community transformation, we must come …

Engaging First Year Students In Assessment Rubrics: Three Personal Experiences, Katherine Ashman, Kristina Turner, Dona Martin

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In a direct effort to build a greater understanding of higher education teaching and learning opportunities, this study shares the journey of three university lecturers working to ensure best practice outcomes from criterion-referenced assessment [CRA]. The work was built on a belief that our respective higher education undergraduate students did not fully value the design structure or feedback outcomes inherent in CRA. Using a collaborative autoethnographic lens we pooled experiences, outcomes, challenges, assumptions, and accounts of unconscious biases from across our different tertiary education schools and subjects. Our examination enriched our understanding, our teaching, and our student outcomes. In sharing …

How Do Higher Education Teaching And Learning Centers Contribute To An Institutional Culture Of Assessment?, Tracey Jean Beckley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Teaching and learning centers in higher education are often charged with providing faculty development programming in support of overarching institutional goals related to effective teaching and assessment of student learning. Using the theoretical frameworks of Maki and Weiner as a launch pad, this exploratory case study examines how two teaching and learning centers have provided services, implemented programming, and strategically affected cultural change among faculty and other stakeholders in support of an institutional culture of assessment. The study revealed four thematic strands to consider when developing practical ways for teaching and learning centers to contribute to a culture-building endeavor in …

The Blaeser Training Taxonomy, Timothy Blaeser

Doctorate in Education

This research was undertaken to determine the efficacy of using andragogy, assessment, and quality control for training in a modern industrial workplace, with findings indicating that these modern training techniques can be implemented with success in this context. While andragogy, pioneered by Knowles, has been used in many areas of adult education, it has not been found to be commonly used in the industrial workplace. The study focused on Finnish trainers using the Blaeser Training Taxonomy – a training program utilizing elements of andragogy and assessment wrapped into quality control. Using a mixed methods questionnaire, trainers reported their training results, …

Developing And Validating The Student Assessment-Based Feedback Literacy (Safl) Instrument: A Mixed-Methods Approach, Yiyu Liao

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Feedback has great influences on student retention and completion, especially on the minority students in higher education. However, the debates on the paradoxical difference between feedback’s theoretical potential and its effect in actual practice remain unsettled. This study seeks to address some primary issues in feedback research by conceptualizing student assessment-based feedback literacy (SAFL) and developing the SAFL instrument. The systematic literature reviews in the study identify two trends of assessment-based feedback in higher education: no universal definition of assessment feedback and the lack of explicit understanding of how assessment and feedback literacies interacted. By building on the exiting student …

Leading Leaders In Rethinking Grading: A Case Study Of Implementation Of Standards-Based Grading In Educational Leadership, Erin E. Lehmann

Journal of Research Initiatives

The purpose of this paper is to share the process of how one university instructor worked toward a shift to standards-based grading (SBG) in a graduate Educational Leadership program. Educational leadership programs use standards to guide coursework and instruction in an accountability era, but grading practices remain as subjective as they were 50 years ago. Educators of future leaders must address this need. In addition, instructors need to effectively communicate essential learning to students to understand their learning progression clearly; standards-based grading is designed to do this. The author shares best practices in grading as well as the challenges of …

Faculty Perceptions Of Dyadic Advising Relationships, Power, And Cultural Consciousness On College Student Learning Outcomes, Hind Albana

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Abstract

Academic advising in institutions of higher education lack consistent assessment and evaluation of practices impairing the ability to define the role, objectives, and methods utilized. Over-reliance on student satisfaction surveys for evaluating advising reinforces this phenomenon. To break the cycle, this study used survey responses from a nationwide sample (N = 156) of faculty advisors from public and private 4-year colleges and universities to examine the relationship between and among the constructs of a working relationship, shared power, cultural consciousness, and student learning outcomes. The questionnaire instrument score produced a Cronbach's alpha of .927, illustrating substantially strong internal consistency. …