Ungrading as a Pedagogy for Teaching Qualitative Research Methods in Computing
This program is tentative and subject to change.
As computing becomes a deeper part of the human and social lifeworld, the field as an academic discipline stands to benefit from increased engagement with social science perspectives and research methods. Essential coursework, including in methodology, helps students understand the discipline’s social turn and situate their own work within it. This is especially important for doctoral students, given their position as the next generation of knowledge creators. Qualitative inquiry is a mainstream approach in the social sciences, but it also has a rich tradition in computing fields like information systems and human computer interaction. Qualitative research methods have gained traction in computing education research, and some doctoral programs in information require coursework in qualitative research. The process of learning research methods is complex and can involve shifting one’s worldview in addition to understanding concepts and developing skills. In this paper, we argue that a pedagogy of ungrading, which eschews points-based grading for feedback-based assessment, is well suited to shifting worldviews because it centers engagement over measuring outcomes. We—a faculty instructor and five PhD students—present this experience report detailing the design and implementation of ungrading in a graduate qualitative research methods course in a computing PhD program. We explain how the course was designed and present self-reflections that illustrate how a pedagogy of ungrading facilitated meaningful learning experiences among students whose research interests span the epistemological and methodological spectrum.
This program is tentative and subject to change.
Fri 28 FebDisplayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change
10:45 - 12:00 | |||
10:45 18mTalk | Expanding the Horizons of Autograding: Innovative Questions at UBC Papers Jeffrey Niu University of British Columbia, Jessica Wong University of British Columbia, Charlie Lake University of British Columbia, Justin Rahardjo University of British Columbia, Hedayat Zarkoob University of British Columbia, Oluwakemi Ola University of British Columbia, Patrice Belleville University of British Columbia, Karina Mochetti UBC, Meghan Allen University of British Columbia, Firas Moosvi University of British Columbia Okanagan, Steve Wolfman University of British Columbia | ||
11:03 18mTalk | Models of Mastery Learning for Computing EducationGlobal Papers Claudia Szabo The University of Adelaide, Miranda Parker San Diego State University, Michelle Friend University of Nebraska Omaha, Johan Jeuring Utrecht University, Tobias Kohn Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Lauri Malmi Aalto University, Judy Sheard Monash University | ||
11:22 18mTalk | TIPS for Students! A Fair and Equitable Way to Require, Motivate and Reward Creativity and Student-initiated ActivitiesMSI Papers G. Aaron Wilkin Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Jason Yoder Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Mitchel Daniel Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology | ||
11:41 18mTalk | Ungrading as a Pedagogy for Teaching Qualitative Research Methods in Computing Papers Priya C. Kumar Pennsylvania State University, Jeffrey Samuel Schulman Jr. Pennsylvania State University, Fatimah Albargi Pennsylvania State University, Sree Bhattacharyya Pennsylvania State University, Hongyi Dong Pennsylvania State University, Zehao Liu Pennsylvania State University |