49 - Teaching and Assessing Writing - Ungrading, AI and a LOT of Rethinking: an Interview with Emily Pitts Donahoe

In this episode, Sharona and Bosley talk with Dr. Emily Pitts Donahoe about teaching writing in a world where ungrading is the system and AI exists. Emily is the Associate Director of Instruction Support at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning as well as a lecturer in writing and rhetoric at the University of Mississippi. She is also one of the organizers of the 2024 Grading Conference. This conversation explores some of the research on grades and motivation, and then continues our exploration into the new thinking that many of us in the alt grading world are doing as we consider the impact of generative AI models on our courses. What is the purpose of teaching writing if an AI can do most of the things we need writing for? (Or can it?)

From helping our students find purpose in our classes to rethinking the types of writing and assignments we give, join us as we continue the conversation about authentic assessments, grades, and the impact of AI.

Links

Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Clicking on them and purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!

• Grades Can Hinder Learning: What Should Professors Use Instead, Becky Supiano
• Effects of No Feedback, Task-Related Comments, and Grades on Intrinsic Motivation and Performance, Ruth Butler and Mordecai Nisan (PDF download)
• Unmaking the Grade, a blog by Emily Pitts Donahoe
• A start/stop/continue for the Ungrading Community, Grading for Growth Blog
• Visible Learning: The Sequel, John Hattie
• Prompt Engineering Specialization, course on prompt engineering from Vanderbuilt University delivered via Coursera

Resources

The Grading Conference - an annual, online conference exploring Alternative Grading in Higher Education & K-12.

Some great resources to educate yourself about Alternative Grading:

• The Grading for Growth Blog
• The Grading Conference
• The Intentional Academia Blog

Recommended Books on Alternative Grading (Please note - any books linked here are likely Amazon Associates links. Purchasing through them helps support the show. Thanks for your support!):

• Grading for Growth, by Robert Talbert and David Clark
• Specifications Grading, by Linda Nilsen
• Undoing the Grade, by Jesse Stommel
• Grading for Equity, by Joe Feldman

The Grading Podcast publishes every week on Tuesday at 4 AM Pacific time, so be sure to subscribe and get notified of each new episode. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - @thegradingpod. To leave us a comment, please go to our website: www.thegradingpod.com and leave a comment on this episode's page.

If you would like to be considered to be a guest on this show, please reach out using the Contact Us form on our website, www.thegradingpod.com.

All content of this podcast and website are solely the opinions of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily represent the views of California State University Los Angeles or the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Music

Country Rock performed by Lite Saturation

Country Rock by Lite Saturation is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.