Peer Review of Formal Report Draft – Feasibility Analysis of Transitioning Biology Lab Courses to an Ungraded Approach at UBC

To: Kashish Garg, ENGL 301 Student

From: Alexander Clements, ENGL 301 Student

Date: March 19, 2022

Subject: Peer Review – Feasibility Analysis of Transitioning Biology Lab Courses to an Ungraded Approach at UBC

 

Thank you for submitting your Formal Report providing a feasibility analysis for adopting an ungraded approach in biology lab at UBC. This report was extremely well written, informative, and provided compelling arguments in favour of the aforementioned ungraded approach. The report inspired confidence that this approach could be adopted successfully in Biology lab courses.  Please find my comments in the sections below.

First Impressions

• Overall this report was very well written and informative.
• This report presents a persuasive argument for changing Biology labs to the ungraded approach.

Organization

• All required sections are present in the report.
• The report is well organized with a well defined structure.
• Capitalization needs to be addressed in the heading for the section “Applicability of the Ungraded Approach for all Biology Lab Courses at UBC”

Introduction

Background on the Prevalence of Grades in Education

• Could restructure opening sentence. “In the traditional grading approach, percentage or letter grades are distributed throughout a course. This approach has become an important part of the education system.”

Overview of Issues with the Traditional Grading Approach

• This section provides an informative introduction to the problem.
• Some clarification is required around the statement “Grades can cause avoidance of challenging work.” In what respect are students able to avoid challenging work? Some clarification here could be helpful for the reader.
• It would be helpful to specify that grades can increase anxiety and competitiveness amongst students.

Purpose of the Report

• This section is clear and concise.
• Improving the quality of education in the Biology program at UBC is a compelling reason for the reader to continue reading through to the Recommendations section. This is well done.

Background on the Ungraded Approach

• This section of the report provides a clear set of information on the ungraded learning approach.
• The “(if need be)” part of the second sentence does not need to be in parentheses. This could be phrased as “…justifying a final grade, if required.”

Research Methods

• This section is clear and provides a good overview comprehensive set of research methods for the report.
• Could split the second sentence of this section into two sentences: “The interview collected instructor opinions on the ungraded approach. The full list of questions can be found in Appendix A.” This same comment applies to the second last sentence in the section.

Limitations of the Study

• The report is critical and open about its own limitations. This is very well done.

Scope of Inquiry

• The scope of the inquiry is clear and concise.

Conclusions of the Inquiry

• This section provides a clear summary of the report conclusions.

 

Data Section A

Transitioning a Course from a Graded Approach to an Ungraded Approach

• As the first subsection in the Data section of this report, it would be beneficial to re-introduce the interview that was conducted with Dr. Leander.
• The quotation in this section is quite long (six sentences). It may be worthwhile to find a way to shorten this, perhaps by paraphrasing.

Amount of Work for Instructors: Graded Approach versus Ungraded Approach

• This section is well written and provides a good summary comparing the amount of work required by professors in running a course under the graded approach and the ungraded approach.

Applicability of the Ungraded Approach for all Biology Lab Courses at UBC

• The capitalization of the heading in this section should be updated.
• Good interpretation of the data in this section.

Overall Experience and Preference

• This section provides a good summary of Dr. Leander’s experience and preference for running ungraded courses.

 

Data Section B

Impact on Learning

• It may be worth re-introducing the conducted survey in this section.
• For the comments on the findings in this section, it would be best to be careful around the phrasing used for the impact on student learning. Since there is no quantitative comparison between student performance in the ungraded and graded approaches, it may be good to say that students perceive the ungraded approach to have a positive impact on their learning. Similarly, students do not perceive a downside to the ungraded approach.

Amount of Feedback

• This section is well written. The comment on the findings is realistic about the amount of feedback that students experience in the ungraded approach.

Applicability to Other Biology Lab Courses

• This section does an effective job at conveying student perceptions surrounding the applicability of the ungraded approach with additional biology lab courses.

Overall Experience

• This section is concise and does an effective job at communicating student experiences with the ungraded approach used in BIOL 342.

Preferences

• This section provides a good overview of student preferences surrounding the ungraded approach to BIOL 342 and other BIOL courses at UBC.
• Could rephrase the second last sentence of this section: “These results suggest that most students favour the ungraded approach in BIOL 342, and would prefer if it were incorporated in other Biology lab courses.”

 

Data Section C

Research for the Ungraded Approach

• “The research literature” sounds awkward in the opening sentence of this section. This could be replaced with “Existing research.”
• It is not entirely clear how students are avoiding challenging and creative work under the graded approach. Additional information or detail here would help to clarify this in the reader’s mind.
• It seems that the point about more descriptive feedback in the ungraded approach could be expanded upon. Students may prefer more descriptive feedback, but one would also assume that it provides students with more of an opportunity to improve as well. Is there any comment that can be made about this?

Research Against the Ungraded Approach

• Is there any research that does a direct comparison of students that participated in an ungraded course vs. a graded course covering the same material? It may be effective to support the argument for the ungraded approach if there is no significant difference between how well students have retained the material.

Conclusion

Summary and Interpretation of Findings

• This section provides a well written summary of the findings of the investigation.
• The phrasing in the second sentence is slightly awkward. This could be improved by removing the “Not only that, but” portion. This sentence should also be transitioned to the present tense. For example, “The ungraded approach provides an enjoyable experience preferable to traditional grading, and allows for students to engage in meaningful self-reflection.”
• In the first sentence of the second last paragraph, the word “decreased” is awkward. This could be replaced with the word “addressed.”

Recommendations

• The recommendations provided in the report are realistic and address the limitations of the investigation.
• The concluding sentence is effective at briefly summarizing the findings of the investigation and providing a call to action.

Grammar / Typos

• The word “ungrading” is mentioned in several places throughout the report. Is this meant to be “ungraded”?

Concluding Comments

This report was very well written, and was very pleasant to read through. Although this report is already very compelling, by addressing several key points, it can become even better. These key points include the following:

• Clarifying several awkward sentences through rephrasing or re-writing.
• Expanding on the point addressing additional feedback received by students under the ungraded approach.
• Elaborating on points mentioning how students avoid challenging work under the graded approach.
• Proof reading to catch any additional grammatical mistakes or typos not caught in this review.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me if you have any questions about this review. It was fantastic to read through this report. It provides a persuasive argument in favour of additional Biology courses adopting the ungraded approach. The report is sure to result in positive action taken to achieve these ends.