Perceptions and Outcomes of Implementing Ungrading in an Undergraduate Music Methods Course: A Mixed Methods Inquiry

Ungrading is an assessment process that eliminates or reduces the use of points or letter grades. Educators who use ungrading focus on providing detailed feedback to students guiding them to outline and achieve learning goals. Ungrading has been a topic of interest among general education researchers for decades. Recently, researchers have examined the use of ungrading within public school and higher education music settings and found it beneficial to student engagement and learning. The purpose of this sequential mixed methods study was to examine undergraduate perceptions of ungrading on coursework and learning outcomes. Participants self-reported a positive shift in their perceptions of ungrading, from presurvey to postsurvey (p = .01). During interviews, participants shared that ungrading enabled them to engage more with course content and provided clearer evidence of skill development; however, participants also noted struggles with resubmissions and time management. In this article, I include suggestions for implementing ungrading within music education coursework and recommendations for future research.