Faculty and Student Views on Specifications Grading Following a College-Wide Faculty Development Program

Concerns with various aspects of traditional grading have led many instructors to consider alternative approaches to grading. Specifications (“specs”) grading is one such approach that seeks to emphasize transparency and mastery by providing clear specifications to meet learning objectives and offering students chances to revise work that does not meet the specifications at first. However, shifting to a new system of assessment and feedback may be daunting for faculty on their own. This paper describes a multi-part faculty development program in which faculty were offered instruction and institutional support to implement specifications grading in one or more classes. After the initial workshop and discussions, faculty representing eight different disciplines (ranging from Art to Computer Science) reported using specifications grading in their courses in the Fall semester. Faculty were surveyed at the beginning and end of the program, and students were surveyed at the end of the course. This paper reports faculty’s reasons for, concerns prior to, and perceptions after implementing specs grading, as well as students’ perceptions of learning and stress associated with being in a class that used specs grading.