Culture shift
Swinburne ’ s advanced manufacturing and design centre . Photo : Kylie Else
Swinburne design school pilots new ungraded course .
By Eleanor Campbell
One of Australia ’ s top design schools has become the latest to adopt an unusual marking system that has taken global academia by storm .
This year , Swinburne University ’ s Bachelor of Design made the bold decision to remove grades from core sections of its first year curriculum .
Students are now judged on the creative merit of their work , and progress is guided by quantitative feedback from teachers .
Faculty head Associate Professor Nicki Wragg said the switch to ‘ ungrading ’ has encouraged students to take creative risks and value tailored feedback .
“ Students didn ’ t seem to be really immersing themselves in that sort of deep , rich experimentation and visual play that we all got involved in design for ,” Wragg told Campus Review .
“ There was also a student voice where we could hear that they weren ’ t satisfied with grading ; sometimes they felt like they were getting attacked when they got their grades .
“ The focus now is to really teach students how to be a designer and the things which are important in the design world .”
Developed by US author and academic Dr Jesse Stommel , the ‘ ungrading ’ movement has gained significant traction over the past two years .
Social science and humanities faculties in universities across Canada , the US and Australia have opted for a pass / fail or credit / no credit option over a typical number or lettered grade .
When Wragg and her faculty reached out to Stommel , they co-developed a series of workshops and focus groups to test the idea on staff and students .
“ We got a lot of feedback where a lot of students said , ‘ This would be great ,’ but there was a range of different types of comments ,” she said .
“ We just had to go through all the things which were barriers , and there were so many barriers , so we just worked through everything one by one to allay people ’ s fears .”
One of the major concerns that arose was how students would adjust to an entirely new system .
Wragg said the decision was then made to pilot ungrading on first year students , to
They weren ’ t satisfied with grading ; sometimes they felt like they were getting attacked .
encourage a mind-set shift after the markheavy HSC .
For the past two months , eight out of 23 units in the graduate design degree have changed to a pass / fail model , and students who fail are allowed to resubmit their work .
The new system is expected to run for the next four years , and staff and student experiences will be closely monitored through surveys and focus groups .
“ Students seem to be ready to experiment a whole lot more , and that ’ s very , very positive ,” Wragg said .
“ I think there ’ s always going to be room for grades , but ultimately for us in design , industry isn ’ t looking for a grade when students come out .
“ They ’ re looking at what their skills , their capacities and their personal qualities or attributes are to see whether they ’ ll fit within a working environment .” ■
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