2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Developing an Alternative Grading Scheme for Engineering Classes

Presented at Assessment, Grading, and Feedback Innovation

Traditional grading has long been proven to have several negative effects, including increasing student anxiety and providing no actionable feedback. Ideally, a grading scheme will encourage intrinsic motivation for students, increase the value of time spent grading, and be clearly linked to the desired course and student learning outcomes. However, navigating the landscape of alternative grading can be confusing, especially for faculty who haven’t had time to experiment. This paper seeks to explain the most used alternative grading schemes, explore instructor feedback from several implemented schemes, and provide a process for selecting and developing a grading scheme for engineering classes.

Authors

Dr. Robert L Brown II http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6851-9373 Abilene Christian University [biography]

Dr. Brown is an associate professor and Director of Mechanical Engineering at Abilene Christian University in the Department of Engineering and Physics. He received B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University. His primary focus of research is alternative grading schemes, with secondary interests in computational fluid dynamics and finite element modeling.
John Ehrke Abilene Christian University
Tim Kennedy Abilene Christian University
Dr. Kervin Scott Marshall II Abilene Christian University [biography]

Scott Marshall is a Assistant Professor of Engineering and Physics at Abilene Christian University with a research interest Design Methodologies

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