A considerable part of my philosophy as a theatre/film director and a teacher is to mentally put myself in the position of the actor or student so I can better understand how to lead and support them. Through this lens, my ungrading perspectives as a professor are undoubtedly a product of my own ungrading journey as a student. I began learning in heavily graded environments, pivoted to a completely ungraded secondary school, and dove into my love of the arts. Now I teach film production to community college students. Like I ask my students to do in their reflection assignments, I will do my own reflexive work here: charting the path that led me to this point, analyzing my current viewpoints, and considering future ungrading possibilities.

Finding Self-Confidence as a Student in the Artistic Classroom

My grading journey began at a small Pre-K to eighth grade parochial school. A bookish, quiet, yet curious student, the positive feedback loop of receiving high marks and honor roll certificates applied pressure to meet the expectation of receiving a 100% on every assignment. However, I did not get grades in art. I would draw, cut, paste, collage, and imagine without borders. I transferred schools in eighth grade by way of an educational program that academically prepares and assists students of color of lower socioeconomic status for enrollment in independent schools. Again, my sense of confidence and success as a student was inextricable from standardized test scores and grades, the ultimate symbols of achievement. In their own educational upbringings, my current students have experienced similar pressure to measure their own academic value based on the grade they received, even though grades may not paint the full picture of a student’s performance. These modes of evaluation that we employ at the collegiate level are unidimensional—how might we as instructors work to deconstruct (or reconstruct) our own mindsets around grading?

My graded mindset was revolutionized as I began the second act of my (un)grading journey: attending a secular, non-traditional, prep school throughout high school. Ungrading was policy—students did not ever receive letter or percentage grades. Instead, teachers wrote narrative-style reports each semester. Arts classes were mandatory, as ingrained in the curriculum as math and history, which expanded my idea of what school could even be. I was then motivated not by the necessity of evading numerical failure, but by my desire to learn new material and deepen understanding of my interests. I dove headfirst into history and literature electives, debate, dance, painting, music, and more. Despite being an ardent humanities student, I even elected to take physics without the fear of failure. I then attended an Ivy League institution for my Bachelor’s degree, where students received letter grades or elected to be graded in a particular course on a satisfactory/no credit (pass/fail) basis. Continuing the pattern of trying new things without the pressure of grades, I took most of my creative risks in ungraded environments like student-run production spaces, directing my first plays and a short film.

Then came my Master of Fine Arts degree (MFA) in Film and Media Art. This was my first formal filmmaking education, where I solidified my self-confidence as a learner and creator. It was there that I internalized that showing up, on time and fully present, thoroughly completing assignments and participating, all to the best of my ability, was truly enough. I was empowered by my ungraded high school experiences to take creative risks and venture outside my comfort zone, forgoing focus on graded outcomes to choose interesting and exciting artistic paths instead. In addition to grades, I received verbal and written feedback on my process and product, paired with careful guided reflection. I had invaluable practice speaking about the intentions behind my creative and technical choices, a skill polished through ungraded methods of evaluation such as in-class peer critique discussions and the culminating milestone of my MFA thesis defense.

Through these outlets, I developed a practice of synthesizing my own commentary with the critique of classmates and instructors. My ability to see my strengths, while working on areas in need of improvement, was crucial to my success in the program. I emphasize this to my students today by sharing anecdotes of my own growth throughout a semester, when they face some of the same challenges I had as a student. My self-confidence and desire to grow motivated me through the rigorous MFA program, with grades being a byproduct rather than the sole driving force. My hope is that I can build a classroom where students can experiment with a similar ethos.

Building Student Self-Confidence as an Instructor in the Media Production Classroom

In the current stage of my grading journey, I occupy the other side of the lectern as a professor. At Community College of Rhode Island—the only public comprehensive associate degree-granting institution in the state—students arrive to my classroom on a variety of different academic trajectories. Some students enroll in courses in order to earn an Associate’s degree (often completed in two years), to transfer to a Bachelor’s degree-granting institution, to enter the workforce, to pick up a new set of skills, or to earn a Certificate (a credential signifying that a student completed coursework for a particular program track within the major, such as communication, film, or journalism). In Fall 2023, 92% of students enrolled were seeking the credentials of either a degree or certificate.[1] Most students work in addition to their studies, sometimes holding more than one job. In contrast to my own broad goal-setting during college, I have found that many of my students come to the course with high motivation and a sharp sense of why it is they are choosing this industry and field of study. For example, some students are pivoting careers or come to increase their skill level as they already freelance, create, and edit videos for social media.

The first unit of the introductory “Film and Media Production” course presents key technical aspects of the filmmaking process, such as shot composition, understanding cameras and lenses, sound recording, lighting, and editing. The second unit is project-based and requires students to execute their own short films, from script to screen. While the college requires grades, I have explored how an ungrading mindset can build self-confidence via assigning ungraded surveys and graded (for completion) reflection papers. I issue these surveys during the first week of class, after the midterm, and at the end of the semester. As described in Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, “Course-Related Self-Confidence Surveys...are best used before the skills in question are introduced, and again after students are likely to have significant progress toward mastering them.”[2] They are qualitative in nature but require students to evaluate their current performance and indicate tangible areas for growth, as shown in the example below from my course:

Post-Midterm Exit Ticket

• How do you think you did today on the exam, on a scale of 1-10?
• How did you prepare for the exam? What might you do in the future to prepare better?
• How do you feel you are doing in the class in general?
• What can you do to perform your best going forward in the course?

These surveys are useful from an instructor’s perspective, as they provide data on how students are interacting with the material and assessments. For students, the surveys also offer straightforward checkpoints, encourage self-reflection and candidness, and support them in assessing their progress in ways other than relying on their midterm grade.

Additionally, I assign reflection papers throughout the semester. These task students with discussing their individual process and performance in reference to their creative and technical project assignments. Students have the chance to respond to their own work, process, and progress, in earnest, and to receive academic credit for doing so. Instead of being preoccupied with producing a “perfect” response, students can know that, similar to contributing to in-class discussion and receiving participation credit, their response will be graded on the basis of its completion. If the student answers each question with a full paragraph, barring lateness, the assignment would receive a perfect score. This aspect of the course is drawn from the pass/fail approach of specifications grading.

According to education scholars James H. McMillan and Jessica Hearn, student self-assessment can “promote intrinsic motivation, internally controlled effort, a mastery goal orientation [and it] empowers students to guide their own learning and internalize the criteria for success.”[3] Students share the good, the bad, and the in-between in their reflections: declaring aspects of their productions to improve upon in future projects, and listing particular steps, details, and examples. Students report higher levels of confidence in skills that I have witnessed them struggle with in the classroom just weeks earlier, and this confidence often manifests as progress in their final film projects. One student took the advice they gave themselves and applied it the next semester during my Intermediate Editing course, even referencing their continuing progress in another reflection paper. The student was fueled by intrinsic motivation to be a better artist and technician, rather than solely focusing on a grade.

I continue to meditate on the ramifications of the grading system and how it affects student self-confidence. I recall a student asking what they needed to do to get a good grade on a particular assignment, while sharing the fear that the quality of their work was lacking. I was sure to remind the student that I saw their effort and that the work they had submitted was in fact meeting expectations. However, I wish that evaluation systems for student success were such that a student might be more compelled to ask how they could better understand a concept or execute a skill, rather than be concerned with a grade. Would the student have perceived the quality of their work to be lacking without the pressure of receiving a lower score? To what extent can assignments like reflection papers help students frame their coursework in a way that can positively affect their self-confidence levels? Are there more moments to practice ungrading to further alleviate the stress of anticipating a final grade? I will continue to parse through my own experiences and those of my students on the road to building an empowered and confidence-building media production classroom.

Brianna J. Cox is a writer-director, actor, and filmmaker, with experience in film and theatre. She received her Master of Fine Arts from Emerson College, her Bachelor of Arts from Brown University, and currently works as an Assistant Professor of Communication and Media at Community College of Rhode Island.

1. Community College of Rhode Island, “Fall Enrollment Data Table,” Community College of Rhode Island, October 2023, accessed October 18, 2024, https://www.ccri.edu/ie/pdfs/CCRI%20Fall%20Enrollment%20Data%20Table-October%202023.pdf. ↑

2. Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, 2nd ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993): 275. ↑

3. James H. McMillan and Jessica Hearn, “Student Self-Assessment: The Key to Stronger Student Motivation and Higher Achievement,” Educational Horizons 87, no. 1 (2008): 40–49. ↑