Alternative grading in Saudi Arabia: A conversation with Susan Blum

In August 2024, I was privileged to spend a week at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The occasion was a two-week symposium on “Breaking Boundaries in Higher Education” as part of their annual recording week activities. I was invited to give a keynote presentation on alternative grading followed by two faculty workshops, as well as to consult with KFUPM faculty and leadership.

Despite this being an incredible opportunity, I was hesitant at first to say “yes”. It was a long trip just before my own semester started, and at the time the geopolitical tensions in that part of the world were very high¹. But when I heard that Susan Blum, author/editor of the now-classic book Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead), was also invited and would be presenting and giving workshops, my mind was immediately made up.

For four days, Susan and I got to work with faculty in a truly unique environment: A thriving STEM-focused university in a country that is making massive investments in its future, particularly in education, and is modernizing at a dizzying pace. The Saudi government realizes that while it owes its considerable financial riches to the petroleum industry, eventually this resource will run out, and it needs to position itself for the future. The Vision 2030 national transformation plan is essentially designed to give the country a 50-year headstart on reinventing itself, with a significant focus on innovation and modernization.

Banners at the entrance to the symposium facilities.

That focus necessarily comes into contact with its higher education system, which has been receiving major government investment and is not shy about exploring innovative ideas in curriculum or pedagogy. Hence the interest in having Susan and me come to KFUPM to speak.²

I had the chance to catch up with Susan, six months later³, and chat with her about our experience in Saudi Arabia, and the result is this special video post. In it, Susan and I discuss:

• The role of curiosity and questions in higher education, particularly in a non-western culture where such things are not necessarily the default in higher ed;

• The responses from Saudi faculty to the ideas of specifications grading and ungrading;

• How Saudi Arabian universities might lead the way in implementing alternative grading;

• Why so many American-hosted workshops on educational innovation don’t result in lasting change;

• Susan’s new book Schoolishness — which you can order here;

• and more!

I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

A view from our building on the KFUPM campus.

Two editorial notes about this post:

1. There is an automatically generated transcript that you can access from the video controls, but I have also put a version of the transcript edited for clarity and brevity in this Google Doc.

2. This is the first video post we’ve done here since 2021, and only the second one ever. If you like this kind of post, let David and me know in the comments and we’ll perhaps do more of these in the future.

1. As was the temperature.

2. Eric Mazur of Harvard University also participated in the symposium, but remotely.

3. Susan originally did this interview with me back in December, but when I sat down to edit the video and transcript 34 days later after the holidays, to my horror I found that both had gone missing from Zoom — then I remembered that Zoom auto-deletes cloud recordings after 30 days. So Susan graciously agreed to do a second take.