Several publications included discussions of how the specifications grading system evolved over time, specifically focusing on changes that were made to streamline the course and reduce the instructor time commitment. Changes that saved faculty time included a reduction in the number of LOs assessed and/or the number of assignments necessary to earn a letter grade , consolidation of course content coverage , limiting the number of retakes per assignment , and/or imposing deadlines on the time available to students to revise or retake an assignment . This suggests that while the adoption of specifications grading may require a significant time investment initially, the time savings becomes more apparent during implementation, especially if appropriate revisions are made to the system over multiple iterations of the course. While not necessarily implemented, other instructors suggest that changing assignments to be auto-graded , developing methods to auto-generate test questions , and building on the work of others such as through a faculty learning community , could also save time in future implementations of their specifications grading course.