Grading presentation formats can be tough, especially because of the subjectivity that's involved. Creating and using a rubric and help.
I teach Interior Design, so assignments are difficult to grade because they are in presentation format... I have been teaching for four years and have used multiple choice when applicable and definately steer clear of the essay and time consuming tests.
Privacy issues are always a concern. There are ways to conceal the identity of the student during grading that come in handy when asking other students to grade. Assigning each student a number to use on exams (instead of their names) for example allows a helpful amount of anonymity.
I use multiple choice and the scrantrons. In one class I do add a short answer element and it is easy to skim and grade. However, I was under the impression that it was a violation of students' rights to have another student grade their paper. And in connection to this, students cannot hand out graded papers for the teacher? Is this your understanding?
It is not within my authority to change these elements of my course. I see now that they are very efficiently designed. All of my exams are multiple choice. I would like to see some essay or problem solving added to the exams in the future.
I see no need to reformat. We use multiple choice tests, with a few true/false questions and we have an answer key that we lay over the test which is a very speedy process.
A phased approach to assignment delivery can definitely help grading feel less daunting Jason!
In the class I teach there is a large project with 6 individual elements that is due @ the end of the term. They each take a very long time to grade, I think that going forward I will have students turn in the project elements individually ovet the last two weeks of the course.
Yes, highlighting key points in short answer / essay tests works great. Do give that a try.
I've used multiple choice tests with Scantron sheets in the past but I like the idea for highlighting key points in short answer/essay tests. I will try that in the future. Another tool I've used in the past is to have the class grade the exams annonymously which also gives a chance to review the exam as well. This works well for large classes because the test can be graded instantly.
I don't believe I'll format them any differently as they're all project based and pre-determined, but I can take these ideas and apply them towards the critiques I give. If I see people making similar mistakes I can go over how to fix those in detail on one student's project and then mention them in another student's without spending too much time. Basically just try to take redundancy out of critique time.
I like the idea of students underlining the important parts of their essay answers, both for the efficiency it provides the grading process and more importantly for the assistance it gives the students' thought process and organization.
I would personally try to make them able to be done on a scantron unit if possible.
These are all great ideas Ricardo. I'm particularly curious to learn about your impression of Quixstar. It sounds like one of the best methods for automating grading.
I realize that I have not been utilizing my time correctly and see that there are a few places that I can rerally save time.One of the first changes I am going to make is to assign a specific time each day to check my e-mail and messages and answer as much as I can within a certain time frame. This I can see already will save me plenty of time.
The homework I see that essay style homework is time consuming to grade, so will not issue any essay homework. I like the idea of asking the students to highlight or underline important facts or their answers, this helps a lot when grading it.I am also going to try out the online "Quixstar" to do online pre-tests. The students can complete the pre-tests which I will design to make sure they cover all the necessary material they need, for the final exams.
I also see that the multiple choice exams are the most efficient ways of testing, and much easier to grade.
My quizzes and tests are fill in the blank and short answer. This works very well for me. When I took over the class, the existing tests had essay questions, which I eliminated. I now give points for participation and discussion.
Our written exams are multiple choice, true/false, and short answer and are very easy to grade. It takes me about a minute per 50 question exam to grade.
I really love the idea of focusing essay exams on five questions. That does sound like a great way to cut out the noise and really test knowledge.
The exams which I use for the class have been streamlined over the years of testing and correcting exams. It was apparent early in class development to make the grading of exams quick and easy. I have to agree thru experience, what is stated is true. You don't want to spend alot of time grading papers. One word answers on exams speed the process thru.
When it comes to homework, the only requirement for my class would be 2 research papers due during the course. I have found the development of 5 questions for the students to answer helps them grately in writing the paper. Cuts out alot of talk, not relevent to the report and speeds the correcting process. It really speeds up the grading process. Almost the same as having the students underline specifics of their report.
As it was mentioned in the course, I was one of those instructors that used fill in the blanks and short answer quizzes and tests. Over time I learned that if you take the time to write good multiple choice evaluations, a LOT of time can be saved.
