That's an interesting benefit Rick. When students grade their own assignments, questions on missed answers do come out. And addressing them as a class is a learning experience - which is a benefit to the student.
We grade our assignments as a class so we kill to birds with one stone we grade them and cover any questions the students may have about what they missed.
Great points Tim! Sometimes, systems that expedite the grading process also serve our students better. So it’s a win win.
All of our written test are easily graded. The labs were more subjective. I prefaced the lab exercises with a written document that detailed what and how many points would be deducted for each exercise. This reduced the stress on the student and held them accountable for their lab score. It also reduced the stress for the instructor by letting him focus on specific areas of the lab sheet by reducing subjective grading. This process lead to less time in grading the exercise and a more fair process for the students.
The system we currently have in place is very simple and effective.It works great
This is a really difficult question Dale. When assessing plagiarism in essay style reports, search engines like Google have become the ideal tool. You can assess the situation quickly and easily by simply typing in a few lines from the report that is suspected of plagiarism. When it comes to assessing design work, these methods are less helpful. I am not sure of the fastest approach to addressing plagiarism here, other than confronting your students directly and letting the honors system work for you when it can.
I teach all aspects of Drafting and Design. The use of multiple guess exams works for portions of the course material. The rest is based on actual technical drawings. Setting up well defined rubrics helps with grading the drawings. However, the one thing that eats my time up is plagerism among the students. I realize this is a topic for other discussions, but once it is suspected, It has to be examined much closer. The time it takes to try and find even minute differences, if there are any, is pain staking.
Any suggestions on how to streamline this process?
Indeed. Setting limits as well as student expectations is often key when it comes to streamlining grading.
I believe it woild be helpful to have a time limit on the testing procedures
My students are given enough info to complete the project then it is discussed in greater detail when they are finished.The highest grade they can get in regular lab is a 70% and on the last day of class we do an assessment on 2 random projects.This keeps focus and allows students to work as partners but since they dont know exactly what they will be assessed on they both make sure to know every aspect of the projects.
I have been a university lecturer for almost 20 years where multiple questions were not the norm. In law, you have to have reasons & arguments. At the Career College, initially, I struggled with the idea of just having multiple/ true & false type of tests. Then, the biggest problem was how to collate the results in a timely fashion as the grading of essay form scripts continued right up to the deadline for submission of results. So, I turrned to excel right in the beginning of each semester, type my class roster names, and start putting in the grades for each week quizzes. The most helpful aid in this respect were the CDs/Tests generated through test banks and, also, the students writing answers in the margin-blanks I provided the students with. It is well tested time-saver; try it out.
I would like to stick to what I have been doing. In fact, I'm happy to report that it is exactly on the lines suggested in the Module 2.
In some courses, I follow the multiple choice & T/F, and other courses, for example, in Business Ethics, I stick to short essays, spliting the questions into 2-3 short parts so that the students can specifically give me the answer I'm looking for & I can also grade efficiently & effectively.
Multiple choice make it cut and dry, Followed by a hands on task gives you the time to grade as they are working, Now it does take some time to log the information in and that is where scantron would be the best for the written part.
I am unable to do the online grade book and testing at this time. My wife is taking college courses and utilizes those methods. In the future I hope to be able to streamline the process.
That is frustrating Eugene. When this happens, I remind students that I did not give them the grades, I’m just the reporter. Grades are something that students earn, a natural outcome of knowing or not knowing the exam material.
After grading tests, the frustrating thing for me is when a student does not like there grade on a question.
I’m glad to see your fourth bullet Glenn. When things get too stressful and when we feel like time is running out, it’s easy to forget why we became instructors in the first place. For many of us, we began working with students because was something we really enjoyed. It was fun. And doing fun things can reduce stress I our lives and really help us enjoy the time we have. So remembering to have fun in what you do is a great part of your strategy and I’m glad to see it here.
1. Look for key bullit points when setting up and grading essay exams.
2. Use a Scantron machine when possible.
3. Incorporate the grading of students homework into a beneficial review process by having them grade each other's work.
4.Have fun
Good points Ron. You are spot on about Murphy's Law. I also have need of "back-up" plans when things go wrong. Usually I ask the students to do some related research on another topic to discuss it in class, thus prevent down time.
I've learned a lot about what I'm doing wrong or at least what I should do to streamline my exam process. I just started at a Career College teaching subjects directed at a BS degree. In the past I've taught at Graduate Schools in traditional universities where more is required. I will be giving exams in a couple of weeks and will alter my approach of giving essay exams requiring critical thinking skills to one of True/False and Multiple Choice questions that challenge the students ability to recall specific items in the topics discussed in class. I'll probably allow open books.
