I am going to being using the scantron machine when possible as well as making homework streamline in the way it is offered.
I agree Kevin. When we test our students in consistent ways, they can better concentrate on what we're testing them on and not the test format. This often leads to higher exam scores.
Sounds like an excellent system Randall! Thanks for sharing. It is wonderful to automate grading - even just a portion of it. What a great time saver. Really opens up the possibility to spend more time with our students.
When I start a new class I give to the students the weekly class's schedule. Every day before entering the class I welcome them and check each student assignment, for a 20 students class it takes less 10'
For me and the courses that I teach I do not administer test. I have students work at preparing research papers. Based on what I have learned I will utilize more technology in grading my papers. IE: Word's editing and reviewing function more.
This will be a huge time saver for me and allow me to provide more feedback to students.
Sounds like a great plan Benjamin. Yes, for courses that demand long papers from students, electronic grading can work quite well. If you ask your students to submit their work on paper and digitally, you can evaluate it with a few digital tools and then by hand too.
I now use scantrons but have some fill-in and short answer questions. I am going to remove those and add multiple-choice questions instead. It is too time consuming to read answers when you have a machine to do so for you. I like that I can get the answers back to students right away while questions are fresh in their minds!
Sounds like a great plan Betty! Multiple choice is great when we need to grade quickly. It does have the added benefit of getting students quick feedback too.
True/false and multiple choice exams are very efficient when grading. Scantrons allow me to provide test results to students within minutes. I know essays are time consuming, but I do enjoy reading their work because it clearly shows if they understand the material.
Yes, as instructors, we have a range of grading methods available to us. It's wonderful to be able to use some methods to save time grading and others to deeply test student knowledge. Keep up the great work Robert!
Exam and homework grading have always been a challenge for myself as a fine arts professor. As you can see it would be quite a challenge to grade genuine creativity. I tend to have a lot of homework based on whether the student attempted and finished or didn't attempt at all. Example: Homework Assignment - Sketch 10 hands in different positions. It's quite easy to give a 10/10 knowing that they went home and actually practiced the technique. On the other hand(no pun intended) I find myself struggling to come up with different ways to grade this kind of work... Any Ideas?
Our class grading is set in stone, already written true/false and multiple choice questions. They are extremely easy and fast to grade. The labs are significantly more time intensive to grade. Unfortunately, the labs are specific natef lab sheets that require a lot of short answer and essay questions. Only thing I can think of to use from this lecture, would be to have the students underline the most important part.
Scantron is nice, I also use an online testing from the publisher. I pick the questions the students log in and take the exam. Then they know thier score immediatly after finishing and I hve nothing to grade.
I would be concerned in streamlining the grading process too much.
I have been teaching for over 17 years and I find the best types of assessments include area for the student to express their understanding, as opposed to choosing from a bank of answers.
I am all about effiency and getting the job done quickly- that is a major premise of culinary arts- speed.
But with speed must come accuracy- and I get concerned when we are quick to choose the fastest way, or path of least resistance.
Assessments are not only tools to see how well the class is responding to the teaching style and delivery/ pick up of information, but also as an indicator for potential problems the student may be experiencing.
our class test are set curriculum, and easy to grad and format into the grade book.
However our lab procedures and reports are much more liberal to our set-up.
therefore I believe after taking this training I can see some set-up and follow thru of the lab tasks can be more organized, and help not only the learning for the students, but also an easier task for the organization and testing format for the instructor.
Richard, Interesting. It sounds like someone has already taken the time to optimize a portion of your tasks. It's to hear about your curriculum and grading efficiency. To your point, there is always room for improvement. If you could adapt your lab procedures to a more efficient system, it will likely serve you well in the long term!
Dr. Melissa Read
