Making the Grade on Marking and Feedback
How to mark and give feedback without overloading ourselves or our students.
Nicola Simmons Senior Instructional Developer, Consulting University of Waterloo
Marking
What do you think are the main concerns about marking expressed by faculty? What do you think are the main concerns about marking expressed by students?
Faculty-defined problems
Work volume (no time for comments) Subjective feedback on creative work – how to assign a mark Giving feedback on grammar without turning the paper red Student missed the point on the assignment
Student-defined problems
Not enough feedback to improve No explanation given of grade assigned Almost no comments made on high-level grades – want to know what to keep doing well No marking scheme given in advance of actual marking
Did you hear about the professor who was involved in a terrible car wreck?
He was grading papers on a curve!
Making the Grade…
Setting clear criteria Combining speed and accuracy
What are our Best practices?
Setting a Marking Scheme
Define the purpose of the assignment.
Measure learning objective
What do I want this (perfect) assignment to look like?
Marking scheme
When should the student get the scheme?
Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Adapted from Joy of Cooking
Preheat oven to 375°F. Cream: ½ cup butter. Add gradually and beat until creamy: ½ cup white sugar ½ cup brown sugar Beat in: 1 egg ½ tsp vanilla Sift and stir in: 1 cup and 2 tbsp sifted all-purpose flour ½ tsp salt ½ tsp soda Stir in: ½ cup nuts (optional) ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips Drop onto cookie sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes.
Marking Schemes
What makes a good one?
What particulars should be on the sheet? (how detailed should they be?) What are some pros and cons of rubrics?
Faculty Advice
Write only as much as students will read Preview the set as a whole before marking. Don’t flag every error – show only the first few, and make a comment re: proof-reading. Use a computer for comments. Save good examples to use (with permission) for future years. Refer students to specialist services e.g., writing tutors.
Combining Speed and Accuracy
What helps?
Use of Computers in Marking
Feedback that is typed provides: Ease of revision A record of your comments More information, less repetition. e.g., A brief explanation can be written for a common error, and it can be copied onto comment sheets rather than re-written each time. Opportunity to track student improvement and refer to it.
Multiple Assessments
Frequent assessments provide multiple opportunities for success, and multiple opportunities to learn from mistakes – for both the student and the professor.
Do you agree?
Student Input
Self/Peer Assessment
Have you tried it? How did it work?
How much input should students have into the marking scheme?
How much input should TAs have?!?
A story…
Regarding evaluation, consider this question on a physics exam at the University of Copenhagen: “Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper using a barometer.”