Grading in Online Environments
February is grading month at Digital Dialogues and in the Online Teaching Seminar Series. We have a great kick off session with Ann and Becky on Feb 3rd, and then Elizabeth Klinefeld from the Writing Center will be joining us on the 10th and the 17th to talk about Grading and Equity and Contract Grading!
As you know, grading can feel particularly constant in an online class, with weekly participation grading on top of regular assignments, projects, and papers that you’d grade in a face-to-face class. Here are a few ways you can streamline your grading process, and benefit from online resources that might help you provide effective feedback for students.
Set a Time Each Week to Participate in Class Activities
One of the things I love most about teaching online is having greater flexibility in my schedule to connect with students, and work on my grading at a time that is convenient for me and for my family. However, that also means that it is easy for me to put off my grading, especially the weekly participation and discussion boards.
I try to make an appointment with myself for each of my classes, just as I would if I had a regularly scheduled class session where we met in person. This holds me accountable for spending a full 3 hours engaging in participation, sending announcements, and responding to FlipGrid or discussion posts, just as I would in a typical class session. These appointments help me to stay present in each of my classes each week, and remind me that a lot of grading in online classes is really about engaging thoughtfully with students and making connections with the students and with the content. Staying on top of the weekly participation ensures that students get prompt feedback for their weekly work, and helps to avoid a grading pile-up before a larger assignment.
Use Canvas Features Effectively
One of the things we’ve heard from teachers and students alike is that feedback and grades are so much easier to access in Canvas. Students say that they like that feedback feels more like a conversation when they can reply to instructor comments, and faculty like using the SpeedGrader to connect with students. Here are a few tips to get the most out of the Canvas tools:
- In the SpeedGrader, you can type comments, but you can also record them for students. This allows you to respond to students in a way that meets their learning needs. Try asking students if they’d prefer written or video comments, and provide feedback in that way.
- In Canvas, students can reply directly to your feedback on their work, but sometimes we miss those notifications. To find all of these comments in one place, navigate to the Inbox for your Canvas account, and in the drop down at the top, instead of inbox, choose Submission Comments.
- If you use rubrics, try grading with the SpeedGrader on a tablet- this allows you to quickly touch the rubric level appropriate for each student in each grading category, which saves you some time
Make Personal Connections
Even though grading can be a big task, in an online class, it’s a great way to connect personally with your students. Thinking of your feedback as an individual conversation with each student can help you to develop relationships as you encourage students to do their best. One way some faculty in our department have used feedback to make connections with students is to arrange for 1:1 meetings with each student. What if you met with each student in your course after they submitted a rough draft of a paper or project? Instead of writing out feedback the student may never read, you can use that meeting time to highlight their strengths, and suggest areas for development as they move towards a final draft.
Grading may be a tedious part of teaching online, but as you make an appointment to spend time engaging in each class, use Canvas resources to improve efficiency, and focus on developing personal connections as you provide student feedback, it can become an important way to help online students succeed! |
