Timesaving Ideas for Grading and Feedback
Giving balanced, constructive feedback and fair, accurate grades is supremely important. But it can also be very time consuming whether you are responding to projects outside of class, within the context of an in-class critique, or online. Being organized and focused in how you grade and give feedback not only saves time but can also make you more confident and objective in your grading.
- Make the assignment clear at the outset. This prevents basic "not-following-directions" errors.
- Quickly divide projects into stacks or folders of "A work," "B work," "C work," etc. Then go back and respond to each piece individually. First impressions are usually quite accurate.
- Develop symbols for your most common written comments. (Ex: SH = shading P= proportion. Online instructors can use html formatting to signal certain types of feedback.)
- Cut and paste your most frequent comments if you write feedback on the computer.
- Use feedback sheets or grading rubrics.
- Have students grade their own work based on particular criteria. This will give you insight into their learning and may speed up grading for you. You need only to let them know whether or not you agree with their assessment and why.
- Use an auto-calculation tool such as Easy Grade Pro (available from your department), or Excel, to keep grades organized and track students’ progress.
- Summarize group achievement on some assignments instead of responding individually, especially on assignments emphasizing basic skills. Provide a summary of what the class did correctly and what students still need to work on.
- Make graphic corrections on a few pieces of work for each module or lesson. (Again, good for courses emphasizing basic skills.) Keep a tally of which students' work you have corrected so that you correct all students at least a few times.
Resources:
Faculty Developers are available to assist with rubric development and setting up Easy Grade Pro.
Contact us at facultydevelopment@academyart.edu.
To learn more about rubrics for assessment and grading click here.
To learn more about setting up a computerized gradebook click here.
To learn more about striking a good balance in providing feedback click here.
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