Saving Paper: Going Electronic with Grades and Evaluations
The Academy of Art University is going to save over 25,000 sheets of paper, untold numbers of labels, envelopes, and people hours over the next couple of weeks as the progress grading and 4th week student evaluations go electronic. Additionally, your grades, and your students’ evaluations will be compiled and made available to the appropriate parties much faster than in previous semesters. But success of these new systems depends on your cooperation!
Progress grades:
- If you are unsure about how to submit your progress grades, click here to view the tutorial, call the online help desk (Toll-Free Phone: 1.888.431.2787), or ask your administrative assistant for help.
- If you are not sure what your grades should be based on, or how to calculate progress grades, your director or Faculty Development can help.
Fourth week evaluations from students:
Be sure to follow up on the results of your evaluations with your director. The AAU chooses to have evaluations early on so that you can act right away on feedback, if necessary. They are early indicators that allow you to make some adjustments early on in the semester.
The key to getting a high return on evaluations from students lies in getting them to log on to the course websites. Logging on is obviously not an issue for online students, but onsite students might need some incentives (all of which will also save paper!):
- Instead of printing and distributing an assignment sheet, post it to your website in the “downloads” section and direct students there to get it.
- Have students submit the assignment from the website to you by email so that you know that they got the electronic version themselves (and not a printout from a friend).
- If your students are particularly resistant to electronic communications (yes, there are a few of them), print out a screen shot of your course website to bring to class. A visual showing them exactly where to point and click will help those who have never logged on to be confident that they have arrived at the right place.
- Give an assignment with a missing piece of information that students have to find on your course website. For example, tell students that next week’s quiz will be much easier if they log on to the website in the next couple of days, then post the quiz questions (not the answers) for the following week on the website.
- Once you have received the results of your evaluations from your director, you might let the students know that you have received their feedback. Let them know if you are making minor adjustments to your teaching as a result. Only do this if it feels appropriate, and you are able to maintain your professional tone. Knowing that they are heard will encourage students to fill out evaluations honestly and constructively in future semesters.
Resources:
Click here for the tutorial for submitting grades.
Click here for the teaching tip on rubrics and grading.
Click here for an article on keeping evaluations in perspective: "The Torment of Teaching Evaluations", from the Chronicle of Higher Education.
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