I also teach a few classes where essay questions are necessary to evaluate students. I never thought of having the students underline key points to help me with grading. I will definitely be using this next time I teach these courses.
Many of my Quizes are in a True & False format. Some of them are all True answers for ease in grading.
Using objective tests has really made all of the grading easier. At one time, we had essay answers and this would take a long time and was actually harder to grade because you have to read it and formulate an opinion on whether or not you thought it included all of the necessary components of a proper answer.
I like the idea of online gradebook. Tried it before but ran into a snag trying to set it up. Grading papers is tedious and time consuming. Using a scantron can also relieve that pressure and give you more time for class time.
I will utilize the concept of having students grade each others work for in-class lab exercises. This will provide an opportunity to review the material presented.
I would try to breakdown my course in small quizes easy to grade and good testing tools.
We currently grade our exams with the scantron system. It works very efficiently and is also very fast.
I already give multiple choice, matching, and true/false tests. It helps me with time, but it also helps them prepare for their certification exams, which are multiple choice. Homework is shown to me and I usually go over any questions the students have about the homework. This has worked for me quite well.
The most inportant is to have the students underline the important parts of the essay questions for time limited grading pratices.
I like the idea of offering homework or quizes online. This could save time on grading and would allow the student to take the quiz/ assignment at their leisure (as long as it would fall within deadlines).
Elizabeth, Online exam administration is really handy. It's environmentally friendly too. Go ahead and give it a try. Saves a lot of time in exam preparation, cuts time for printing to zero and often automates the grading process.
Dr. Melissa Read
Sifting through the labwork and essay questions Looking for keywords makes grading quick and easy
I like the idea of students pointing out key points, either by underlining them on a written essay, or by different font on a computer exercise. In some courses I teach it is difficult to streamline some of the testing material due to the need for specific understanding of the topic. However, in a number of classes these techniques as well as student created assignments and answers can certainly reduce grading time.
our school jus recently started a online quiz outlet for the students to study for exams on and it has become a great tool
I don't have a lot of control over the way the exams and homework assignments/essays are formatted and structured in the online classroom, as these things are already set up for me in the classroom shell. However, if I did have control, I think I would do a mix of objective answer & essay, and I liked the idea of having students underline key ideas for ease of grading.
Yes, I also think that this is a great idea, as it saves time in trying to do a search for any suspect material, as I have had to do in the past. It saves time to have students submit to something like "turnitin.com" prior t grading.
Keelan, Wonderful to hear. It's great when our administrations invest in tools that help us streamline our work activities. We all become more productive in using them.
Dr. Melissa Read
This module was very useful to me. I will modify the way I ask students to complete essay exams and fill in the blanks. Even the multiple choice format with answers displayed to the side seems like it offers a quicker grading option.
Making it simplier by setting a time aside for grading, use more computer tests that grade as well is a great idea too.
The most streamlined exam grading method I've used in my current position came from another instructor. The students are given a test packet with exams given in multiple choice and true/false format only. Students are also given an answer sheet. All answers are input on the answer sheet, leaving the test packet to be reused each time the exam is given. The answer sheets correspond to a physical template that can be laid over the completed students' answer sheets since the correct answers and cut out of the template and the instructor can fill in the correct answers through the cut outs in red or another contrasting color ink. When the template is lifted the instructor immediately sees the number of incorrect answers and the grading is virtually done.
I will be teaching some new courses in the next couple of months and plan to design the exams and template-formatted answer sheets to save myself a lot of time in grading exams!
