Get Your Students Hired
As an on-line instructor I know it is very important to give my students the experience commensurate with face to face instruction. Although I assign APA formatted papers and essay exams, the effort is well worth it.
My students have often reported that they feel they have gleaned as much from my on-line classes as a live face to face class. I believe an on-line instructor has to provide more effort in order to achieve the same objectives since that face to face interaction is lost.
we use scantrons for all exams, but I will let them grade each others homework in class.
Our tests and homework are actually designed well. The tests are a combination of multiple choice, fill-in, true/false, and sometimes short answer. Homework is out of the school issued workbooks and consists of a combination of fill-in and short-answer.
Sounds like a great plan Rickey. True false and multiple choice questions significanlty speed grading. If we balance them with a few essay style questions, we can effectively tap what students have learned while gaining back more time to spend with them.
In the future I will use more true false and multiple choice. Several of my exams are short answer but never seem to be short. I like the idea of highlighting the key points of the essay which makes it easier to evaluate.
I use a mix of short answer, true/false and multiple choice questions on my tests. I do take advantage of test banks that accompany the course text. this helps a lot in saving me time in correcting the tests but also in getting the test scores back to students in a timely manner which they very much appreciate.
Using true and false questions makes grading a bit easier. If we had functioning scan tron machines that would be a big help as well.
We already have all of our tests, quizzes, and homework completed and graded on the computer. This process does save a lot of time.
When i first started here none of the homework was doen on the computer. After a quarter of grading all of the assignments by hand i spent a while getting them all put into our computer testing system. Now every quarter that i teach this class it is done for me already.
I use a conbination of true false and multiple choice in my exams already. But I loved the idea of highlighting the key points in essay questions. I don't give very many essay questions due to the fact that like Chef Chavez mentioned students don't make their point clear. I love the idea of having them highlight the key points and I will incorporate that in my next classes exams.
I have to agree with Chef Bressler, the students do better understanding the material by doing a skills test however doing a key point comprehension test will help use to see if they are fully understanding how they are achieving the practical skill
In our cariculum the exam process is from the test bank and to redo, or alter them is not cinducive to our program
I think positioning the answers in a column down the page is a great idea. It will certainly be faster to grade that way. I disagree with making all multiple guess and T/F exams even though they are easier to grade. I do like the underlining of the answers in a short answer exam.
Grading is to me one of the least informative measures for guaging a students comphrehension of the material being taught. Often times it means they know how to take a test well, not that they understand the material. For my classes I prefer a practical skills based test that reenforces the material shown and really ascertains true knowledge and retention of the techniques.
Unfortunately I do not set the assignments or knowledge checks. I can't make changes to either or to the grading rubric. I can make suggestions.
Grading voc. in my class takes forever. I must create a way to streamline the grading process for this. Maybe I could create a matching formate or test is a game format.
My experiences utilizing a conversion grading scale works great for students. A conversion grading scale is like a “To Do List.†Instructor review students answers toward viewing and hitting all the points for the exam in my case was a Microsoft office college course. My outcome toward using a conversion grading scale was very positive for students. I have also given students a brief review of the material because exams were cumulative on chapters.
Often times the easy way to grade exams for instructors is multiple choice (guess). However we have seen that this is not the best way to test student's comprehension of the material. the problem is that as stated by others here, the essay answers can be quite lengthy to read and those students that do not have good vocabulary skills can go on in their answers without a clear direction. i really like the idea of having them highlight key points. I think this will allow me to still test their comprehension while at the same time allowing me to ascess it in a bit simpler and less time consuming way.