I do know people who do all their grading using MS Word’s reviewing features and return the papers as PDF, or who mark papers in various PDF programs. I’d really like to do paperless grading, especially since my handwriting is awful. But I just am not able to, for a number of reasons. Luckyjane commented here that:
At my previous job, I commented using the, um, “comment” feature on Word until I discovered I was writing more because I could type so much faster and revise my thoughts mid-sentence without erasing or crossing out. What started out as a time saver too often resulted in the absurdity of my comments being longer than the paper.
I also found that trying to do electronic grading changed the way I graded and read. For some reason, to absorb the whole of a paper, I really need to flip the pages on essays, jump between beginning and end. I have a much better sense of where I am in a essay when reading on paper.
I tried using Word’s reviewing features. I pretty quickly decided not to use the Track Changes feature at all, as it encouraged me to rewrite sentences far too much.
But I was still left unable to scribble on the paper. There’s no easy way to circle a typo that should be self-explanatory to the student. I normally flag places that need improvement, but doing this in Word required returning papers with a legend: pink highlight means this is a typo; orange highlight means this sentence is clunky and awkward; blue highlight means you are using this word too frequently. Of course, I have a legend for my paper grading anyhow, but it’s much easier to differentiate scribbles, and shape is more communicative than color. The little tick that I put under overused words matches the level of the criticism—it calls attention to a minor issue that could be improved, especially with a very faint line drawn to the other use of it.
And it’s not easy to apply different color highlights in Word. I had to set up a bunch of macros, and it took more time to apply than to write.
So I was left with Comment balloons to do marginal notes. Well, often the real issues with an essay cannot be captured in marginal notes. My main concern is that essays hang together structurally—a clear thesis, some foreshadowing of how one will prove that thesis in the introduction, paragraphs that focus on proving a single idea. Marginal notes are not the best place to discuss these systemic issues. Sure, they are handy for saying “what do you mean here?” but it’s just as easy to bracket a sentence and scribble “confusing,” and put my time into typing overall comments at the end of the paper.
Now, for small assignments, I can do paperless grading. If I’m reading line by line, Comments work pretty well. I sometimes have my students write 300-word abstracts of certain readings, and Comments work very well for that, where really, each sentence needed to stand alone. I had students turn in a bibliography for a proposed paper topic, and Comments worked great. I’m normally grading these things credit/no-credit, and since typos, etc, don’t become a grading factor, I don’t feel obliged to flag them.
So, no paperless grading. But I still collect electronic copies, which I will eventually post about.
17 September 2007 at 4:55 am
One of my departmental collegues uses GradeMark, and ran a little workshop showing us how to use it. By the end of the workshop, we were all converts, and making plans to use it the subsequent semester.
Then, the University downgraded our subscription to the software parent company. Bye-bye GradeMark.
17 September 2007 at 3:06 pm
I googled—looks pretty snazzy. Still doesn’t address my “Wah! I want to scribble!” objections, but offers things that would make up for it. Bummer to lose it.
1 June 2009 at 8:11 pm
I’m still torn about this, although I am considering taking major papers online next semester. It will be a slow and difficult transition – maybe I will hand them back a rubric filled out by hand as well as returning an electronic version? I have a serious repetitive stress issue in my writing arm, so switching to electronic grading would be helpful in a lot of ways, but I’m loath to go through all the bumps to design a whole new grading system…
1 June 2009 at 8:25 pm
Yeah, I’ve been asking them to submit both paper and e-copies for a while, and then I decide on what I feel like, depending on the assignment, whether I want to be able to grade outside in the sun, etc. So gradual experimentation seems to be getting me to a place where it works, though I need to check with the students who have experienced both methods and see what they think.
Incidentally, an update in method–I still hate Track Changes (though I might try it again), but I use bold to flag their important analytical claims. I use different types of underline—double, dotted, wavy—to flag various writing issues. I sometimes type in all caps into the document. I have a toolbar set up to make this easier. It’s been working okay this semester—I think I’ve done everything electronically, though I wind up printing them to return papers.