Electronic marking of students assignments Carlton Wood

1. Electronic marking of students assignmentsCarlton Wood 5th July 2013

2. Background • Associate Dean (Student Support, Regions and Nations • Responsibilities for tutors (ALs) • AL myself on level 1 modules Outline to presentation • Outline the system we use • Explain the advantages it offers • Changes in pedagogic practice

3. Overview of eTMA system/process • Student • writes an eTMA on a word processor • uploads the eTMA to the University via the internet using a web browser or by email. • University system • confirms the arrival of the eTMA and gives a receipt number • checks the eTMA for viruses • places the eTMA in collection box for AL to collect • sends alerts to the AL stating which eTMAs are available for collection.

4. Overview (cont) • AL • collects eTMAs from the University website • marks and annotates the eTMAs • completes PT3 form • zips the eTMAs and uploads them to the OU using a web browser • University system • checks the eTMA for viruses • confirms arrival • adds score to student's assessment record • makes the eTMA available for the student to collect • sends student an email stating that their eTMA is available to collect.

5. Overview (cont) • Student • receives email from eTMA system stating that their marked eTMA is available (or they can log in at any time to check this) • downloads eTMA and PT3 form from the internet and is able to unzip and read the tutor's marks and comments.

6. Advantages • Students need ICT skills - this is a criterion for 'graduateness', and important for employability and professional recognition. • We need to keep a competitive edge in an increasingly online world • Students generally find it easy to use the system to upload their word processed documents. • Students appreciate the advantages of 24-hour submission of TMAs, and they get an immediate receipt. • Students increasingly expect to be able to submit assignments electronically as they move from module to module

7. Advantages (cont) • Allows more integrated feedback and feed-forward across a module, • Responding to student queries about a marked TMA is much easier, • The system allows you to see which students have downloaded the marked eTMA. Knowing this enables you to follow it up with the student if this is appropriate. • If students submit after the cut off date they receive an alert which says that the tutor is not obliged to mark the assignment unless it has been agreed. • Late submissions have reduced on modules using eTMAs – so this may be helping students with their time management.

8. Advantages to ALs • No more collecting understamped/registered post TMAs from the post office. • No more concerns about TMAs being lost. • Scripts and comments are always legible. • Undisputable submission times, which are recorded on the system. • Easy to check word counts. • Automatic totalling of scores.

9. Changes to pedagogic practice • You can have more than one eTMA open at any time, useful if you want to compare students' assignments. • You can write the corrections to common errors within a Word document and copy, paste and customise for individual students.

10. Changes to pedagogic practice (cont) • ALs took some time to find the right approach • track changes • comment boxes • using differently coloured fonts within text • Difficulties around mathematically rich notations or complicated diagrams – addressed using tablets PCs, bamboo tablets but comes at increased costs

11. Any questions Carlton Wood c.k.wood@open.ac.uk