Sustainable Grading

1. Sustainable Grading Ralph Westfall, Ph.D. April 2010 http:/www.csupomona.edu/~rdwestfall/grading/sustaingrade.ppthttp:/www.csupomona.edu/~rdwestfall/grading/

2. What Is Sustainable Grading? • Sustainable in terms of: • Reducing or eliminating paper usage • Conserving the time and energy of the person doing the grading • Increasing consistency, which could reduce grade disputes

3. Grading Problems • Context: computer programming and web development classes • Issues • Too many students (60 - 90 in CIS120!) • Takes too long per student • Inconsistencies in evaluations • Hard to spot cheating • Paper is inefficient, especially when using a learning management system (Blackboard) • killing trees • searching content is difficult

4. Computer Assisted Grading • Things that I have tried in conjunction with learning management systems • Multiple Word files • Notepad files • Microsoft Excel spreadsheets • for sequencing grading as first-in/first out • for recording detail and calculating scores • Custom software I'm developing

5. Multiple Word Files • Students submit all assignments into Blackboard in zip files that include: • individual programming code files for testing • Word files that have pasted into them: • all relevant code • images (including user interfaces when running code) • outputs • Grade files in order submitted (sort dates in Excel) • turn on Track Changes • mark comments with ** to make easy to find and total • refer back to previously graded files for consistency (can copy comments)

6. Word Files Demonstration • Ken (ASP.NET coding assignment in a Visual Basic.NET class) • Most of comments placed around the image of the interface

7. Multiple Word: Pros and Cons • Pluses • Increased consistency • Easier to spot cheating • Can provide relatively detailed feed back and corrections • Can use Find to locate and help total deductions (all marked with **) • Minuses • Time consuming • High human memory demands

8. Notepad Files • Paste frequently used comments into Notepad • Including ** marker and scoring • Paste them back into Word documents or Blackboard feedback

9. Notepad Demonstration • CIS 120 Web Development for Non-Technical Students • These are grading comments on term project at end of class

10. Notepad File Pros and Cons • Pros • simple • consistent on common issues • Cons • Awkward • Somewhat labor intensive • Not comprehensive/not scalable • No sorting capability

11. Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet • Rubrics in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet • 1st column: points off • 2nd column: summary of grading issues • After that, one column per student (in submission order determined with Excel ) • Totals for each column • Split or Freeze Panes feature allows keeping first two columns visible while scrolling horizontally through users

12. Excel Demonstration • Dummy class • I haven’t done this for a long time, and couldn’t find any examples, but they’re on my computer somewhere

13. Microsoft Excel Pros and Cons • Pluses • High consistency • Very easy to spot cheating • Minuses • Feed back and corrections often must be compressed due to limitations of width of computer screen • Copying comments from spreadsheet into users Word file is labor intensive • Unwieldy to deal with more than one screen of grading items, which is not enough in many situations • Sorting grading comments makes them easier to use, but takes extra effort

14. More Automation with Excel? • Use Visual Basic for Applications to make the spreadsheet easier to use • Could reduce labor but would still be limited in terms of comment detail • Would require extra coding to make as fail-safe as a database application • Less analytical possibilities than a database application

15. Stand-Alone Application • Visual Basic plus a database • Less coding than an Excel application would require • Use existing database capabilities rather than adding them to Excel's capabilities • Add, change, delete • More extensible • Easier to maintain • Labor-saving functionalities • Automate copying of comments rather than having to manually select and copy • Built in sorting in combobox that holds all the comments

16. Demonstration of System • Download and extract files from GradeSQL.zip into a folder on your Desktop (or wherever) • Double-click GradeSQL.exe file in Debug folder • Or add a “shortcut” to file to start menu • Use Set Up tab to load items from database • Click item you want to use and in right combobox and then paste it (Ctrl V) into file you are grading • Type new comment in left textbox and click Add to add it to combobox and database

17. Future Plans • Implement desirable enhancements identified through use • Registered with Source Forge as an open source project, but hasn’t attracted a team • A student from India expressed interest in working with me, but didn’t follow through on this project • Publicize it • MERLOT • Forums and mailing lists • Follow up publication in an academic outlet

18. Conclusions • Not where I want it to be yet • Still awkward to use • Might be better to type short comments manually and just use it for long comments (how-to instructions for students who aren’t “getting it”) • Interface design is critical - need ability to • Show all comments at same time to make selection easier and also show all scoring to help make manually typed short comments more consistent, without taking up a lot of room on the screen?

19. Survey/Brainstorming • Would you ever use something like this? • Why/not? • What would have to be done to this to make it something you might consider using (ideally, without any technical constraints?) • Other possible, non-critical improvements?