Measures of Dispersion and Variability: Range, QD, AD and SD
Ā
Engaging Students in the Marking Process with GradeMark
1. +
Using GradeMark to
improve feedback and
engage students in the
marking process
Dr Sara Marsham
School of Marine Science & Technology
sara.marsham@ncl.ac.uk
Dr Alison Graham
School of Biology
alison.graham@ncl.ac.uk
Symposium on
Scholarship of
Teaching and
Learning
10th - 12th
November
2016
@sara_marine
@alisonigraham
3. + Aims of Projectļ§ Initial aims: To engage students in the
entire marking process from the
setting of marking criteria through the
receipt and feed-forward application of
feedback
ļ§ To write/design effective marking criteria
that are specific to pieces of work
ļ§ To engage students in the process of
using marking criteria in preparation for
an assignment
ļ§ To provide feedback on coursework that
links directly to marking criteria
ļ§ Use GradeMark to develop libraries of
feedback comments that can function
much like dialogue with students
Implicit questions in our
original proposal:
1. Can we involve students in
writing marking criteria?
2. What do students already
know about marking
criteria?
3. Can typed (even repeated!)
comments work like a
dialogue? Will students
recognise this?
4. + Bioremediation (Biology Level
6)/Reflective log (Marine Science
Level 5)/Microbiology (Biology Level
4)
Aim 1: Write new marking criteria
Understand
studentsā prior
knowledge/create
new assignment
Write new
marking criteria
(based on student
knowledge)
Engage
students
with criteria
5. +
Microbiology - Lab report focus group
If students do not know what a āscientific paperā is, and have never read a peer-
reviewed article, then how can the marking criteria be used to make expectations
clear?
6. + Aim Two: Engaging students with
marking criteria
7. + Aim Two: Engaging students with
marking criteria
Objective #1 - to help students
understand the wording in the
marking criteria
Objective #2 - to encourage
students to start differentiating
between the descriptions of
different grade boundaries and
spotting what will help them to
achieve high marks
Objective #3 - to engage students
in the practice of peer marking
(marking existing student work
against the set of criteria)
8. +
Microbiology - Lab report tutorial session
If students do not know what a āscientific paperā is, and have never read a
peer-reviewed article, then how can the marking criteria be used to make
expectations clear?
I have read a research paper published
in a peer-reviewed journal.
1. Yes
2. Iāve read some but
found them difficult
to understand
3. No
4. Iām not sure what you
mean by a peer-
reviewed journal
Write your report āin the format of a
scientific paperā ā do you know what
this means?
1. Yes
2. No
3. To some
extent
9. + Microbiology - Marking criteria session
1. 0-39%
2. 40-49%
3. 50-59%
4. 60-69%
5. 70-100%
Into what grade boundary would
results example 1 fall?
Which title scored the highest?
1. Example 1
2. Example 2
3. Example 3
13. + Aims Three and Four: Use GradeMark to provide
feedback linked to marking criteria
GradeMark is:
ā¢ Part of Turnitin software, accessed at Newcastle University through VLE
(Blackboard)
ā¢ A platform through which students submit coursework online as Word document
or PDF (or in other file formats)
ā¢ A platform through which markers can provide three types of feedback:
o In-text comments: Bubble comments, Text comments, QuickMark
comments
o Rubric
o General comments: Voice comments and Text comments
14. +
GradeMark
ļ® Go to Assessment inbox
ļ® See submissions, similarity score and
marks (once graded) for the whole
class
ļ® Check if student has viewed their
feedback
19. + Mark against a rubric
Add
assignment-
specific,
module-
specific,
School or
Faculty-wide
marking
criteria
Mark each piece
of work according
to the rubric; use
qualitatively or
quantitatively
21. +
Creating own library
ļ® Each comment linked to one of the criterion with letter
and number
For each component, comment on:
ļ® How student meets criterion
ļ® What student could have done to achieve next grade
boundary
R 4
R 5
26. +
What did the students think?
75% found it useful to have the marking criteria in advance
100% thought it was useful to see how they performed against the
marking criteria
53-100% preferred electronic feedback to feedback on a pro-forma or
mark sheet
80-100% thought electronic marking encourages more positive feedback
50-100% found the comments to be specific to the piece of work
79-100% would like to have received more electronic feedback in other
modules
28. +
GradeMark analysis
ļ® Number of students that receive different types of grammatical comments
- identify common errors e.g. punctuation
ļ® Number of students that fall into each mark range for each criterion
29. +
GradeMark analysis
Grade range
% viewed feedback
3.5 weeks later 6.5 months
later
70-100% 84 84
60-69% 46 64
50-59% 49 51
40-49% 48 52
0-39% 14 14
ā¢ Percentage of students that viewed feedback from microbiology
report (2013-14 academic year; n = 184):
ā¢ After 3.5 weeks
ā¢ After 6.5 months
30. +
Final reflections
Benefits - studentsā perspective
ā¢ Feedback is easier to read and is automatically saved online
ā¢ Students can access feedback in private and on their own time
ā¢ More positive feedback
ā¢ Increased perceptions of fairness and transparency with rubric
ā¢ More detailed
Benefits - markersā perspective
ā¢ No printing/scanning for retention
ā¢ Linked to originality check
ā¢ More detailed comments with less work
ā¢ Library bank of comments helps to avoid repetition
ā¢ Easy record of submission and return of feedback
31. +
Final reflections & questions for you
Continued development of marking criteria and integration of criteria into
additional modules
Further thought on what information/activities help students engage with the
assessment process
Managing the challenges of staff and student engagement
Are there āgood practiceā guidelines for writing marking criteria?
Can students be engaged to write the marking criteria themselves? If so,
what strategies can be used to engage students with criteria?
What is the balance between in-class time and independent engagement?
32. +
Thank you for listening
Any questions?
Our thanks to all
of our students
who took part and
shared their
opinions
Thanks to
Newcastle
University
Innovation Fund
for funding the
original work &
ongoing support
Dr Sara Marsham
School of Marine Science & Technology
sara.marsham@ncl.ac.uk
Dr Alison Graham
School of Biology
alison.graham@ncl.ac.uk
Symposium on
Scholarship of
Teaching and
Learning
10th - 12th
November
2016
@sara_marine
@alisonigraham
http://www.slideshare.net/SaraMarsham/presentations
Editor's Notes
Intro to Innovation fund, etc.
Introductory slide ā talking about the process of writing the criteria and what went into that.
Maybe worth mentioning why we didnāt involve students in the writing process (because they just werenāt familiar enough?)
Talk about focus group
Engagement with students in sessions
The info here is from the Type 2 (134 students) session.
50-59 and example 1.
Engagement sessions with students
Rationale example #1 = 72 (so the students were much harsher critics initially)
Rationale example #2 = 52 (students started to get adjusted)
Similar pattern in the same module the following year. Also find methodology easier to mark accurately compared to rationale.
Engagement sessions with students - Structured differently ā had three examples of reflective essays (a 1st, a 2:1 and a 2:2). We first discussed the criteria. Students then worked in groups, using the criteria, to rank each of the examples. We then discussed the three exemplars, against the criteria, as a group.
Were not very good at ranking, but when we gave them specific examples of S/T, A and R, they could correctly assign them to the grade boundary.
This slide is from the follow-up session that we did with the students. My comments on it at the time: This one surprised me, actually, since I thought that the students would have gotten something out the of the exercise of marking (maybe itās a lesson to me on how to structure that part of the session betterā¦). They did mention, unsurprisingly, that it would have been more useful to see reflective essays that were actually about scientific placements, but they understand why that didnāt work this year. Iām glad that they appreciated actually talking through the criteria, although I think thatās the most challenging part: itās difficult to parse exactly what some of the differences are between the grade boundaries.
Overview of GradeMark
Overview of GradeMark
Numbers were at least as high as this in Biology.
Can see how they do in each component and analyse these data for next yearās class.
Moderation more obvious
Data on feedback viewed
Also increases consistency across markers