Assessment and Grading
Introduction
Large-enrollment classes can pose a variety of challenges for instructors including quality assessment strategies and timely, effective feedback.
On this page, you will find solutions to address these questions:
- How can I add additional graders to an assignment?
- How can I provide feedback to my students more regularly?
- How can I grade my large-enrollment classes more efficiently?
How can I add additional graders to an assignment?
In a large-enrollment course, you may want multiple graders to review and comment upon a student's assignment, then suggest a grade for that assignment. You may then wish to review the graders’ feedback and adjust the suggested grade prior to posting grades to students. Moderated grading is a function within Canvas that will allow you to accomplish all of these tasks.
Moderated Grading
Learn how to use moderated grading to allow others (i.e. TA's) to review and grade students' work:
- How do I add a moderated assignment to be graded by multiple reviewers? Links to an external site. (External resource)
If you are a Moderator and need to view reviewer’s suggested grades and comments in SpeedGrader, see the following article:
- How do I review moderated assignments in SpeedGrader as a moderator? Links to an external site. (External resource)
Learn how to post final grades for a moderated assignment:
- How do I publish final grades for a moderated assignment? Links to an external site. (External resource)
How can I provide feedback to my students more regularly?
Providing opportunities for students to receive feedback (especially formative feedback) on their work can be particularly challenging when you have a large number of students to manage in a class. Some strategies to help you manage the load in order to provide feedback to students more regularly are below.
Peer Review
One strategy for ensuring that students have more regular access to feedback is to distribute the load across your class by using peer review, especially for lower-stakes assignments or early drafts.
Review this page in the Canvas Learning Path to learn more about setting up peer reviews in Canvas:
- Create Peer Reviews (Canvas Learning Path)
Formative Assessment Using Top Hat
You can use Top Hat to communicate and collaborate with students, create assignments on the fly, and check for knowledge. You can can engage students in and outside of the classroom with interactive slides, graded questions, customized content, videos, discussions, and polls.
Visit the Penn State Top Hat site to log in and review resources for using Top Hat in your class:
- Top Hat at PSU Links to an external site. (PSU resource)
Review this knowledge base article to learn how to activate your Top Hat account and set up courses:
Review the instructions for using Top Hat in your Canvas course:
- Educator: Advanced Canvas Integration Links to an external site. (External resource)
Formative Assessment Using Clickers
NOTE: iClicker is no longer supported by Penn State IT. Instructors may still use iClicker at their own discretion, but IT technical support will not be provided.
Review this tutorial to learn how to import your clicker grades into the Canvas Gradebook:
- Canvas: Importing Scantron Scores (or Any CSV File) into the Gradebook Links to an external site. (PSU resource)
Find a number of additional strategies and examples for assessing students in large-enrollment courses in the following documents provided by Penn State's Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence:
- Large Class FAQ: Assignments Links to an external site. (PSU resource)
- Examples of Classroom Assessment Techniques for Larger Classes Links to an external site. (PSU resource)
How can I grade my large-enrollment classes more efficiently?
Aside from providing feedback, simply keeping up with grading in a large-enrollment class can be difficult, but there are several options available in Canvas that can make the grading process faster and more efficient.
Rubrics
Using a rubric to grade an assignment makes grading more efficient and streamlined, especially for complex assignments. You can also help make grading more consistent by asking your TA's to grade with a rubric.
- Create Rubrics (Canvas Learning Path)
Media Comments
When you provide your students with comments or other feedback to supplement their grade on an assignment, writing out that feedback can be time consuming. Media comments allow you to provide feedback in the form of a short audio or video clip instead, which can save time and be more engaging for students.
- How do I leave feedback comments for student submissions in SpeedGrader? Links to an external site. (External resource)
Group Assessments
Create group quizzes or group assignments which allow you to grade multiple students' work at one time.
- Group Quizzes information from Schreyer Institute Links to an external site. (PSU resource)
- Create & Grade Group Assignments (Canvas Learning Path)
Grade group assessments through SpeedGrader using the student group filter. This option can be enabled through your Course Settings page.
- How do I enable SpeedGrader to launch filtered by student group? Links to an external site. (External resource)
More information about differentiating assignments for groups of students can be found later in this module.
NOTE: For more information about grading and providing feedback, visit the Grading & Feedback section of the Canvas Learning Path.