My apologies now on two accounts; first for this just being a personal view and second stating the obvious. One of the difference I think is I am lucky to be using two screens not one.This does makes a big difference to the experience of marking. I find myself putting the student's work on one screen and on the other assignment briefs and anything else I need. It gives a much more enjoyable experience to the marking and I do believe a more productive one.
Anecdotally the few students that have commented on the on-line marking through Grademark have been very positive.
So in terms of on-line marking ---Two screens are better than one! In terms of Green Computing...well that may be another question.
Yes I think two screens would be helpful but we also need to share knowledge about how to use the software more effectively.
ReplyDeletePersonal experiences are:
. each time you start, you have to log in to Nile, go to the module pages, select 'submit my work and then go through at least three different windows to get to where left off and want continue; you also get logged out if you go off to teach or answer some emails.
. you have to sit a a computer for long periods
. internet connections can fail
. the software can freeze, hang or stop working completely
. Newton offices are not easily accessible at the weekends and security want you to leave the building between 7.30 - 8pm
. there is no spell checker within the marking systems (accessibility)
. comment boxes come up all the time if you touch the screen with the cursor and then you have to move the page slide bars to find the cancel button.... in fact this is one of the most annoying aspects of this interface. Every time you write in a comment box you have to use the page scroll bars to move the page to save or view the text in the box - which seems to take up a considerable amount of time. It would be better if you could move the page with the cursor or a hand tool or something similar - which I automatically try to do and then end up with another comment box which I have to move the page bars to delete.
. using Desktop and notebook at the same time seemed to help a bit, as I was self moderating on an excel mark sheet .... but I can not do this at home.
. when I realised how long it was taking to mark the first three questions I put in less feedback in the other two to get them completed as fast as I could with the time I had available. This was quite stressful as the grades and feed back were way overdue.
. Yes you can make standard comments which is useful - but invariably you end up making personalised comments for the students as they are all individuals and need different advice and feedback.
As you can tell I have been using the system very recently - it took weeks to fit in the time to complete marking a test of five questions for 34 students probably representing twice the time marking paper copies.
I have over 70 essays and other assignments coming in this week - I shall be marking the paper versions.
I agree entirely we need to learn from each other about what is good practice. Including how to you show evidence of first and second marking--- making it clear immediately which is which?
ReplyDelete