Moving from paper to online marking using Grademark, Dr Mark Featherstone

In this project Dr Mark Featherstone moved from paper based assignment marking and feedback to electronic marking and feedback using Grademark.  This was initially tried on a small piece of written work.  It worked well so Mark decided to use Grademark on a larger piece of written work (circa 2500 words for 25 students).  Outlined below are Marks findings, to summarise he found that using Grademark changed the way he marked and allowed him to provide richer more detailed feedback to students.  

Comments from the students included 

“The electronic feedback was very helpful and made my research proposal have a better direction and conclusion”

“Electronic feedback was fantastic, best and most helpful way I’ve had work marked so far at uni”

“Electronic feedback was positive and encouraging. Provided new links to further improve quality of word project”

Responses to Questions

Further details of his experience can be found here 

Using a tablet PC and Grademark for online marking, Dr Jan Hoole

Dr Jan Hoole describes her experience of using a tablet PC to mark using Grademark.  She finds that the tablet PC didn’t suit her style of marking but was impressed by the features Grademark offered.  This was project was carried out with a group of MSc students in Life Sciences.  The recording is three parts, part 1,part 2 and part 3

Providing Feedback to English Language students using Screencapture and Grademark, Dr Jody Harlowe

In this project Dr Jody Harlowe used Jing (a free screen capture program) in conjunction with Grademark.  This project looked to provide richer feedback to English Language students.  Students submitted their work to turnitin where it was marked using the Grademark features, a specific quick mark set was developed based on previous paper rubrics.  The marker would then use Jing to record audio whilst capturing the Grademarked paper on screen this allowed the marker to convey in more detail specific language errors and provide more directed feedback to the students.  Further details can be found here

Using a tablet PC and Grademark for online marking, Dr Sarah Taylor

In this recording (audio file) Dr Sarah Taylor describes her experience of using a tablet PC to mark using Grademark. Whilst the tablet PC didn’t suit her style of marking but was impressed by the features Grademark offered. She also discusses the main advantages and disadvantages of Grademark. This was project was carried out with a group of MSc students in Life Sciences. 

Using a tablet PC and Grademark for marking online, Professor Nicky Edelstyn

In this recording Professor Nicky Edelstyn discusses her experiences of using Grademark and a tablet pc to provide feedback to third year students on their draft dissertations. She finds that she is able to provide more directed feedback to students and that the students found the feedback using Grademark easy to access and use.

Using a larger screen for marking using Grademark, Dr Carole Watkins

In this project Dr Carole Watkins outlines how using a larger screen (24inch widescreen) aided her use of marking online using the Grademark facility and reports on how she finds using Grademark. A fuller description of her perspective can be found here

Using a larger screen for marking using grademark, Dr Barbara Introwicz

In this recording (audio file) Dr Barbara Introwicz outlines how using a larger screen (24inch widescreen) aided her use of marking online using the Grademark facility. She explains how the new Grademark interface compares to the old interface and what particular developments to the system would be of benefit. Dr Barbara Introwicz typically marks around 50, 5000 word assignments (per module) online. Barbara has asked that the fantastic support of their e-learning fellow Mr Tim Smale be acknowledged and would like to thank him for his support in using Turnitin and Grademark.

Grademark: does it make the grade? Verity Aiken

I used Grademark to mark essay work submitted by Foundation Year students enrolled on a Criminology Study Skills module. I wanted to mark work in an ‘electronic’ format as part of a growing professional interest in learning and teaching technologies and as part of a research action project contributing to a ‘Learning and Teaching with Technology’ postgraduate certificate. Grademark was an obvious choice because it was already integrated in the Keele Learning Environment (KLE) making it readily accessible. It also meant that support for using this technology was easily available from within the University.

I used Grademark for 13 students who were all asked to submit two essays each. The online submission was convenient and meant that I could mark the essays from home or at work without the worry of transporting papers around with me. Grademark itself was easy to use and it did not take long to feel at ease working with it. You can use their pre-prepared comment bank or develop your own. I decided to create my own as I wanted the feedback to be personal and to be able to draw out the things that I thought were important. I developed my own comments as I marked student essays. After the first few, marking became speedier as I was often able to drag and drop comments relating to generic issues. As a result, I spent more time writing detailed entries on specific points relating to the argument because I was spending less time on generic issues relating to structure and style. Grademark also has other functions. You can import your own assessment criteria and you can supply the student with general comments in either text or audio form. From my own experience, I can only pinpoint one disadvantage when using this technology to mark student work. Grademark is an overlay and this feels slightly different to actually writing on text. You can score over words and highlight sections and link a comment bubble to it, but it stops short of interacting fully with the text. I am used to boxing up bits of text and using arrows to signify issues to do with structure or position and I missed being able to get amongst the text to do this.

Students reported very positive experiences of using Grademark. They saw it as a convenient way of submitting their work that involved less stress and panic. They also believed that it made them more likely to engage with feedback, giving the rationale that online feedback was inescapable. In contrast, they viewed ‘collecting’ work from on-campus as something that was easily avoidable. Overwhelmingly, students liked the clear, legible and detailed comments that Grademark provided. They noted that printed text was easy to read and without ambiguity. They also liked that the fact that the comment bubbles using ‘hover text’ technology were not limited in length or detail by the size of the margins on the paper.

Overall, my experience of using Grademark was very positive. The students who received their feedback from Grademark also liked it and reported several benefits. The only noticeable drawback I experienced was how Grademark functions as an ‘overlay’ and how this sometimes feels like a barrier from being able to fully interact with the text. That said, I would use Grademark again and much prefer the freedom that this ‘paperless’ technology brings. So for me, at least, Grademark does make the grade.




Verity Aiken

Grademark resource

What is Grademark?

Grademark is a digital mark-up tool which allows you to mark assignments through an online document viewer. This means that students can submit assignments and receive feedback through the KLE. Access to this tool is through the creation of a Turnitin assignment dropbox.

What does Grademark offer?

The mark up tools offered through Grademark can broadly be separated into two areas, marking features that annotate the assignment and marking features that can be used to provide feedback alongside these annotations. A numeric mark can also be entered alongside these features. The features within these areas are explained below,

Main features
Annotating the assignment 

• A range of pre-set floating comments (Quickmarks) can be dragged and dropped on to the assignment.   These pre-set comments are customisable and you can create your own. Quickmarks can also be exported and shared between markers.
• You can type comments directly on to the assignment.
• You can highlight text in different colours, linking a comment to the highlighted text. This is useful for multiple markers
• You can strikethrough text, and add comments to this action

Features for feedback alongside annotations

• You can provide short audio feedback, the students can listen to this whilst reading feedback on their assignment
• There is a specific general comments area to add additional comments and you can also copy and paste text into this area
• Both quantitative and qualitative rubrics can be developed, which can be exported and shared with other tutors.

In addition to the features above Grademark has a reporting function built into it. This reporting function gives you details about the frequency of use in relation to the comments (Quickmarks) you have used and more detailed statistics in relation to the assignment. This information can be downloaded to a spread sheet

Why should I use Grademark?

Grademark can be useful for staff and students for a number of reasons. Using Grademark allows for feedback to be delivered to students automatically as students are submitting and collecting feedback from one central point, the KLE. Staff can work more flexibly as assignments are stored in a central point and accessed via the internet. Less paper needs to be processed and stored.

Tips for providing feedback using Grademark

1. Build your own bank of comments (Quickmarks) gradually
2. Try using Grademark with a small number of assignments at first
3. Tell the students what you are doing
4. Rather than replicating your paper marking style try and think what the tools offers you.
5. The statistical reporting features could be used to help determine future interventions
6. The assignment inbox displays an icon once a student has accessed the feedback for longer than 30 seconds
7. Remember rubrics and comments (Quickmarks) can be shared
8. Descriptions can be added to comments (Quickmarks)
9. Familarise yourself with the system, look at www.keele.ac.uk/lpdc for details about workshops
10. Firefox is the recommended web browser to use when using Grademark. A list of supported browsers is here http://tinyurl.com/Grademark-Browsers
11. Try it out

Resources and further information

• http://tinyurl.com/staffexperiences
• http://tinyurl.com/tips-CathEllis
• http://turnitin.com/en_us/products/grademark
• http://www.keele.ac.uk/turnitin (A Keele support site)
• http://tinyurl.com/qzcpwh2 (webcasts offered through Turnitin they are free)
• http://tinyurl.com/qg2olsf ( an overview of the features of Grademark)
• http://tinyurl.com/76y4h6l (An interactive Grademark tutorial)
• http://tinyurl.com/cuh2yob (More detailed instructions on using Grademark)