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

A reflective piece about using audio files for feedback, Louise Vincent

Louise Vincent used audio files to provide feedback to students on a BSc programme in Children's Nursing.  In this piece Louise explains audio feedback was chosen, the approach she took and what she found.  The full reflection can be found here

Audio feedback resource

What is audio feedback?

Audio feedback is using the spoken voice to provide feedback to students on formative or summative assessments. This could be general cohort level feedback or specific feedback to individuals.

Why use audio feedback?

Providing audio feedback to students can have a range of benefits for both the marker and student. One student notes “Audio feedback worked fine. I really liked feedback being presented in this way, and I feel I’ve got a lot more out of it than just reading a feedback sheet”

The main advantages for the student include

• Allowing for timely feedback
• Allowing for richer more detailed feedback to be produced, a lot more can be conveyed to a student in 5 minutes of speech than the equivalent written or typed.
• The feedback is more portable, it can easily be downloaded by the student and reused
• Evidence suggests that students feel feedback produced in this way is more personable and         understandable as the intonation of voice is clear.

Members of staff that have been using audio feedback noted that it allows them to provide richer more detailed feedback in the same amount of time as ‘normal’ written feedback. The main advantages for staff can include

• The ability to provide richer more detailed feedback
• When explaining complex concepts it is often easier and quicker to explain these verbally than to write them.
• It can take the same amount of time to produce more detailed feedback to students

How do I produce audio feedback?

The main methods of producing audio feedback include

• Using a digital voice recorder available from Audio Visual Services.
• Using the recording features built into your laptop, desktop PC or mobile device.

How do I deliver audio feedback?

Audio feedback can be delivered to students through the Institutional VLE for further details on how to do this please refer to http://www.keele.ac.uk/lpdc/learningandteaching/technologysupportingassessmentandfeedback/ and locate the ‘project STAF consultation paper’.

Tips for providing audio feedback

1. Make sure you are in quiet space
2. Turn off your phone
3. Prepare some notes or prompts for yourself before hand
4. If using a voice recorder make sure to make a note of the file number against the student number. This helps you to identify which file is for which student
5. For better audio quality use a microphone (available from the LPDC)
6. If you want to provide textual comments as well or follow a standard proforma, embed the audio file into a word doc (resources http://tinyurl.com/5sx8ual)
7. Try to keep the recording to about 5mins
8. Don’t feel your recording has to be perfect stumbles can add a human element.
9. Tell the students what you are doing and why

Resources and further information

• http://tinyurl.com/staffexperiences
• Bob Rotherham project sounds good.http://sites.google.com/site/soundsgooduk/
• AFAL project. http://sites.google.com/site/audiofeedbackuk/
• ASEL Project http://aselproject.wordpress.com
• JISC digital Media http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk
• Project STAF blog http://tinyurl.com/5sx8ual
• http://www.enhancingfeedback.ed.ac.uk/staff/resources/newways.html

Screen-casting for feedback

What is screen capture or screen-casting?

Screen-casting is using software to record whatever you do on your computer screen, with your voice commentary, saved as a video file. You can use it to create feedback, talking to the student while showing on the screen their work in MSWord or in Turnitin’s Grademark. You can talk to the student(s) while pointing to parts of their work. You then send them the video file. The student work could have your comments or corrections on it and you could return that as well. A screen-cast could be used for general, cohort­-level feedback or for individuals. Screen-casting is increasingly used for educational purposes like feedback, providing short introductions to lectures, or demonstrating how to solve arithmetic problems.

Why use a screen-cast for feedback?
The advantages for the student

• Providing richer, more detailed feedback than text. A lot more can be conveyed in 5 minutes of speech   than feedback written in the same time.
• The feedback video file is portable, as it can be downloaded by the student and reused.
• Evidence suggests that students feel feedback produced in this way is more personal and understandable. Voice intonation adds information and difficult concepts can be conveyed more easily.
• Feedback produced in this way can produce more directed feedback; it can be easier to explain specific errors and improvements.

The main advantages for staff can include

• Members of staff who have used screen-casting for feedback noted that it allows them to provide richer, more detailed feedback.
• It is often easier and quicker to explain complex concepts verbally than in text.
• It can take no more time to produce more detailed feedback to students.
• Student will listen to it all, rather than skimming text.

You should deliver the files through the KLE, where you can control access and they are archived

How do I produce screen capture feedback?

You will need a microphone plugged into your desktop PC (laptops generally have one built-in.) Screen-cast software can be free (e.g. Jing, Screenr) or purchased. Suggestions can be found at http://projectstafkeeleuniversity.jiscinvolve.org/wp/

Tips for providing screen-cast feedback

1. Make sure you are in quiet space
2. Turn off your phone
3. Prepare some notes or prompts for yourself before hand
4. Make sure to save the file as the student number, to identify which file is for which student
5. For better audio quality use a microphone
6. If you want to provide textual comments as well or follow a standard proforma, embed the file into a word doc (resources http://tinyurl.com/5sx8ual)
7. Try to keep the recording to about 5-7mins (some free programs like Jing only allow 5 minutes)
8. Don’t feel your recording has to be perfect – small verbal stumbles add a human element
9. Use the Pause button to give yourself time to compose the next section
10. Start the recording with a header of module, assignment, student name etc.
11. Tell the students what you are doing and why.

Resources and further information

• http://tinyurl.com/staffexperiences
• Amber Regis screen-casts
• http://tinyurl.com/6ah4c7m
• Sheila Hope has a bioscience case study at
• http://tinyurl.com/6faujdh
• Russell Standard screen-casts 
• http://tinyurl.com/654g9mg
• http://tinyurl.com/russellstannard.com/
• JISC digital Media 
• http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk
• Dr Dave McGarvey and Dr Katherine Haxton, 
• http://tinyurl.com/cm6no24

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)