Marking Of Assignments Research Articles

Two modes of feedback are better than one: Educator experiences of providing audio feedback on student work

The integration of digital teaching and learning practices can contribute to the organisational change required by the higher education digital transformation agenda. One such digital practice, audio feedback, is claimed to be more efficient and engaging than written comments. A substantial body of empirical research in this area evaluates student satisfaction, impact on student performance, and time efficiencies for tutors. What remains to be usefully investigated is tutors’ experiences with providing audio feedback and its impact on tutors’ pedagogical processes and practices. To address the identified gap in literature, thus, an online tutor, the author of this article, conducted a collaborative practitioner research project with three other online tutors to use an audio feedback function for their module assignment marking. Qualitative data were collected through tutors’ reflective journals and a group discussion to gain insights into their experiences. Findings suggest that the production of audio feedback is the culmination of a complex process involving both written and spoken stages and has the potential to address pedagogic concerns and communicate authentically with students, but requires additional time and cognitive processing. Implications for the potential contributions of the practice to the broader digital transformation vision are discussed.Keywords: audio feedback; assessment feedback; feedback practice; digital feedbackPart of the Special Issue Teaching practices in times of digital transformation <https://doi.org/10.21428/8c225f6e.ac86609b>

Defamiliarizing assessment and feedback: exploring the potential of ‘moments of engagement’ to throw light on the marking of undergraduate assignments

Assessors’ perspectives on their evaluative practices remain relatively under-researched. Given evidence that higher education assessment and feedback continue to be problematic, this paper proposes a specific methodological innovation with potential to contribute both to research and practice in this area. It explores the potential of a micro-analysis of textual engagement, nested within an ethnographic approach, to defamiliarize the often taken-for-granted practice of marking. The study on which the paper is based used screen capture combined with audio-recorded, concurrent talk-around-text to throw light on the processes, strategies and perspectives of eight teachers within one university as they assessed undergraduates’ work. This close-up focus was nested within broader ethnographic data generation incorporating interviews, marked assignments and other assessment-related texts. The paper presents selected ‘moments of engagement’ to show how this methodology can offer a renewed understanding of evaluative literacies as complex, ‘messy’ and shot through with influences invisible in the final assessed text but which may nevertheless be highly consequential. The paper concludes by reflecting on the potential for this type of data and analysis to contribute to assessor development and inform debate about the future of higher education assessment.

Assisting Students in Improving the Techniques of Answering Essay Questions in Social Studies at McCoy College of Education through Action Research

The study was carried out at the McCoy College of Education in the Nadowli District of the Upper West Region of Ghana. It seeks to explore ways of assisting students in improving the technique of answering essay questions in social studies. A case studying level 100 students of the McCoy College of Education was carried out where it was found that they are lacking in the area of study. The researcher intends to determine why students in these classes perform poorly in essay assignments and examinations. The researcher sought to investigate to what extent the poor approach to essay writing, poor introduction, paragraphing, and conclusion writing coupled with inadequate expression, periodic essay tests and assignments, inadequate prompt and irregular marking of assignments and quiz scripts, and students' inability to use linking words among others is affecting their written essays in social studies. This phenomenon was ascribed after the study because students are not assessed regularly by essay questions. It is also the case that essay questions are not marked, and tutors do not regularly do assessments of students, a situation that has to do with a large student population, affecting the student–tutor population ratio. The study recommends that the institutions concerned with training teachers make adequate communication studies a hallmark of skills needed for teaching. The study's findings take particular interest in improving teacher trainees' oral and written communication skills and, by extension, their prospective pupils.

THE QUALITY OF TEACHING-LEARNING INPUTS AVAILED TO TUTORS: A CASE OF THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AT THE ZIMBABWE OPEN UNIVERSITY (ZOU) BULAWAYO REGIONAL CAMPUS

Globally, business organizations are striving to at least meet customers’ expectations or go beyond in their business transactions. This is made necessary by the fact that the quality of any organization’s products or services is predicated on the extent to which they meet or surpass customers’ expectations. This premise resulted in the crafting of quality standards that are legally enforced at government and corporate levels world over. Internationally, the ISO 21000 quality standards are observed by many countries including Zimbabwe. The corporate Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) is on record for its enduring efforts towards quality service delivery. Quality Assurance and Control are an integral part of the University’s Cooperate Strategy. The University seeks to achieve world class university standards in all of its sub-processes with the prime aim of delighting its stakeholders (ZOU, Quality Policy Procedure Manual, 2013). Several researches were carried on ZOU sub-processes like the quality of tutorials and student services. Little research was carried out on the quality of the teaching-learning inputs the University avails to its tutors. This gap gave birth to this study. The study established that the ZOU Bulawayo Education Department was generally doing well in the orientation sub-process, distribution of modules, and the dissemination of information to tutors. Nevertheless, weaknesses were noted in the following sub-processes; the provision of instructional media and technology, orientation of tutors in on-line assignment marking and orientation in the use of Library and Information Services. Article visualizations:

Marks Should Not Be the Focus of Assessment – But How Can Change Be Achieved?

This paper attempts to address the possibility of real change after a hundred years of exam-based assessments that produce a single mark or grade as feedback on students’ progress and abilities. It uses design thinking and a reframing of the assessment space to foreground an attribute-based approach that retains the diversity of aspects of a student’s performance across subject boundaries. There are a number of rationales and concepts built into this approach that aim to divert staff and student focus from marks, content delivery, and retention, towards the development of knowledge literacies, conceptual frameworks, and a broad range of personal qualities and skills. Web-based software (REVIEW) developed and refined for more than a decade to facilitate this approach retains categorised student progress data through the day-to-day criterion-referenced marking of assignments and exams. Education research cited proposes that institutions should engage students as a partner in their personal and professional development rather than as a customer buying a degree. It is suggested and illustrated in this paper that the use of self-assessment and visual feedback on different categories of progress is part of the key to forming such a partnership.

Teaching with a Tablet PC

The modern Tablet PC, such as the Surface Pro® is a flexible teaching tool. It can be used to increase the lecturer's productivity in note taking and in assignment marking. It can be used in the lecture room with increased interaction. With a few minor accessories it can be used to record many aspects of a lecture or presentation. It can also be used to record short topic segments that can be used as references or summaries by students. Containing the abilities of both a tablet device with multi touch, a pen interface for accurate drawing and handwriting and with the power of a full PC, it is a complete teaching studio.

Electronic marking of physics assignments using a tablet PC

Producing and marking assignments electronically has advantages for both students and academic staff. However, marking and commenting on electronic assignments requires a simple and efficient method for annotating students’ scripts. We report here on a pilot project that provided associate lecturers (ALs) for a Level 2 Open University physics course with Tablet PCs and appropriate software that enabled them to input handwritten annotation, including equations and diagrams, to files containing students' solutions to assignments. Surveys of the views of ALs indicated that this method of electronic marking is effective and acceptable to students and to a large majority of ALs. It could be used to streamline assignment handling and marking procedures in campus universities as well as in distance learning contexts.

Decentralized Marking of Tutor Marked Assignments in ODL: The Zimbabwe Open University Experience

Decentralized Marking of Tutor Marked Assignments in ODL: The Zimbabwe Open University Experience

Effectiveness of New Innovations Introduced to the Continuous Assessment Mechanism of the Postgraduate Diploma in Education Programme

Two research studies (Lekamge & Jayathilake, 2002; Jayathilake, 1996) which focused on the Continuous Assessment (CA) mechanism of the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme of the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) had identified several problems such as lack of quality of the set assignments, limited comments on assignments, discrepancies among marking examiners, ill practices among student teachers and high turnround time of assignments and suggested long term and short term measures to those problems. As a result, the Faculty introduced several innovations namely course team approach, training workshops for marking examiners, Activity Based Assignment Day Schools and appointment of Centre coordinators for improving the quality of the CA mechanism. Having implemented those innovations for nearly three years, it has necessitated an exploratory research study to examine the effectiveness in improving the quality of the CA mechanism and to reveal how it could be further modified to maximize their potentials. The sample of the study included 290 student teachers representing four regional and two study centres of the OUSL, 104 marking examiners and 21 visiting academics of those centres. Exploratory interviews, questionnaires and direct observations were used as the main data collection methods of the study. They revealed that the majority of student teachers, visiting academics and marking examiners were satisfied with the new innovations and admired the positive changes taken place in setting, marking and monitoring of assignments. Finally the study recommended several improvements to those strategies which would further maximize the benefits to all stakeholders.

Assignments 2.0: The role of social presence and computer attitudes in student preferences for online versus offline marking

This study provided the first empirical and direct comparison of preferences for online versus offline assignment marking in higher education. University students (N=140) reported their attitudes towards assignment marking and feedback both online and offline, perceptions of social presence in each modality, and attitudes towards computers. The students also ranked their preferences for receiving feedback in terms of three binary characteristics: modality (online or offline), valence (positive or negative), and scope of feedback (general or specific). Although attitudes towards online and offline marking did not significantly differ, positive attitudes towards one modality were strongly correlated with negative attitudes towards the other modality. Greater perceptions of social presence within a modality were associated with more positive attitudes towards that modality. Binary characteristics were roughly equally weighted. Findings suggest that the online feedback modality will most effectively maximise student engagement if online assignment marking and feedback tools facilitate perceptions of social presence.

Results sky high: “DAMN”ing marking forever

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to stimulate further discussion on divergent institutional and academic needs for effective marking processes to evaluate student work in Australian universities. This is in specific response to institutional stated goals and emerging policies under current economic realities. After identifying the three significant areas of marking that must be addressed: content, consistency and cost; the author proposes that the use of the AERO‐dynamic model of marking will reduce academic workloads and provide institutions with an effective marking process to meet corporate budgets.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper is a synthesis of researcher participation and discourse interpretation. It is based on a cynical response to changing realities and resides in the arena of the “Theatre of the Absurd”.FindingsThe AERO‐dynamic model of marking was found to be highly cost effective for institutions with large student cohorts and ever diminishing budgets. Critical analysis identified areas of concern in marking consistency and assignment content and recommends specific actions to address these but also identifies that no process will be perfect and that some tradeoffs between cost, consistency and content need to be made. The role of the academic within this marking process is redefined and the implications of this for both institution and individual acknowledged.Originality/valueThis paper offers a starting point for further debate into the widening gap between student expectations on assignment marking and institutional resource allocation and support.

Improving Assessment Management Using Tools

This paper firstly explains the importance of assessment management, then introduces two assessment tools currently used in the School of Information Technology at Deakin University. A comparison of assignment marking was conducted after collecting test data from three sets of assignments. The importance of providing detailed marking guides and personalized comments is emphasized and future possible extension to the tools is also discussed at the end of this paper.

Pathways for improving support for the electronic management and marking of assignments

&lt;blockquote&gt;This article investigates the support e-learning can provide for the management and marking of assignments. The work is contextualised in the importance of assessment with assignments in tertiary education, in the theories about high quality marking of assignments, and the practical experiences of academics at tertiary institutions. The tasks that need to be carried out as part of assignment management and marking are detailed. A set of requirements is derived based on the education literature and on practical needs established in interviews with academics. Possible architectures for an e-learning system implementing these requirements are suggested and arguments are provided towards using an architecture that combines existing learning management system functionality for assignments with a specialised assignment management and marking application. A specific implementation based on &lt;em&gt;Moodle&lt;/em&gt;and &lt;em&gt;Lightwork&lt;/em&gt; is introduced. The article concludes with thoughts on the cognitive fit of learning management systems for assignment marking tasks and their core roles in supporting teaching and learning.&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;

Applying a framework to evaluate assignment marking software: a case study on Lightwork

This article presents the findings of a qualitative evaluation on the effect of a specialised software tool on the efficiency and quality of assignment marking. The software, Lightwork, combines with the Moodle learning management system and provides support through marking rubrics and marker allocations. To enable the evaluation a framework has been developed that is based on an extensive literature review and interviews with academics in tertiary settings. The framework introduces key factors that are crucial to educationally sound and efficient assignment marking. The use of Lightwork is compared to the prior experiences of participants who used either electronic- or paper-based approaches. The findings are analysed using the framework. The study indicates that Lightwork is well suited to support efficient, high quality assignment marking. It is suggested that the evaluation framework can be used for future studies in this area.Keywords: assignments; assessment; evaluation; Lightwork; case study; marking; quality; efficiency; e-learning(Published: 27 March 2012)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2012, 20: 16152 - DOI: 10.3402/rlt.v20i0.16152

Assessments of Children and Families: Learning and Teaching the Skills of Analysis

This paper describes a model of teaching and learning the skills of analysis in social work assessments, focusing on children and families. It builds on the work of Dalzell and Sawyer on enhancing analysis in assessment, and on approaches to study skills training in the higher education context. A model is proposed, based on three key principles, of introducing conceptual clarity, developing and practising skills such as hypothesising and writing conclusions, and encouraging transfer of learning through supported opportunities for reflection. A mainly quantitative evaluation, using a self-efficacy scale, independent examination of social workers' assessment reports and marking of student assignments, provided limited, but statistically significant, support for the model. Suggestions for improving effectiveness are discussed: in particular, good reflective support and supervision for social workers are seen as vital in the difficult process of analysing and synthesising wide-ranging information about a child's circumstances.

Marking student programs using graph similarity

We present a novel approach to the automated marking of student programming assignments. Our technique quantifies the structural similarity between unmarked student submissions and marked solutions, and is the basis by which we assign marks. This is accomplished through an efficient novel graph similarity measure ( AssignSim). Our experiments show good correlation of assigned marks with that of a human marker.

Electronic marking of physics assignments using a Tablet PC

Electronic marking of physics assignments using a Tablet PC

Students' Experiences of Tutor Support in an Online MBA Programme

This paper reports on a recent study that investigated students'; experiences of tutor support in a Canadian University online executive MBA programme. Tutor support is seen as intertwined with the interaction between tutor and student, and the tutor';s pedagogical aim to influence the student's participation in learning activities. In the study reported here, online tutor support is defined as any interaction between student and tutor that influences the student';s participation in learning activities. Despite the consensus of the importance of tutor support, current theory and research into tutor support suggests a focus on understanding the phenomenon of online tutor support as an objective reality from the perspective of the tutor and to a much lesser extent the student, the students'; experience of this phenomenon has gone largely unexamined. From the tutor';s perspective, the reviewed literature appears to focus on characterising the roles of online tutors and the online tutors'; activities and interaction strategies. From the student';s perspective, the reviewed literature appears to investigate the extent students'; participation in online learning activities is influenced by the online tutor';s interaction and the students'; perceptions of online tutor support. The context of this study, the Canadian University online executive MBA programme, provides asynchronous text–based interaction between online tutors and students and is delivered almost entirely online. Each course module has three online tutor support interaction situations. 1. Discussion Databases (sometime referred to as bulletin boards or forums): A “reflective question” database where specific questions related to the course material are posted and students reflect, respond, comment or counter-respond on topics or comments from other students. The second database is designed for “case study” discussions. 2. Marking of Assignments and Comments: Students are also assessed on their participation in the activities in each of the two databases mentioned. 3. Individual Support: Through an open “Ask the Tutor” database, through one-to-one e-mails and by telephone if necessary. To understand the under-researched area of the students'; experiences of online tutor support, in the study reported here, the phenomenographic research approach was used, aiming to understand and describe qualitative differences in students'; experiences of online tutor support. Consistent with the phenomenographic approach, students'; experiences of online tutor support were investigated through semi-structured individual interviews. The interviews were conducted by telephone with 31 students. Five distinctive categories of description of the students'; described experience of tutor support were identified: A - Uninvolved, B - Confirming, C -Elaborating, D - Encouraging, and F - Confrontational.These categories of description are logically related to each other from the least to the most dramatic awareness of online tutor support. In Categories A, B and C, the dimensions of the aspect of interaction seem to suggest online tutor support is academic in nature and has an increasing influence on the students'; awareness of tutor support from Category A through to Category C. In Categories D and E, the aspect of interaction suggests online tutor support is more affective in nature and has an increasing influence on the students'; awareness of tutor support from Category D to Category E. The discussion of this study results are compared and contrasted with the reviewed literature and a number of directions for further research and of considerations for educational practice are suggested.

Oto, a generic and extensible tool for marking programming assignments

AbstractMarking programming assignments in programming courses involves a lot of work: each program must be tested, the source code must be read and evaluated, etc. With the large classes encountered nowadays, the feedback provided to students through marking is thus rather limited, and often late. Tools providing support for marking programming assignments do exist, ranging from support for administrative aspects through automation of program testing or support for source code evaluation based on metrics. In this paper, we introduce a tool, called Oto, that provides support for submission and marking of assignments. Oto aims at reducing the workload associated with the marking task. Oto also aims at providing timely feedback to the students, including feedback before the final submission. Furthermore, the tool has been designed to be generic and extensible, so that the marking process for a specific assignment can easily be customized and the tool can be extended with various marking components (modules) that allows it to deal with various aspects of marking (testing, style, structure, etc.) and with programs written in various programming languages. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Moral content and assignment marking: An exploratory study

This small scale exploratory survey investigates the relation between the moral content of student assignments and potential marking behaviour by lecturers. A questionnaire containing a number of deliberately discriminatory statements was sent to a sample of nurse academics, and participants were asked to indicate whether the inclusion of these statements might affect the mark awarded. The sample was too small to undertake tests of statistical significance. However, the results tentatively suggest that a majority of participants would penalise assignments that contain morally questionable statements, and many would cite the code of professional conduct in justification. There appeared to be little difference in the response to statements that offered opinions (normative) or described actions (descriptive). However, differences between responses to statements discriminating against different groups were apparent, with racist statements being penalised more often and with greater severity than other categories. Qualitative data support the quantitative data. Several areas for discussion are identified, including the academic status of nursing, the use of the code of professional conduct, the moral claims made for nurses, a potential 'hierarchy of wrongness', student self censorship, and inconsistency in marking. Further research is justified.