Title: How to grade 60 assignments online efficiently within the given deadline of 2 weeks.

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Narrator

 I am the E-tutor and face-to-face tutor for the Module BBRC4103 Research Methodology for a business undergraduate course in Open University Malaysia.

Situation

The online assignments were accessible through the university website portal. I had to access the university portal through my staff identity and password. This would lead to me on the home page of the university. I then had to access into the MyVLE (the university’s LMS) that lead me to the folders of assignment grader. I then will click on the folder of assignment grader for BBRC4103. This will lead to a listing of all uploaded assignments of students who have uploaded their assignment for the course. The assignments were uploaded on the folder with student names attached. I had to click each student name and open the files to read the assignment which came with a standard rubric attached as a marking guide.  

 The assignments can be graded at home or at work as it is fully online thus, accessible as long as I am connected on the Web. This e-Grading exercise happens once every semester. Normally, I have 60+ assignments to grade within a span of 2 weeks given to me. The students have to upload their assignments via an online submission. I am informed via email by ITLA (Institute of Instructional Design) that I have been assigned to grade BBRC4103 starting from a certain date and a deadline is given.

The students upload their assignments before a deadline given to them. If the deadline is past and the student fails to submit the assignment then, the student will need to do an online application to give reasons for postponement of submission. The key actors in this E-grading exercise are the E-graders (tutors like me), students and ITLA who acts as a mediator in regards to student submissions in cases where students faced difficulties in their submission online. The Exam Unit of the University were also responsible for releasing the assignment results to the students.

Task

I have to grade 60+ assignments within a deadline of 2 weeks that were given. My measures of success are to ensure that I meet the deadline.

Actions

1. Open the homepage of the University and enter by using my staff ID and password
2. Click on the MyVLE in which the assignment folder is located.
3. Click on the Assignment folder for this semester.
4. Click on the current semester with the Assignment folder of BBRC4103
5. The folder will open up to show the number of assignments that I need to grade
6. The grading requires me to click on each student name that will automatically download the assignment file with the attached rubric.
7. Then I can start grading by firstly, reading the assignment and using the rubric as a guide to mark and grade.
8. Secondly, after reading the assignment, I will click on to the rubric to grade each assignment respectively.
9. After grading by using the rubric, I need to write comments on the space given as feedback to the student.
10. This will continue until the list of students has been all graded. I can modify my marks by clicking on the grade again to change the marks.
11. The main obstacle I find that the system is not user-friendly as I need to click on several times before I can modify the marks and that I need to write comments as feedback for each one of the student which considerably slows down the process. 
12. I have tried to create a template for all types of feedback because I find through experience that students tend to make similar mistakes for example, incorrect referencing not according to APA style which makes the assignment be graded lower or not following the rubric as guidelines in structuring their assignment answers.

Results

1. Expected outcome – creating the template lessen the time taken to grade each assignment. I was able to finish marking the assignments within the deadlines given of 2 weeks
2. The unexpected outcome was that I became rather “brutal” in grading the student assignments as I became strict on word limitations and followed the rubric strictly.
3. From the previous semester results of the assignment grading exercise, the module became a “feared” subject among students. The assignment question became a topic of discussion among students and many students felt apprehensive about taking up the subject. This is evident from the forum discussions as I am also the E-tutor for this subject. However, the students do not know that I am also the E-grader for this subject. Therefore, there were many forum discussions on how to tackle the assignment question correctly. I believe that from the discussions I read from the students that this subject, Research Methodology bbrc4103 is held with much apprehension and trepidation by the students.

Reflections

Upon reflection, I think I could have been more flexible in my grading and allowed some leeway in my grading. I should be less fixated on meeting the deadlines but rather more on giving the opportunity for students to express themselves more freely rather than following the rubric strictly. However, I doubt whether I can meet the deadlines if so.