Chronicle: 5 Tips for Handling Grading in Large Online Classes

Article: 5 Tips for Handling Grading in Large Online Classes [comment]
Author:Anastasia Salter
Publication: Chronicle of Higher Education
Date: October 1, 2015

I share this not for the article itself (which you should feel free to read as well!), but for a comment by user greilly which I thought brought a wonderful idea for streamlining assessment and feedback, which I will quote here in full:

Consider a general feedback for an assignment. I grade all of the class's aaignment and then type up one document that summarizes the common mistakes and errors I found. I provide examples from student papers (anonymous of course) of both Good answers and bad, and I point out the differences between them. I then post this document online for the class to read. Only failing papers get a personalized feedback automatically; the rest of the class is told that they can request personalized feedback if after reading the general feedback they still aren't sure why they got the grade they did. It used to take me a number of days to type up feedback for each paper, even when I used boilerplate. Now I can type up that one document in an evening. I also imagine it is more helpful than individual feedback because it shows both good and bad examples of the work.

This is a great way both to give feedback to students, and for teachers to notice patterns in student work, while saving everybody some time and energy. The important part of this method is using it to truly close a loop - going over it with students as well as reflecting on uncovered data for possible changes in curriculum or the assignment going forward.  While it is intended as advice for teachers of large, online classes, something similar could certainly be adapted for assignments in a liberal arts context, perhaps with the balance swung a bit more toward including individual feedback.

You can read the article in its entirety here, for some more tips on grading best-practices.