Professors say new tool reduces grading time, improves fidelity
Last spring, more than a dozen faculty at Purdue began using Gradescope, an online grading tool, as part of a pilot program to find out if the tool could help faculty grade more efficiently.
What they found was a tool that provided much more. Gradescope made it feasible to administer free-response exam questions in large lecture courses. The tool also allowed instructors to create detailed rubrics and made grading more consistent. It even made professors’ lives easier, by eliminating the need to carry stacks of papers.
Below are the reactions from four faculty members who found Gradescope to be useful in their courses. This spring, the tool will be available to all instructors, with support from the Instructional Data Processing team (idp@purdue.edu) to scan exams for grading.
Faculty and staff interested in learning more about Gradescope can attend the next Tech Today event on Nov. 2, or contact tlt@purdue.edu for a consultation.
Here is what faculty are saying about Gradescope:
I was able to get rid of Scantron sheets
“My courses are fairly large, more than 150 students, and before Gradescope, once we reached the point we couldn’t grade anymore, we used Scantron sheets. I got fairly good at doing multiple choice exams, but the students hated them. There was no partial credit, some felt they knew more than they could show, others felt lucky because they knew nothing but were still able to get 50 percent. With Gradescope, I was able to get rid of Scantron sheets for nearly all the grading, and really grade their answers and give them the credit they deserve.” – Susanne Hambrusch, interim head of the Department of Computer Science, professor of computer science
It’s sped up the entire grading process
“Gradescope eliminates the possibility of losing papers. There is greater uniformity of grading. There’s informative feedback provided to the student after the exam is graded. It has sped up the entire grading process.” – Andy Hirsch, professor of physics
Academic integrity
“One of my concerns is making sure students don’t alter graded exams and then resubmit that exam for a regrade. If you’re already planning to copy or scan your exams, then the other benefits of Gradescope come at almost no cost, the hard work is already done.” – Steven Wereley, professor mechanical engineering
Gradescope makes you a better grader
“Gradescope makes you a better grader, because you have the rubric right there in front of you and you can be loyal to rubric throughout. It also helps you train teaching assistants or other people who are going to help you grade. When students see their grade, they see how the rubric relates to things we told them were important on the syllabus. It gives us a really powerful way to communicate with students – not just about the numerical values of what they’ve gotten right and gotten wrong, but the details of the specific learning objectives on which they did well, and those on which they need to do a little more work.” – Ed Berger, associate professor of engineering education and mechanical engineering
Did you know?
ITaP’s Teaching and Learning Technologies supports and enhances teaching and learning at Purdue by offering:
- One-on-one consultation with educational technologists, who can help you choose the appropriate solution for your teaching and learning needs.
- Faculty Professional Development, hands-on opportunities designed to help instructors learn best practices for using specific technology.
- Course design, with the help of our team of instructional designers, who work with colleges and faculty to develop, redesign and review courses.
Contact tlt@purdue.edu to get started or to learn more.
Writer: Dave Stephens, technology writer, Information Technology at Purdue, 765-496-7998, steph103@purdue.edu.
Last updated: Oct 11, 2018