Predefined QuickMark set

About Feedback onGradeMark Written Assignments

This case study looks at a trial of fully digital formative and final assignment feedback and assessment grading using Turnitin GradeMark to inform those considering adopting its use.

The findings of the trial were presented to members of the University of Oxford at a make: session, organised by OUCS, by Garry Maguire, Senior Lecturer EAP and Brookes Teaching Fellow from Oxford Brookes University.

The trial was undertaken for a number of reasons, amongst which were

♦ Brookes e-learning, Turnitin strategy (see sidebar on page 3)

♦ Brookes Student Learning Experience strategy - accessibility (see below)

♦ continued student evaluation requests for better targeted developmental feedback

♦ a recurring environmental action point on courses noted in Annual Reviews – too many piles of uncollected assignments

The trial was undertaken on seven in-sessional Academic English U n d e r g r a d u a t e Modules over an 18 month period with a focus on academic literacy development. Access to Turnitin and GradeMark is through the institutional VLE, BlackBoard (to be replaced with Moodle in 2012/13). 30 – 130 students were studying each module.

Developmental Feedback was made a priority with students submitting drafts which were then commented on using GradeMark before resubmission.

GradeMark is part of the Turnitin suite of software and provides an electronic marking facility. It gives Tutors a digital system for grading and commenting on student work.

Tutors can add comments within the body of a paper, point out grammar and punctuation mistakes, evaluate the paper against qualitative or quantitative rubrics, assess the student’s performance within the class and enter a grade for the paper.

Some of the features of GradeMark include:

♦ inline highlighting of text and marginal commenting

♦ predefined and user-defined palettes for frequently used comments, including standard proofreading marks, punctuation, and common grammatical errors

♦ space for general comments

♦ user-defined rubrics

♦ voice comments

A Case Study

TurnitinGradeMarkGarry Maguire Oxford Brookes University, Roger Pearson OUCS

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Acceptance of GradeMark over the trial period

Some of the issues amongst academic staff were

♦ there was an initial reluctance amongst staff relating to lack of introductory training

♦ an initial preference due to reading strategies to use a paper version of the assignment

♦ screen fatigue, especially when working at home on a smaller, less efficient screen.

♦ initial slowness in processing feedback while staff became used to using a new tool

Although the trial was rolled out in a hurried manner, initial staff misgivings were soon replaced by acceptance, to the extent that those not trialling GradeMark began to request to use it.

StudentsStudent response to the use of GradeMark was generally positive, particularly with the ease of hand in and pick up of assignments.

Using GradeMark: ProsSome of the benefits of using GradeMark found by staff at Oxford Brookes include

♦ the quantity and quality of feedback is enhanced

♦ efficiency in marking time after the initial set-up

♦ students can be directed towards developmental study resources – hyperlinks can be included in GradeMark comments

♦ the monitoring of student access to their formative feedback is possible by using the tracking features in BlackBoard

♦ an environmentally friendly system - fully digital hand in and return

♦ individual assignment marks are available for the module – previously students only received general percentage marks

♦ administrative time saving

♦ secure and no lost papers

♦ functionality of QuickMark and Rubric sets - they are exportable and so can be shared among module or course tutors

♦ formative, developmental focus – it can be used purely for feedback without using plagiarism or marking functions

♦ external examiner access

An interesting knock-on effect of using GradeMark was that fewer students signed up when offered feedback tutorials after they had received GradeMark comments.

Cons: ♦ there are some resource

implications in initial QuickMark/ Rubric setting and creation of bespoke student training resources

♦ QuickMark comments created by multiple users were apparently added to the common set. Although technical information is not available for Blackboard Turnitin integration, it may be inferred that, like Sakai integration, one email account is used, hence the multiplicity of comments. As a result, comment authorship and editing rights need careful thought

♦ detailed band descriptors and complex weighting does not appear to be straightforward to integrate

Student Response to Quickmark (Semester 1 2011 online survey results n= 75)

“Learners will be provided with choices over information tools and assistive software to enable them to access the University through their preferred mode and location, i.e. at home or on campus, wired or wireless, mobile or fixed, using their own or a university-provided pooled device; and make use of other freely available tools in ways that support their learning.”Oxford Brookes University Student Learning Experience Strategy, 3.7.4

with the Rubric function (staff are currently using a workaround solution). See opposite for more information on Rubrics

♦ blind marking is not possible - this is a frequent request at TurnitinUK user group meetings

Qualitative rubric

Issues from the make: sessionWhilst the Turnitin Instructor manual covers Grademark, the information contained therein is scant. Garry informed us that many of the features in Grademark were discovered by accident.

One query an attendee of the make: session had was regarding images or diagrams in documents submitted to Turnitin. Although Turnitin cannot read images for the development of Originality reports, they are retained in the submitted document, thereby allowing the tutor to use GradeMark to add comments about the images.

Oxford Brookes Turnitin PolicyAt Oxford Brookes University, all students on the undergraduate modular programme will normally use Turnitin on a minimum of three compulsory occasions: once during a compulsory module in Stage I, once again in a compulsory module in Stage II and finally during the dissertation or project module.

All students on taught Masters programme are be required to use Turnitin on a minimum of two modules: once during a taught module (this could be the Research Methods module) and once during the dissertation or project module. All other taught postgraduates students (taking PGDip or PGCert programmes) are required to use Turnitin once during one taught module.

In addition, Turnitin may be used optionally on other modules for one or all pieces of assessment in that module as decided by the Module Leader. Turnitin may be used as part of an investigation into an alleged case of plagiarism but its primary use is to support students’ academic development and enhance good academic practice.

All students enrolled on a research degree

programme must submit a piece of work, as appropriate for the discipline, through Turnitin no more than three times in any one academic year. It will be expected that all students will submit a chapter or piece of academic writing through Turnitin during the annual monitoring process each year. Full details of the work submitted at this point will noted on the Research Degree Sub-Committee’s, Annual Progress Report form and should include a summary or statement about the analysis of the Turnitin report.

Oxford Brookes University Regulations , Miscellaneous Policies, Statements and Codes of Practice E23. Policy on the Use of Turnitin

http://www.brookes.ac.uk/uniregulations/current/miscpoliciesstatescops/e23turnitin_policy.pdf

Accessed 6/6/12

Rubric FunctionRubric scorecards can be used to evaluate student work in GradeMark based on defined criteria and scales. Both qualitative and quantitative rubrics can be created. Marking criteria and scales can be percentages, points or a combination of the two. The tutor has the option to choose how many marking criteria to use, what weighting to give each and how many scale bands to include. As with a paper-based rubric, scale descriptors can be added to give the student more information about their mark.

A demonstration page of the features of GradeMark can be tried out at the following URL: http://bit.ly/MAFiAw

NB In this example, each of the six marking criteria used has a 17% weighting, which adds up to a total of 102%. Selecting the top scale of each criterion, however, gives a total of 100% in GradeMark