self grading assignments

Easy Grading Ideas for the Modern K-12 Classroom

As teachers, we are constantly trying to find ways to make our lives just a little easier. A great option for this is to look into easy grading assignments, like those that utilize student self-grading. Now, this is much more than just having students trade papers with one another as you read an answer key out loud. Student self-grading is an entire system that allows students to critically review their own work, grade it, and then hold themselves accountable in front of their peers.

Here is a  brief explanation of specifically what digital self-grading is  if you are unfamiliar.

Finding Options for Easy Grading in the Classroom

Self-grading assignments can be a fantastic option for educators looking for an easy grading solution in their classroom. With a self-grading system, teachers can quickly assess student work without spending too much time on grading. This system also allows students to take more ownership of their learning by allowing them to assess their own progress . By providing students with an assignment checklist and grading scale, they can easily identify wrong answers and correct them before submitting their work.

Another benefit of self-grading assignments is the ability to easily adjust the number of questions and answer choices to fit the needs of individual students or class levels. Teachers can create assignments with varying degrees of difficulty and adjust the grading system accordingly . This flexibility can help ensure that students are challenged appropriately while also giving them the opportunity to succeed.

Self-grading assignments also offer students a unique opportunity to develop their critical thinking skills. By analyzing their own work and identifying correct and incorrect answers, students are forced to think critically about the material they have learned. This process can help students better understand the material and retain it for future use.

THE LONG-TERM BENEFITS OF STUDENT SELF GRADING

It is important to understand the long-term benefits of student self-grading. When students are given the opportunity to assess their own work, they take ownership of their education, which can increase motivation and foster a sense of responsibility. This, in turn, helps them develop critical thinking skills that are essential for success in all aspects of life, including collaboration, communication, and leadership.

Student self-grading also helps reduce grading time while fostering an ownership mentality in students. This independence and accountability for their own work will serve them well in college and beyond. Implementing student self-grading can also provide extensive long-term benefits.

Overall, as an education major, you should consider implementing student self-grading in your classroom as it teaches valuable life skills that will benefit your students in the long run, while also reducing your grading time and benefiting your mental well-being.

Implementing SELF-GRADING programs

Student self-grading is an excellent way for students to become more independent and accountable for their own work. It also helps them develop their critical thinking skills. Implementing student self-grading can also help reduce your grading time.

We know it sounds like something that would never work. But let’s look at the facts:

Imagine reading your paper out loud to yourself for 3 minutes. It is probably cringe-worthy (you can do better than that!). Now imagine someone grading you on that same paper. That score better be 100%!

When students grade their own papers, they are much more likely, to be honest with themselves. They know that if they do not get a good score, they will have to explain themselves to their classmates.

Student self-grading creates a sense of ownership for the work. Students are much more likely to take care of something that they feel is their own.

These programs use algorithms to assess assignments, provide instant feedback, and generate scores without the need for manual grading. This technology frees up valuable time for educators to focus on individualized instruction and provide targeted support to struggling students.

Self-grading programs are particularly effective for multiple-choice and short-answer questions, which can be evaluated accurately and quickly using automated methods. With the rise of online learning and remote instruction, self-grading programs have become increasingly popular in modern classrooms.

Self-Grading Programs

Having opportunities for self-grading moves forward tenfold when you use programs that grade for you (yes, you read that correctly!).

One example of a self-grading program is Kahoot!, an online learning platform that enables teachers to create and share quizzes with their students. Kahoot! uses gamification to make learning more engaging and interactive , with points, badges, and leaderboards that motivate students to participate. The program provides instant feedback to students, allowing them to track their progress and identify areas where they need to improve.

Kahoot! also allows teachers to monitor student performance and adjust their teaching strategies accordingly, making it a powerful tool for formative assessment.

Another example of a self-grading program is Google Forms, which enables teachers to create quizzes, surveys, and assessments that can be automatically graded. Google Forms supports a wide range of question types, including multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay questions. The program also allows teachers to customize feedback and scoring, making it a flexible tool for classroom assessment.

A while back, I created an explanation of seven different programs that are very user-friendly that are self-grading. These brief tutorials are very helpful for all teachers, new or old. If you are interested in seeing them, please fill in the form below and you will be taken right to the breakdown of information.

In short, using self-grading assignments can help reduce teacher stress, increase student engagement, and help students learn how to better check their own work. If you are not currently using them in your classroom, I highly suggest that you start today!

Why it Matters

When students are given the opportunity to grade their own work, they are taking ownership of their education. This can lead to increased motivation and a desire to learn more. It also helps foster a sense of responsibility. Students are much more likely to take care of something that they feel is their own.

In addition, student self-grading helps students develop their critical thinking skills. This is a skill that will serve them well in all aspects of their life. While they will still be vying for that ultimate letter grade, this will help guide them in the process and help them invest in actually understanding correct answers.

To boot, imagine being able to fill in your grade book without piles of papers to grade …and it’s a lot easy for students to not misplace physical papers this way, too!

As you can see, student self-grading is an excellent way for students to become more independent and accountable for their own work. It also helps them develop their critical thinking skills.

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This article was originally published on January 4, 2022

About the Author: Jenn Breisacher

After moving from a teacher-dominated classroom to a truly student-centered one, Jenn found herself helping colleagues who wanted to follow her lead.  In 2018 she decided to expand outside of her school walls and help those out there who were also trying to figure out this fantastic method of instruction to ignite intrinsic motivation in their students.  Read more about her journey with Student-Centered World at studentcenteredworld.com/about

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Auto-Grading: No More Late Nights Grading Papers When You Use TeacherMade

Work smarter, not harder.

We listen closely to our Teachers. That’s how we developed the most versatile and intuitive auto-scoring system you’ve ever used. And we include rich feedback features so our teachers can directly impact student achievement: 

• Auto-grading of 24 different question types
• Teacher adjustments to auto-scores that let you award or remove points
• Make answer key updates while grading
• Score written and drawn responses
• Teacher feedback on student submissions
• Teacher can write, draw, and mark anywhere on student submissions – including adding motivational stickers
• Teacher/student feedback response threads
• Student score reports

There are three methods for grading TeacherMade assignments:

Automatic: This is the auto-scoring grade that TeacherMade gives to your students after they submit their assignments.

Automatic + Teacher: This allows you to override the final score of the assignment by adding or removing points to both the total possible score or the total achieved by the student.

Custom: There are certain activity types such as essays or Show Your Work where you will need to give a score. And if you don’t include correct answers on an activity, you can enter scores manually.

Reclaim your nights and weekends with TeacherMade’s auto-grading feature. Here’s how it works:

• Upload your PDF, docx, or image.
• Quickly draw answer boxes on the document.
• Use our 24 different question type tools like dropdowns, text entry, multiple choice, drag-and-drops, and more…
• Type in the correct answer(s).
• And then let TeacherMade auto-grade assignments for you as students submit their work.

With teacher shortages on the rise, it’s critical that teachers and school district address teacher burnout. One way is to reduce time grading, so teachers get time away from school to recharge. TeacherMade makes grading more efficient.

• Just upload your PDF, docx, or image.
• Quickly place answer areas on the document.
• Use our 16 different question type tools like dropdowns, text entry, multiple choice, drag-and-drops, and more…
• Fill in the answer key.
• And then let TeacherMade  auto-grade assignments  for you.

Digital Assignments Auto-Graded By TeacherMade

What is auto-grading.

Auto-Grading is your best teaching assistant, designed to ease the burden of manual grading. It automatically scores a wide range of question types and provides instant feedback, freeing up your time for more meaningful interactions with students. With TeacherMade’s auto-grading, you can streamline your workflow and focus on what matters most— teaching!

Analyze Data Faster

Make important decisions about student learning more efficiently because of TeacherMade’s auto-grading features. Formative data is instantly available and teachers can easily see where students need reteaching using the color-coded reports. 

These visual insights help educators quickly identify areas of struggle, allowing for targeted interventions and more personalized instruction at the time of learning– not days or weeks later. By leveraging real-time data and feedback, teachers can adapt their teaching strategies effectively and improve student outcomes.

Can Students See Their Grades Instantly?

Auto-grading doesn’t just make life easier for teachers; it can also gamify assignments for students. We’re not talking video games, but rather a contest where they are competing against themselves! This approach makes learning more engaging and motivating. 

Don’t worry though, teachers still have all the power. They can set controls like preventing students from submitting until they reach a 60% score or allowing them to check scores once or twice only before submitting to cut back on guessing. This balance ensures that learning remains focused and productive.

Make Google Classroom Auto-Grading Seamless

We’ve thought of everything. The TeacherMade platform covers all of your grading needs, saving you loads of time and hassle. And because our software seamlessly integrates into Google Classroom, Canvas, and Schoology, you don’t have to shuffle through many different programs to put grades where you want them.

TeacherMade Helps You Simplify Recording Grades with LMS Gradebook Integrations

Once TeacherMade is connected to your LMS, students receive their assignment links there. They also get their grades for completed assignments there.

For teachers, LMS integration means student grades flow right into their Google Classroom gradebook, Canvas’ gradebook, and Schoology’s gradebook. No more manual entry, downloading .CSV files and uploading them into another system– the integrations work with auto-grading to significantly reduce the amount of time you have to spend on administrative tasks each day. Enjoy life more when you use TeacherMade!

HQIM and New District-Adopted Curriculums On Paper?

Do you have a new curriculum? Facing a pile of paper and pencil assignments and being told you and your students must do them? Don’t go back to making copies! 

With TeacherMade’s auto-grading feature, you can easily digitize and automate grading, saving time and reducing stress on you while making your students much more likely to engage in their work. 

Now that TeacherMade includes an AI-powered Activity Assistant, it takes just a couple of clicks of the mouse to have a PDF converted to an interactive auto-scored activity that produces instant formative assessment data.

Make grading go faster with our auto-grade features

We listen closely to our Teachers. That’s how we developed the most versatile and intuitive auto-scoring system you’ve ever used. And we include rich feedback features so our Teachers can directly impact student achievement: 

• Auto-grading of 16 different question types
• Teacher can write, draw, and mark anywhere on student submissions – including adding motivational stickers

Online Assignments Auto-Graded By TeacherMade

Make key decisions about student learning faster with assignments and assessments. By using auto-grading features on TeacherMade, educators can use data and student feedback to inform their teaching. 

We’ve thought of everything. The TeacherMade platform covers all of your grading needs, saving you loads of time and hassle. And because our software seamlessly integrates into Google Classroom, you don’t have to shuffle through many different programs to put grades where you want them.

TeacherMade Helps You Simplify Your Grading With .CSV Exports

Need scores in your gradebook? Export a set of scores straight to a Microsoft Excel .xslx, .csv, or Google Sheets file. Then from there, you can quickly upload scores to your school’s grade management software.

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TeacherMade transforms teaching materials into interactive digital lessons and saves teachers time with instant autograding. Our platform integrates seamlessly with major systems for personalized student engagement.

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• BookWidgets Teacher Blog

How to convert student hand-outs into digital self-grading worksheets

Technology comes with many advantages. So why not assign digital assignments instead of paper ones? It’s actually pretty easy to convert those documents into engaging interactive activities if you’re using the right tools.

Picture this: with digital assignments, teachers can add:

• More interactivity for students
• Multimedia elements like audio, video, zoomable images
• My favorite: automatic grading
• A comprehensive and efficient feedback system

So, what are you waiting for? In this blog post, you will learn how to transform your paper worksheets (PDF or DOCX documents) into digital worksheets with BookWidgets . It’s the perfect tool to digitize your worksheets.

Before we move on… If you’re new to BookWidgets you need to see the bigger picture. If you already know BookWidgets, skip this part and discover the new docx/pdf import feature.

What is BookWidgets?

Teachers can easily integrate BookWidgets inside other learning management systems (LMS) such as Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Schoology and more. The integration enables teachers to follow student progress in real time when they are working on a BookWidgets assignment. This way, teachers can quickly guide their students in the right direction when they need help.

BookWidgets is being used by teachers all over the world for both summative and formative evaluation. The grading dashboard allows teachers to review student work efficiently and easily give comprehensive feedback.

Convert your Microsoft Word documents or PDF files into digital worksheets

When you’re using a new EdTech tool like BookWidgets, you always have to spend so much time transforming your assignments and putting them into the tool. Only after that, you can enjoy all the advantages this tool has to offer, like auto-grading, feedback options, possibilities, live monitoring and so on.

That’s why BookWidgets introduces the Microsoft Word and PDF document import. You can now import questions from your existing DOCX and PDF documents into quizzes and (split) worksheets.

Let me show you how you can import questions from docx and pdf documents into your BookWidgets quizzes and worksheets, step-by-step. If you rather want to see for yourself, check out our handy BookWidgets video tutorial about the document import feature .

Step 1: Prepare your documents

When you’re importing from a PDF, it must be a text-based file (not image-based) Here’s how you can find out: open the PDF and try to highlight text with your mouse. If that works, your PDF is text-based. Note that PDFs may be image-based intentionally precisely to prevent copiablity.

Step 2: Prepare your widget

Click on “Create new widget” > choose your widget type. You can already give it a title and change some settings if needed. Of course, you can do this later on as well.

Step 3: Start the docx/pdf document import

A few important guidelines when you’re importing docx or pdf questions to your worksheet:

You always have to highlight the piece of text you would like to use for instructions/directions . This text will always show in the “question” section in a question type.

Then, indicate the question type in BookWidgets . Click on “*New question*” and make the right choice. If you are completely new to BookWidgets, it might be a good idea to check out this widget so you get an understanding of the possible question types and formatting in your digital worksheet.

Depending on the question type you have chosen, highlight new pieces of text and define them as configuration fields . Only configured/indicated fields will be imported.

You have now imported your first question. Keep on going ! To create and import a new question, highlight the new piece of text and select “New question” again. Repeat this process until all your questions are transformed to digital interactive questions.

Step 4: Check your imported questions

Indicate the right answers

In BookWidgets, teachers also have to indicate the correct answers so the questions can be auto-graded. In your .docx or .pdf, questions don’t always have the right answers filled out. Most of the time, they are left open so students can fill them out.

This means that you have to go over your imported questions in the BookWidgets worksheet again and indicate the correct answers as mentioned below the questions (= teacher instructions). Once you indicate the correct answers, your worksheet will be auto graded and you will save a lot of time (again!).

Delete unnecessary layout

When marking your questions or your text inside your document, you’ll notice that BookWidgets will import some other layout you don’t want. Make sure to always check the questions you’ve imported and delete unnecessary formatting like bullet lists and symbols.

Indicate your scoring options

Something we can’t bring over is the score on a question. This means that you have to go over your imported questions and scroll down to the scoring options. Now indicate the scoring weight and how you would want the score to be calculated.

Step 5: Add more questions if needed

• Text question (just for giving instructions/ extra explanation or theory/ describe your goals/ …)
• Multiple choice question & multiple choice with multiple possible answers question
• Single line text question (Short answer - open or closed)
• Multi line text question (long answer - open)
• Rich text question
• Fill-in-the blanks question
• Mark sentence question
• Drag words in sentence question
• Correct words in sentence question
• Fill-in-table question
• Question table & question table with multiple possible answers
• Annotate picture question
• Whiteboard question
• Word ordering question & picture ordering question
• Picture multiple choice question & picture multiple choice with multiple possible answers
• Rated multiple choice question
• Numeric question
• Equations question

This basically means that if you want to add more questions, you can still do this. Just click on “Add question”. And choose some questions you couldn’t import using the import from document feature.

Step 6: Choose your settings

• Title & reporting tab : enable or disable students to submit their answers
• General tab : Go over the worksheet/ quiz options that are important to you. Can students see the correction immediately after submitting, or do you want to return feedback on your own terms?

BookWidgets document import - What you can and can’t do

There are some extra details that you may want to know when importing documents into BookWidgets.

Besides the fact that this document import option enables you to save time when converting your documents to digital worksheets, it has some more tricks up its sleeve :

Import images

Import math or chemistry formulae

However, there are also some restrictions to the new document import in BookWidgets.

Layout change

PDF import limitations

In some cases, it might be a good thing to try and convert your PDF file into a .docx file. You can use the pdf to docx website for that.

Video tutorial: Import questions from existing MS Word and PDF documents into BookWidgets

Before you go, make sure to watch this handy video tutorial on the BookWidgets DOCX and PDF import feature. Frederic will explain everything to you step-by-step.

I hope you like BookWidgets’ newest addition! Make sure to share this with your fellow teachers who are just getting started converting their existing documents to digital worksheets with BookWidgets.

If you’re new to everything you just read, make sure to start at the beginning and create your first BookWidgets worksheet or quiz:

Create my first digital assignment with BookWidgets

Join hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and get the best content on technology in education.

BookWidgets enables teachers to create fun and interactive lessons for tablets, smartphones, and computers.

Center for Teaching Innovation

Resource library.

• Exam Wrapper Examples

Self-Assessment

Self-assessment activities help students to be a realistic judge of their own performance and to improve their work. 

Why Use Self-Assessment? 

• Promotes the skills of reflective practice and self-monitoring. 
• Promotes academic integrity through student self-reporting of learning progress. 
• Develops self-directed learning. 
• Increases student motivation. 
• Helps students develop a range of personal, transferrable skills. 

Considerations for Using Self-Assessment 

• The difference between self-assessment and self-grading will need clarification. 
• The process of effective self-assessment will require instruction and sufficient time for students to learn. 
• Students are used to a system where they have little or no input in how they are assessed and are often unaware of assessment criteria. 
• Students will want to know how much self-assessed assignments will count toward their final grade in the course. 
• Incorporating self-assessment can motivate students to engage with the material more deeply. 
• Self-assessment assignments can take more time. 
• Research shows that students can be more stringent in their self-assessment than the instructor. 

Getting Started with Self-Assessment 

• Identify which assignments and criteria are to be assessed. 
• Articulate expectations and clear criteria for the task. This can be accomplished with a  rubric . You may also ask students to complete a checklist before turning in an assignment. 
• Motivate students by framing the assignment as an opportunity to reflect objectively on their work, determine how this work aligns with the assignment criteria, and determine ways for improvement. 
• Provide an opportunity for students to agree upon and take ownership of the assessment criteria. 
• Draw attention to the inner dialogue that people engage in as they produce a piece of work. You can model this by talking out loud as you solve a problem, or by explaining the types of decisions you had to think about and make as you moved along through a project. 
• Consider using an “exam wrapper” or “assignment wrapper.” These short worksheets ask students to reflect on their performance on the exam or assignment, how they studied or prepared, and what they might do differently in the future. Examples of exam and homework wrappers can be found through Carnegie Mellon University’s Eberly Center. 

The Feedback Loop

Search this blog, self grading, self grading   .

How to make it work

Virtual self grading, post a comment, popular posts from this blog, back-to-school: consider your feedback system, not grading system, a culture of iteration: policies and practices for a revision-focusedclassroom, part 2 - tools for an equitable feedback system: engaging with criteria.

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Video teaching , immediate feedback via self-grading , ACT®/SAT® test prep videos , and integrated math facts practice create a lot more independence with Saxon Math that benefits everyone. Free yourself from the tedious work of grading lessons every day and instead get involved only when your students need you.

Self-Grading

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• Educational Assessment

Benefits of a Student Self-Grading Model

• October 6, 2009
• Maryellen Weimer, PhD

Given student motivation to get grades and the prevalence of cheating, most faculty would never seriously consider letting students grade their own work. However, self-grading, especially of homework, does accrue some significant benefits. It can move students away from doing homework for points to making them more aware of why and how doing problems helps them learn. If students grade their own work, they see exactly where they are making mistakes. And they obtain that feedback far sooner than if the instructor collects the homework, grades it, and then returns it some days later.

But could a system like this ever be designed so that cheating is controlled? Nelta M. Edwards (reference below) describes a method that shows promise. In his social statistics course, students grade their own homework at the beginning of the period on the day the assignment is due. If a student isn’t in class with completed homework, no credit is awarded. Edwards passes out an answer key that not only provides the correct answer, but shows all the steps needed to solve the problem and includes other comments, explanations, warnings, and tips. Edwards used to make these comments repeatedly on individual problem sets only to discover that students seldom read or heeded the advice. When students grade their own work, Edwards finds that they attend to information on the keys more closely, even using the keys as study guides to prepare for exams.

Students score each problem using a 0 to 4 scale. If they made no attempt to solve the problem, they assign themselves a 0. For an answer that is partially correct, students may assign themselves between 1 and 3 points. A perfect answer gets a 4. Students score each individual problem and then put a total score on the top of their paper.

Edwards then collects the graded homework. “Before the next class, I recheck the self-graded homework. For the first several weeks, I recheck all of the homework very carefully until I think that students have a firm grasp of the grading scale. Later in the semester, I check the homework less thoroughly; in my experience, an overwhelming majority of students grade homework problems either exactly or very closely to how I would have graded them.” (p. 73)

Edwards uses much the same system to have students grade their own exams. In this case, though, correct answers are revealed one at a time on an overhead projector. This keeps everyone on the same page. Edwards also collects and carefully checks student grading on the exams as well.

Student response to this self-grading system is very positive. Eighty-six percent evaluate it either as a “good” or “great” teaching method. And the reasons they give for liking it verify that the approach is accomplishing its intended goals. Students see the value of identifying their own mistakes shortly after making them. “You learn more when you find out what you did right or wrong.” (p. 74)

Edwards sees one final benefit. “My impression is that self-grading alleviates student anxiety and, subsequently, eases student-teacher conflict by demystifying the grading process and making students feel that they have control over their own evaluation.” (p. 75) When students ask questions about homework or exam problems, they are interested in how many points should be taken off for certain kinds of errors. They aren’t complaining about the problems or grousing about the difficulty of the homework assignments or exams.

Reference: Edwards, N. M. (2007). Student self-grading in social statistics. College Teaching , 55 (2), 72-76.

Excerpted from Students Self-Grade: A Successful Model, The Teaching Professor, Aug.-Sept. 2007.

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