Gradescope is a suite of online tools that provides a streamlined, flexible, and consistent grading process.
Integrated with Blackboard, this tool provides on-the-fly rubric creation and features for automated grading which can reduce grading time by up to 50%. Rubrics enable improved consistency and can be re-used across semesters to provide continuous improvement and consistency in grading. Research has demonstrated that when teachers use student progress monitoring, students learn more, teacher decision making improves, and students become more aware of their own performance (Safer & Fleischman, 2005).
Chickering & Gamson (1987) write that giving "Prompt Feedback" (p.2) is fourth in their Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education. Gibbs & Simpson (2004) suggest that feedback is most likely to be effective if it is timely and relevant in such that students can act on it "to improve their future work" (Glover & Brown, 2006, p. 1). Waiting too long before allowing students to act on the feedback can have a negative effect. Brookhart (2008) suggests developing a series of assessments where students will be able to incorporate the feedback immediately to help understand key concepts. Gradescope is a technology that can put these theories into practice.
*Students can submit homework to Gradescope in the following file formats; pdf, jpg/jpeg, gif, and png. Programming assignments may be submitted in all file formats.
Gradescope Getting Started Videos
"...if I was given the choice of using Gradescope or grading by hand, I’d pick Gradescope all day." (TA SP19 pilot)
"The videos on the Getting Started page made learning the software relatively easy. I’d say it took me about an hour to learn the software and do a few practice problems before I felt comfortable with it enough to flow through my grading." (TA SP19 pilot)
"For ABET, it will allow us to more confidently say that we are comparing students equally across each year of the curriculum and more confident improvements or declines are not due to our evaluation methods." (Chris Hansen, Associate Professor, Mech. Engineering, SP19 pilot)
Glover, C. & Brown, E. (2006). Written feedback for students: too much, too detailed or too incomprehensible to be effective?, Bioscience Education, Vol 7, (1) 1-16, DOI: 10.3108/beej.2006.07000004 https://doi.org/10.3108/beej.2006.07000004
Safer, N. & Fleischman, S. (2005) Research Matters / How Student Progress Monitoring Improves Instruction. How Schools Improve. Vol 62, (5) 81-83. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb05/vol62/num05/How-Student-Progress-Monitoring-Improves-Instruction.aspx