December 27th, 2017

Resolve to Reduce Grading Time This Year

Teachers can achieve their New Year’s resolution to drastically reduce grading time with a few helpful features from GradeCam.

To state the obvious, teachers spend a lot of time grading papers. The more time spent grading, the more focus is taken away from instruction and giving students individual attention. GradeCam’s goal is to create online grading tools that reduce the time teachers spend grading and give them more time for what matters in the classroom.

However, “spend less time grading” is a nebulous concept that, like most New Year’s Resolutions, can be easily forgotten once you return to the routines of everyday life. Like any goal, your objective needs to be tangible and measurable.

GradeCam is here to help you get a handle on how much time you’re actually spending grading and then dramatically reduce that number with a few key features.

 

How to Reduce Your Grading Time

 

1. Know your grading data

Similar to how you collect student performance data, let’s collect data on your grading to know for sure how much time you’re spending.

 

How many homework papers do you grade?

Let’s talk homework. If you figure a teacher grades homework for 30 students, four nights a week, that’s 120 pieces of just homework for an elementary class. For a secondary class, there are teachers who have six classes with 30 students. That’s 180 pieces of paper per day in homework, 720 pieces if assigned four nights per week.

These stats only consider homework alone, not counting regular work. You must be exhausted! That’s a lot of paperwork!

Depending on how long it takes you to grade each paper, we’ve crunched some numbers for you:

No matter how you slice it, that’s a lot of time!

The last column shows how much time it takes to grade the average assessment with GradeCam. Even if you only replace one assignment a week with a GradeCam scan form, you’ll save hours of time.

 

2. Factor in Gradebook-Log Time

Not only do you review each paper, you then log the score in your gradebook. How much extra time does this take you? Minutes per assessment? Hours per week?

Just hit F8!

If you used GradeCam to grade your assessment, you can log your grades into any electronic gradebook with one keystroke. The GradeCam hotkey “F8” does the trick. (For more information, here’s a tutorial.)

 

3. Examine your lesson plans.

At GradeCam, we make it easy to turn any assignment type into a scanning opportunity. Review your lesson plans and see if any of your traditional assignments can be swapped out for one of these assessment tools:

 

Multiple Choice and True/False Question Types

Our most-used and trustworthy scan forms are bubble sheets with the traditional multiple-choice format or true/false options.

See our tutorials for creating a multiple-choice exam form or adding a true/false question type.

 

Number Grids

A necessity for math classrooms, our number grid question type allows students to bubble in numbers and symbols on a grid-like form.

See our tutorial on creating number grid question types here.

 

Rubrics

We know all work can’t be bubbled. That’s why we’ve created a solution for when you need to judge an objective answer and record a score.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, a rubric is a set of criteria used when evaluating. For example, you may use a scale of 0-5, zero being a poor understanding of the topic to five being an excellent demonstration of understanding.

 

Rubric Question-Type

The rubric question type option can be used for scoring just about anything. Student presentations, oral assessments, or handwritten long and short answer questions – just to name a few examples.

Here’s more information on how to create a rubric question type on your scan sheet.

 

Rubric with Capture Question-Type

One of our newest features takes scoring rubrics to a new level. Now, you can use the rubric with capture question type that provides space for students to write out short answers up to ten lines long, directly on the scan sheet.

GradeCam can then digitally capture and incorporate an image of the handwriting onto the answer sheet so you can view it and assign points right from your mobile device or desktop. No more lugging home piles of papers!

For more info on our rubric with capture question type, see our tutorial here.

 

Numeric Handwriting Recognition

We can not tell you how excited we are about the most groundbreaking grading feature we’ve ever released. We use artificial intelligence technology to actually read your student’s numeric handwriting. That’s right! GradeCam deciphers your students’ hastily scrawled numbers so you don’t have to.

Find more info about numeric handwriting recognition here.

 

Credit Form

The credit form is designed for credit/no credit assignments. You set the number of points awarded if the form is scanned. If the form isn’t scanned, no points are awarded.

See our credit form tutorial for more information.

 

Score Form

If an assignment doesn’t allow for a bubble sheet format, you have another option. Our score forms allow you to grade an assignment and the bubble in the student’s overall score. You can then scan the forms for quick entry into your gradebook.

See our score form tutorial for more information.

 

Crush this New Year’s Resolution!

Have you crunched the numbers on your grading time? How many hours can you shed off that number each week?

The data doesn’t lie. We believe with a few simple changes in your assessment process, you can save yourself hours of grading time with GradeCam! Sign up for a free account in the box below and get starting on crushing your 2018 grading resolution.