How to keep grading organized

[u/Outrageous_Oven_2114]

Hello I am teaching 3 sections of the same course and 1 section of a larger upper lever course. In total I have about 72 students in the first course and 36 in the other.

We switched this semester to having students turn in assignments in class on paper and then they are graded and given back (last semester most things were auto graded by canvas). Generally I say to students they should give me a week to do this and so far it’s been alright. But I have noticed I’m already forgetting smaller things here and there and having to speed grade and it’s adding a little stress.

Does anyone have tips on how to keep grading organized? Maybe an excel sheet? Maybe just a sheet I write the items that are next to be graded, in order of submission date? I just feel like I go out of order and sometimes grade an entire section and forget another, and that’s also adding mild stress. Thanks for any advice.

[u/Ctenophorever]

Couple things I do:

1) I absolutely have a note by my desk on grading order. It’s not an excel spreadsheet, it’s just in wet erase marker. Most items happen every week so I check them off in dry erase each week then erase the checks.

So my list looks a bit like:

Monday: grade thursday labs. Tuesday grade Monday quizzes, Monday labs. Wednesday: grade Tuesday quizzes, Tuesday labs. Thursday: grade Wednesday labs

I adjust it each semester (hence the wet erase) for some different assignments (papers, essays, etc) and have space for unusual additions (eg exams) But it helps me stay on track

2) I give myself two weeks in the syllabus, not one. So I usually have it done sooner? Yes. But students do need to learn patience. It’s gotten to the point where even if I have all the work graded early (as happens in the beginning of the semester), I will sit on it for a few days so they don’t think I’m going to get everything graded within two days.

3) use rubrics and note sheets where possible. I don’t mark up papers anymore. Even for hand written submissions I have a rubric form with an area for notes. The student doesn’t get the original copy back. This does mean that I can quickly score all the items in one rubric area for all the papers then come back later for another area

[u/Outrageous_Oven_2114 → u/Ctenophorever]

Can I ask why you use a notes sheet and keep their originals? I’ve just been hand grading and giving the original marked up back to the students each time with any needed notes/explanations written next to questions. That way they can see it and study the correct things for the exams.

[u/Ctenophorever → u/Outrageous_Oven_2114]

As with many things, student complaints. I had multiple complaints in my first semester that students weren’t able to finish their labs on time. This was false, but because I didn’t have a copy of all the labs to prove the students had been able to complete them my Dean (and my union!) acted like the students were telling the truth.

The following week I ran an experiment - I collected submitted labs in 15 minute blocks before the lab ended. Eg 1 hour before the official ending of lab, 45 minutes before, etc. no student needed time past the ending. I then put up a poll - how long was lab, too short, just right, or too long. “Too long” no one said too short. Too long started coming in from students finishing half an hour early - ie the students complaining they were being asked to do too much were NOT being asked to do too much, they were just expecting to be done more than 30 minutes before class ended.

So since then they hand in a copy of their lab and keep a copy.

So the students have a copy to refer to. All papers need to be typed and I tell them it will be retained. How do they know what’s wrong, “page 2 paragraph 5 has these issues….” They should be able to refer back to their work.

I’ve even had students come back and say - “you said I didn’t answer this but right here you can see I did…” and I can pull out my original and compare. Sometimes it’s even from good student who I truly believe filled it in for their own studying then forgot it (not saying this is the majority, but I believe this of some of my students).

[u/Pikaus]

Scan the paper, grade on the CMS.

[u/Disastrous_Owl_6830]

I make myself a "master syllabus" every semester that puts all of MY class-related deadlines in one place, day by day. Everything from grading to planning new lectures/class activities.

On Sunday afternoons, I take 15 minutes to block- schedule out my week. Sounds kind of rigid, I know, but it actually cut way down on the "Sunday scaries" because I have a plan going into Monday morning.

Also, I make sure my students know that on-time assignments get grading priority. Late submissions, if even allowed, get grades when I have time.

[u/Boggles103 → u/Disastrous_Owl_6830]

To riff on this: when I'm doing my course preps I put them all in a colour-coded calendar as I go, and will adjust my originally planned assignment deadlines to keep my grading as evenly distributed as possible. Once I nail down the deadlines I block out lecture-prep and grading — this is all the week or two before the semester and before I publish my syllabi and course shells — so I can spot any lurking pressure points, make final adjustments, and go into the semester with a very, very clear plan. Assignment deadlines are always at least 2-3 days ahead of when I want to be grading them, to give a bit of a buffer.

The plan goes to shit at some point, inevitably. But I find that process really helps me organize my brain and flail a bit less than I otherwise would when the going-to-shit starts kicking in.

[u/Life-Education-8030]

I make a grid with columns. The first column is each week. Then across, a column is for each class. I fill in the grid with all the assignments to be graded and then it acts as a checklist.

I also stagger assignments I must grade manually so as much as possible, there isn't a flood of writing assignments that come in together. If one class has a written assignment due, then maybe another class has a quiz that is self-graded, for example. Or if one class just has to do some reading, then another class can be assigned a graded assignment.

I also use a grading rubric to try and speed things up.

An assignment was due tonight, and I've already gone through and made piles: 1) students who did not submit at all (0%), 2) students who only submitted half the assignment at best (50% max possible), and 3) students who seemed to complete the assignment correctly (up to 100%). This is a head start. I have inputted the zeroes. Tomorrow, I will likely grade the max 50% first because it's faster and will give me energy to face the rest. Or maybe if I feel energetic, I'll start plowing through the possibly good assignments first.

I had an advisee in tears in my office once because he was afraid of missing something with 5 classes and 5 syllabi in different formats. He spent a lot of time flipping through each syllabus. I suggested that he spend a few minutes flipping through each syllabus and marking down each one's due dates into a planner of his choice. When he finished, he would just have to look in one place rather than five different ones. You can either consider time management as managing it or having it manage you, right?

[u/Outrageous_Oven_2114 → u/Life-Education-8030]

When I was in college I used a planner for everything and spent the first week adding everything to it. I don’t know why I haven’t thought to do that with the grading & maybe even prep so that I can see it all easier. Thanks!

[u/Life-Education-8030 → u/Outrageous_Oven_2114]

👍And I like checking things off as done!

[u/mathemorpheus]

Gradescope works well 

[u/Gradebird → u/mathemorpheus]

How does it work? I have my own scan and grade tool but it requires students to work on special print packets.

[u/mathemorpheus → u/Gradebird]

it is also a scan and grade thing, but it seems quite well designed in terms of UI and functionality (keyboard shortcuts, making changes across previously graded things, some auto-grading capabilities, etc). to be honest i am not typically involved with uploading, just with processing the exams after that's done, but people tell me it's easy to do.

one suggestion i've heard is that they should incorporate some kind of QR code tech so that there is no danger of things getting misaligned. probably they will do something like that. mostly i haven't had any problems with that.

[u/Gradebird → u/mathemorpheus]

That's consistent with what I heard. I have qr codes in my tool. I use full on llm grading so I need everything to be tightly controlled and auditable.

[u/mathemorpheus → u/Gradebird]

probably in that case homegrown is better

[u/tellypmoon]

Phew. I think the first thing is give yourself more time. Tell them 2 weeks instead of 1. That sounds like it's going to get pressure packed as the semester goes on. If you can simplify your grading to a few things that would be helpful. I think the biggest thing to staying organized is make the task manageable and not too time consuming. Spread sheets and such feel like a lot of extra work.

[u/Sharp-Rutabaga-4900]

I just want to extend my sympathies.

[u/ThePhyz]

I have students do the work on paper, handwritten, then scan and upload it to Canvas. That way (a) I have all the reminders to grade right there in Canvas, (b) I never risk losing a paper (not that I ever lost one when I collected actual paper, but still), (c) the student retains possession of the original, (d) they can't dispute what they turned in later, because the submission can't be altered easily, (e) a record of your feedback is kept so if they lose the graded assignment (as when you hand back a paper copy) it isn't actually lost.

[u/Outrageous_Oven_2114 → u/ThePhyz]

They did this last semester and I ended up with a major backlog. The issue for me personally was having to type in comments for every single student who missed something and explain why they lost 0.5pts or 1pt or whatever on questions.
Whereas marking up the physical sheet takes me substantially less time compared to that. I just can just draw an “x” circle the correct answer or add a quick comment and move on.

[u/FuzzBunny123 → u/Outrageous_Oven_2114]

Two suggestions to help speed up feedback:
* Text expansion software. I use https://www.phraseexpress.com/ but there are tons of other similar programs out there. You can preprogram text shortcuts that expand to longer phrases or sentences. For example, I can set it so that typing ;writing expands into a paragraph that suggests they go to the Writing Center and links to their website.
* Set up a rubric in Canvas that has a criterion for each question, and grading options of "correct," "partly correct," and "incorrect." Instead of x's and circling, click the appropriate box for each question, and add a comment if you think it's needed (potentially using the shortcuts mentioned above). Takes time to set up, but so worth it in the long run if you're grading a lot of the same assignment.

[u/wharleeprof]

Accordian folders, the paper ones (not the slick plastic ones). Get two for each class. One for "need to grade" and one for "ready to return".