The Teaching Timesavers

Stephanie Welten, talked about her project on the use of academic writing rubrics. She highlighted that the use of a (somewhat) detailed rubric can make students see what they did (not) well, where the rubric itself provides valuable information and feedback. In the rubric you can integrate links to websites (e.g., Purdue Online Writing Lab, YouTube video’s) where something students should know or be able to do is explained. This way, students who did not score high on a section of the rubric, can immediately learn how to improve. In this way you can also refer them to lecture recordings or course readings. In the video listed below, Stephanie goes into more detail on how to use rubrics directly within Canvas. If you want to add individual written feedback in addition to the rubric, then it is advised to primarily do this for formative assignments, by asking students what they want feedback on. You can also use the rubric to go through the assignment or provide collective feedback in class, as opposed to providing elaborate individual feedback on each assignment.

Dr. Penny Sheets Thibaut suggested making and using Quickmarks, by making a list of recurring feedback (e.g., in Word or in Canvas) and re-use comments. You can share this list with students, use short notes in assignments and more elaborate feedback in the document (e.g., ‘argumentation’ as feedback in the assignment and then more elaborately explained what the recurring problem related to argumentation is in the shared document).

Dr. Jeroen Jonkman added a short but effective tip to the discussion by stating the importance of timing your grading based on the hours you have available to grade.

Dr. Irene van Driel talked about how students are good at given each other feedback and more importantly learn from the feedback they give to others.

Prof. Dr. Jessica Taylor Piotrowski suggested to build the rubric together with your students in one of the first weeks of the course, based on the assignment description, requirements, and end terms of the course. This way students know well what is expected from them, they ask less questions later and make less mistakes that could have been prevented. Additionally, she suggested that you can meet up with your students during office hours instead of giving elaborate individual written feedback where students can come to understand how to improve their work (they want individual and more tailored feedback in order to develop). Let them e-mail you beforehand with what they want to discuss (e.g., argumentation, structure, particular sections such as the introduction, grasp of theory, analysis, etc.) Furthermore, students can use this time to come to discuss their grade (because they disagree with your assessment). Let students beforehand e-mail you and write a short text (max. 1 A4) in which they argue what exactly they disagree with (e.g., which part of the assignment or rubric) and why they think they should get a higher grade for that section.

Dr. Chip Huisman ended with giving one final tip. Support your younger colleagues. He highlighted that unlike experienced teachers, newer teachers have trouble with large imposing tasks, like effectively using a rubric. So, he implored all the experienced teachers to look after their younger colleagues to help them save time as well.