Pathways for improving support for the electronic management and marking of assignments

Abstract

This article investigates the support e-learning can provide for the management and marking of assignments. The work is contextualised in the importance of assessment with assignments in tertiary education, in the theories about high quality marking of assignments, and the practical experiences of academics at tertiary institutions. The tasks that need to be carried out as part of assignment management and marking are detailed. A set of requirements is derived based on the education literature and on practical needs established in interviews with academics. Possible architectures for an e-learning system implementing these requirements are suggested and arguments are provided towards using an architecture that combines existing learning management system functionality for assignments with a specialised assignment management and marking application. A specific implementation based on Moodle and Lightwork is introduced. The article concludes with thoughts on the cognitive fit of learning management systems for assignment marking tasks and their core roles in supporting teaching and learning.

Innovative assignment rubrics for ODL courses: design, implementation and impact

“…Most of the external subject-matter experts developed the rubrics based on traditional classroom setting; however, simply transferring assignment rubrics from the traditional classroom to the ODL environment is not always the best decision (Hemby et al , 2006). Jonsson (2014) reviewed that “rubrics can facilitate improvements if combined with other meta-cognitive learning activities” and went further to add on “but there is limited evidence supporting the claim that the use of rubrics by itself for self-learning leads to improvements in performance.” Rubrics will normally contain criteria with descriptions directed at learners; however, rubrics can also contain descriptions directed at other stakeholders such as graders “for guidance and comment banks associated with the criteria” (Heinrich et al , 2012). Rubrics can both teach and evaluate, but many rubrics received from the subject-matter experts only emphasized on evaluation whereby it indicates in which level the learners fall into, but did not show or teach learners how to achieve the highest level of performance (Hemby et al , 2006; Reddy and Andrade, 2010).…”

The Experience of Online Marking and the Future Development of Online Marking Practice

“…Yet, while new technologies are an important consideration it is not the only one. Clearly for staff to engage fully in online marking, such as GradeMark, a number of considerations have and need wider discussion (Heinrich, Milne & Granshaw, 2012).…”

Higher Education in Times of Covid-19: Giving Online Feedback Implementation Another Look

“…Assessments and feedback are integral to student achievement of educational goals and motivation (e.g. Brown, Peterson, & Irving, 2009;Grieve, Padgett, & Moffitt, 2016;Heinrich, Milne, & Granshaw, 2012). They can promote self-regulated learning (Brown, Peterson, & Yao, 2016), and student engagement is directly impacted by feedback (Ferguson, 2011).…”