tools for marking assignments using Microsoft Word

• the description of Marker's Assistant
• the benefits of using Marker's Assistant to mark assignments and papers
• a 24 minute video demonstration
• a 5 minute interview

You may then want to go to the  Marker's Assistant site to view news and support or download Marker's Assistant (trial version).

Description

The Marker's Assistant package contains software, marking rubrics and suggested strategies to assist you when electronically marking assignments using Microsoft Word. It was created because:

• students appreciate and value clear, useful, and timely feedback on assignments
• that such feedback improves learning outcomes and
• the provision of detailed feedback is time-consuming.

Marker's Assistant consists of:

• software that allows you to easily create, edit, manage, store, and backup autotext entries which you can easily add as comments within assignments.
• suggested procedures for most effectively downloading, managing, and returning marked assignments and ways of using these autotext entries as either:
  • inline text
  • word comments
  • word revision marks
  • screen grabs which can be commented on and included in the marking screen
  • end of assignment comments
  • comments and marks which are added to the marking sheet and marking rubric

It is intended that Marker's Assistant 1.0 will be available on July 1, 2008.  Before then you can download Marker's Assistant (trial version) from the Marker's Assistant site

Benefits of using Marker's Assistant

Markers benefit when they have tools that:

• allows rapid creation and reuse of detailed comment banks
• automate laborious processing e.g. adding and rescaling marks
• leverages Word's spelling, grammar and proofing tools

Students benefit when feedback is:

• detailed
• timely
• provides advice for improving future assignments
• based on clearly understandable marking criteria and processes

The following graph shows how students more positively valued assignments that were marked using Marker's assistant.

Video demonstration

Start the video demonstration showing creation of comment banks, including comments in assignments, and completing marking sheets which automatically add marks. (This video may take a little while to start depending on your connectivity to the net.)

5 minute interview about Marker's Assistant

Play the 5 minute interview about Marker's Assistant.

Go to the Marker's Assistant site to view news and support or download Marker's Assistant (trial version).

Copyright © 2007 Peter Evans. All rights reserved.