Electronic marking of students
assignments
Carlton Wood
5th July 2013
Background
• Associate Dean (Student Support, Regions and Nations
• Responsibilities for tutors (ALs)
• AL myself on level 1 modules
Outline to presentation
• Outline the system we use
• Explain the advantages it offers
• Changes in pedagogic practice
Overview of eTMA system/process
• Student
• writes an eTMA on a word processor
• uploads the eTMA to the University via the internet using a web
browser or by email.
• University system
• confirms the arrival of the eTMA and gives a receipt number
• checks the eTMA for viruses
• places the eTMA in collection box for AL to collect
• sends alerts to the AL stating which eTMAs are available for collection.
Overview (cont)
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AL
collects eTMAs from the University website
marks and annotates the eTMAs
completes PT3 form
zips the eTMAs and uploads them to the OU using a web browser
University system
checks the eTMA for viruses
confirms arrival
adds score to student's assessment record
makes the eTMA available for the student to collect
sends student an email stating that their eTMA is available to collect.
Overview (cont)
• Student
• receives email from eTMA system stating that their
marked eTMA is available (or they can log in at any time
to check this)
• downloads eTMA and PT3 form from the internet and is
able to unzip and read the tutor's marks and comments.
Advantages
• Students need ICT skills - this is a criterion for 'graduateness', and
important for employability and professional recognition.
• We need to keep a competitive edge in an increasingly online world
• Students generally find it easy to use the system to upload their
word processed documents.
• Students appreciate the advantages of 24-hour submission of
TMAs, and they get an immediate receipt.
• Students increasingly expect to be able to submit assignments
electronically as they move from module to module
Advantages (cont)
• Allows more integrated feedback and feed-forward across a module,
• Responding to student queries about a marked TMA is much easier,
• The system allows you to see which students have downloaded the
marked eTMA. Knowing this enables you to follow it up with the
student if this is appropriate.
• If students submit after the cut off date they receive an alert which
says that the tutor is not obliged to mark the assignment unless it has
been agreed.
• Late submissions have reduced on modules using eTMAs – so this
may be helping students with their time management.
Advantages to ALs
• No more collecting understamped/registered post TMAs
from the post office.
• No more concerns about TMAs being lost.
• Scripts and comments are always legible.
• Undisputable submission times, which are recorded on
the system.
• Easy to check word counts.
• Automatic totalling of scores.
Changes to pedagogic practice
• You can have more than one eTMA open at any time,
useful if you want to compare students' assignments.
• You can write the corrections to common errors within a
Word document and copy, paste and customise for
individual students.
Changes to pedagogic practice (cont)
• ALs took some time to find the right approach
– track changes
– comment boxes
– using differently coloured fonts within text
• Difficulties around mathematically rich notations or
complicated diagrams – addressed using tablets PCs,
bamboo tablets but comes at increased costs
Any questions
Carlton Wood
c.k.wood@open.ac.uk