Scenario 5:

PROBLEMS WITH A HEAVY MARKING WORKLOAD

Scenario

Were running a course that involves a lot of written assessment Were already at top capacity Next year, student intake will double!

Cannot increase number of staff

Potential solutions

Moodle:

Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) Fill-in blanks Short-answer questions

Random-choice essay assessment Group work:

Essays

Oral presentations
Reliability & validity Word limits

Improving efficiency:

Automated scoring
Good old essays

Moodle

Easy to access (clusters, home) Multiple-choice questions (MCQs)

+ + +

High reliability Automated (so very quick)

Cognitive trigger-recall ()
Only assesses surface learning 25% guess chance (solution: negatives vs. positives) High reliability Potentially automated () No guessing Only surface learning

Fill-in blanks
+ + +

Short-answer questions
+

Deeper learning
Needs human attention

Random-choice essays

Gibbs (1999) Students write and submit a large number of essays Only a subset, chosen at random, is marked
+
+ +

Good for highly essay-based assessment

Saves a lot of marking time Students are constantly learning Potentially frustrating for students No feedback during the course

Group work

Essays
+ +

Saves a lot of marking time Students get overview of whole task

Free-loading (solution: divide marking in halves)

Easy to judge whos been working hard Very quick Development of valuable skill No time to go into depth

Presentation
+ + +

Automated scoring

Computer algorithms that read and assess essays

+

Saves a lot of marking time Would never recognise originality or outstanding students

Potentially insensitive to style

Potential solutions

Moodle:

Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) Fill-in blanks Short-answer questions

Random-choice essay assessment Group work:

Essays

Oral presentations
Reliability & validity Word limits

Improving efficiency:

Automated scoring
Good old essays