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How to Improve Your Digital Grading

Grading on a phone

Educators who have never used electronic grading software often find the leap from pen and paper to digital grading intimidating. If you’ve never done it before, it can be a challenge to jump into this new skill without support. Fortunately, there are many ways to improve your skills in this area, and there’s never been a […]

8 tips for designing short answer questions

image of woman at desk designing short answer questions

Previously, we discussed how to design effective multiple choice questions. In that article, we covered ten ways to create multiple choice questions and debated multiple choice questions vs. short answer questions. While both formats have their merits, short answer questions can give instructors a better look at their students’ understanding of the material. Short answer questions […]

Focusing on Giving Online Students Feedback

The first 7 letters of the alphabet

Understanding what students are trying to say, even when it’s unclear or poorly written, is an ongoing challenge for instructors at any level. On the flip side, students often get frustrated when a teacher gives them a grade or criticism clear to the teacher, but not to the students themselves. Providing feedback is a balancing […]

How can practical studies be moved online?

picture of student studying online

How do you teach metalworking or observe students dissect a cadaver over Zoom? How do you grade students’ performance in Physical Education when they’re not physically in front of you? These are just some of the hundreds of questions teachers and instructors worldwide asked themselves when the COVID-19 pandemic prompted school shutdowns. Fortunately, some real-life […]

Feedback blues: 5 steps to seeing instructor feedback as ‘constructive’ and not ‘critical’

student reviewing feedback from their instructor

When students submit homework or a large assignment, they may experience high levels of anxiety. If you’ve ever submitted a project titled Essay_Final, you understand this feeling completely. Most students, especially in post-secondary education, pour their heart and soul into assignments before submission, forming a level of attachment to their work. As a result, receiving constructive […]

Bolstering TA-Instructor Relationships Remotely

Instructor talking in front of monitor

The instructor–teaching assistant relationship can be one of the most vital partnerships in the education world. This relationship fosters mentoring from the instructor onto the teaching assistant, who will hopefully assume the instructor’s position one day. The instructor–TA relationship also needs to be strong to make the mentoring relationship effective. Here are some pointers on […]

Teaching Burnout? How to Reshape your Method of Examination with Students

Student with their face in a book

In a matter of weeks, the pandemic uprooted the standard testing and assessment methods that many teachers trusted for years. If they weren’t already doing so in some capacity, teachers had to figure out new or more effective ways of creating lesson plans and grading papers for a remote education setup. Of course, the result […]

Do Open Book Tests Deserve a Comeback?

picture of a student about to do a test

The open book exam, while well-seasoned, is not the most popular method of assessment in modern education. However, with many students enrolled in online learning, does open book testing serve a better or more functional purpose as we advance our testing methods? In this article, we’ll examine the various pros and cons of considering open book […]

Why universities need digital grading software now more than ever

teacher at chalkboard writing

Digital grading software describes any program or app that teachers can use to track, assess and monitor student assignments and progress. They are effective at keeping both students and teachers alike up-to-date with assignments and students’ progress. If the COVID-19 pandemic revealed anything about the education system, our traditional pedagogy methods need improvement. This post will […]

How Remote Learning will Change after the Pandemic

Student walking to class with a laptop

In March 2020, student learning and the collective teaching experience worldwide came to an unprecedented change during the school year’s early days, with school teachers and students facing nation-wide brick and mortar school closures. By the end of March, the OECD estimated that over 421 million children were affected by school closures in 39 countries, with an […]

Best college grading software of 2021

woman using a college grading platform

With most instructors now teaching remotely, gone are the days of paper shuffling and red pens. Consequently, there’s a high demand to find the best online grading software. While grading tools have always existed and the technology is not new, remote learning has pushed remote grading software to the forefront in 2020. However, as an […]

Remote Learning in the 1800s? Can we Learn from Teachers of the Past?

Photo album with old black and white photos

Distance learning is not a modern invention. While technology makes modern-day remote communication, learning and teaching easier, learning from afar existed before many of our great grandparents were born. Without cloud-based apps, internet access, and online classrooms, distance learning looked a lot different from how it looks now, showing students’ practical use through the 19th, […]

COVID anxiety? You’re not alone. How students are coping with pandemic fatigue

Woman with hand on her head looking down at a laptop

Stress and anxiety can be dangerous in mental health conditions. If you feel like you’re struggling with stress or anxiety, you are not alone. This article contains strategies that may be useful, as well as links to mental health resources. Please do not hesitate to seek help! We are all in this together. The pandemic […]

How to design multiple choice questions: Is there a right and a wrong way?

Student reading a text book

The multiple choice question is a tried and trusted method used for generations of standardized and long format tests. In modern assessment, the multiple choice format can pose challenges, leading to poorly-assessed learning, high incidences of academic integrity violations, and students who are not understanding the material. Multiple-choice question types have not significantly evolved since […]

How to prevent achievement gaps if you’re teaching online

Student completing work on a laptop

For many years now, we’ve heard the term “achievement gap” mentioned in various news reports, political campaigns, and other media formats. The “achievement gap” is a challenge because, in one classroom, you will likely have students with varying levels of ability, meaning some are ahead of or behind the curve. To close the achievement gap […]

Does online learning make the group assignment unfair?

Women sitting at a desk reading with her hands pressed against her temples

Whether it’s the library, the lab, or a local coffee shop, meeting with classmates to finish a project has never been easy. Now, with social distancing restrictions requiring us to stay apart, group projects seem almost impossible. Coordinating and communicating with classmates to complete a fully realized project in its analysis and output is difficult without […]

SWOT: An in-depth look at the pros and cons of distance learning

educator assessing an assessment online

Distance learning has always been subject to some level of scrutiny. Even now that tens of millions of students worldwide have had to learn virtually due to the pandemic, the majority of people may still be skeptical or critical of virtual classes and virtual learning. However, like all forms of education, online learning can be […]

What students have to say about “pandemic” grading & how you can help them

student walking on campus

Professors, faculty members, and parents unanimously agree—COVID-19 has made assignments and workloads challenging. But what about the students? It’s easy to overlook the immense challenges they face as they must now study through remote-based learning, even if they are part of a tech-savvy generation. The pandemic forces students from around the world into virtual classrooms. […]

Tight Feedback Loop: The key to Distance Learning that Works

A student writing at a desk

One of the most significant challenges distance learning poses is providing useful feedback promptly to students. Monitoring students’ performance and development can be difficult when you can’t see them face-to-face in a physical learning environment. Already-vulnerable or lagging students may very well slip through the cracks as the school year progresses. Students feeling the pressure […]

5 stats that will change your mind about online learning

Student handwriting an exam

As classrooms worldwide transition to remote learning, many instructors, parents, and students are concerned about distance education’s efficacy. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning is quickly becoming the “new normal” and is likely here to stay. Fortunately, there’s plenty of research to prove that online teaching methods are quite useful and often more successful […]

5 Ways to Prevent Cheating in Online Assessment

student who might be cheating on an exam

With the majority of Fall 2020’s academic term being conducted online, much discussion is taking place around academic integrity and the best ways to prevent students from cheating when assessing remotely. As an instructor, it is important to recognize that cheating will never be absolutely preventable. It is a well-documented fact that as we evolve assessment methods, […]

Teaching practices for your virtual classroom

woman in front of computer frustrated

Many in-person courses are now moving to virtual learning environments. Virtual learning has the same goal as face-to-face learning and that goal is to get students to engage with the material and interact with you, classmates and the subject matter. Something that will never change is the fact that instructors are what makes virtual courses […]

Students have 24/7 access to feedback with Crowdmark at the University of Auckland

Crowdmark has become widely used at the University of Auckland, albeit with a little “encouragement” from Andrew Eberhard, faculty member in the university’s Business School and Director of its Business Masters program. Key in this was getting academics at his institution to see just how “easy and great” it was to use. The university had digital […]

Timely, rich, and consistent assessment feedback at McGill with Crowdmark

Student writing a pen and paper response to a test viewed on a laptop

Timely. Rich. Consistent. These were words that came to mind for Dr. Laura Pavelka, Faculty Lecturer at McGill’s Department of Chemistry, when asked about the impact that Crowdmark had on the feedback her students were receiving. Dr. Pavelka first started using Crowdmark in 2015 to help manage her large, administratively unwieldy chemistry classes. Having taught to […]

How to Proctor Pre-Existing Assessments Remotely

Woman working on a laptop at home

This article was updated on March 15, 2021. Given the recent health risks to our learning communities, the Crowdmark team would like to share some best practices for administering practical remote exams. 1. Create your exam using the Assigned Assessment feature The Assigned Assessment is Crowdmark’s version of a take-home exam. It enables you to import an exam […]

Georgia Tech uses Crowdmark for distance education exams

“It was all unicorns and rainbows”. That was the half-joking response of Dr. Greg Mayer, Academic Professional Associate in Georgia Tech’s School of Mathematics, when asked what his initial reactions were when first using Crowdmark. Dr. Mayer has a long history of innovative pedagogy, marked by his involvement in Georgia Tech’s Dual Enrollment high school math program. […]

Ensuring continuity of education with remote grading workflows

students in a classroom learning cooperatively

At Crowdmark, we’re concerned about how COVID-19 is impacting our community of students and educators. We recognize the immense costs that school closures – even when temporary – carry for communities, ranging from interrupted learning to social isolation. In order to support our community of educators as well as those institutions that are not currently […]

New feature: Course roster and team management

Image of new feature showcasing a list of student names, emails, ID, section and action settings in Crowdmark.

This feature will allow instructors to set up their students and team for a course once, rather than for each assessment. Crowdmark will automatically handle students who have added or dropped the course each time you update the roster. When creating an assessment you will still have the flexibility to select which students, sections, and […]

In Memoriam

Carsten Kenneth Nielsen26 September 1984 — 31 May 2019 Carsten Nielsen was a beloved member of the Crowdmark team from 2015 through 2019. In his role as a software developer his passion, talent and enthusiasm for our mission had a big and lasting impact on our team and our company. Everyone on the team loved […]

Immersive technology in higher education

To what extent will augmented reality and 3D printing affect post-secondary teaching and learning? Over the past year, academic instructors and IT teams at Florida International University, Hamilton College, Syracuse University, and Yale University participated in a research project commissioned by Educause and Hewlett-Packard to explore the best practices for adopting and integrating immersive technology […]

Ontario university lowers value of SETs

Students have hands raised in class

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) may no longer serve as measures of teaching effectiveness for promotion or tenure at Ontario’s Ryerson University. SETs may continue their use in the context or advancement decisions; however, they are no longer an acceptable quantitative metric in the decision-making process. The finding concludes the most effective way to evaluate […]

Aligning goals at the start of the semester

Student writing down their goals on a notepad

Value, expectancies, and environment. These are the three most important factors influencing student motivation according to the 2010 book, How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. Preparing his course syllabi, readings, and assignments for the upcoming semester with these three factors in mind, University of Iowa instructor David Gooblar asks a single question to […]

Engagement strategies for the new semester

Teacher writing on a whiteboard

Whether you’re a novice or seasoned instructor, the dawn of a new semester is often one of the most overwhelming times of the year. There are syllabi to write, lectures to prepare and/or update, assessments to develop, and teaching assistants to train. Unfortunately, all this preparation may be a sunk cost once you enter the […]

Using a rubric in Crowdmark

Educator typing on a laptop

Facilitators can create rubrics in advance of grading by creating shared comments with points in the Comment library. When a comment is shared, it will appear in the Comment libraries and comment suggestions of all Graders and Facilitators on the team. Team members can then drag and drop the comments onto student work to apply […]

Text to pixels

pixel image of a game

Students at the University of Hull are immersing themselves in video games to gain a deeper understanding of the theory posited by their course literature. To bolster students’ understanding of core concepts and theories, learning technologist Joel Mills collaborated with Hull instructors in chemistry, history, archaeology, and business by building virtual course environments for their […]

How I use Crowdmark outside of STEM

teacher at chalkboard writing

This January I had the opportunity to develop and teach a course in applied social media at Centennial College’s Bachelor of Public Relations Management program. The notion of crafting, and teaching to, a fresh curriculum was daunting at first, but I had the support of both wonderful colleagues and Crowdmark. Throughout the course students were […]

Introducing the Crowdmark Portfolio for Students

On August 8, 2018 Crowdmark will release a major new feature for students—the Crowdmark Portfolio. This means students will be required to access all of their Crowdmark assessments in one place by signing in to our secure platform. What does this mean for instructors? After you distribute an assigned assessment or return a graded assessment […]

New feature: The grading grid is back

teacher at chalkboard writing

You asked. We listened. The infamous grading grid that provides our graders with an overview of the grading progress has made its triumphant return to Crowdmark. Now accessible from both the Dashboard and the Grading interface, the Overview grid will be displayed as a modal window that overlays the working screen. Rows of the grid […]

Re: Freedom of choice for 400 students

kids working on a tablet

In the April issue of the Journal of Assessment and Analytics there was an article that very positively presented an approach to grading that a professor at Tulane University was using to give her students “more control over their own learning.” Her grading plan included seven items each with a four-percentage point range within which students could choose the […]

How do you use Crowdmark?

group of students at a desk using Crowdmark software

Students and instructors are using the Crowdmark platform to improve their learning and grading in all kinds of interesting ways. Many students are eschewing paper, instead using Crowdmark to create digital portfolios of their work. Why waste paper writing up an assignment when you can work out your solutions on a whiteboard, take a photo […]

A case for band scores

Image of educators collaborating over group work.

Using percentiles is a ubiquitous method of evaluating and communicating students’ academic performance throughout their primary, secondary, and tertiary education. However, despite their prevalence, many scholars and educators such as Thomas Guskey eschew the utility and accuracy of assigning student performance to a 100-point scale, instead calling for a return to the arguably more informative […]

Statement of goals and choices

Let’s face it: many students go through the motions when completing an assignment. These final products are generally composed of a surface-level analysis of the prompt and a checklist of content meeting the minimum viable standards mentioned in the rubric. To encourage students to focus on the process—rather than the result—of assignments, a growing number […]

Freedom of choice for 400 students

Image of educators collaborating over group work.

Toni Weiss, economics professor at Tulane University, was presented with the following challenge: provide the 400 students in her introductory course more control over their own learning. This is a daunting task for a single professor teaching a class of 20 students; it can be paralyzing for a class 20x that size where the path […]

Bridging the math gap in biology

The ability to effectively use mathematical models in understanding and communicating the foundations of biology is a waning skill among of freshmen students in the United States (PCAST, 2012). Worrying that this “mathematics gap” may dissuade students from pursuing a degree in a STEM field, a consortium of educators at six liberal arts colleges and […]

Check in early and often: Set students up for success

teacher at chalkboard writing

An overarching criticism of student evaluations of teaching (SET) is they are often a measure of student satisfaction rather than learning outcomes. There are myriad other criticisms. Evaluations are regularly completed at the end of the course, so professors have little opportunity to adjust their instruction, the feedback is often more negative for women and […]

Active learning in the classroom

kids working on a tablet

Active learning is disrupting the traditional format of transmission-based lectures, cultivating transactional and transformational classroom environments in which students share responsibility for their own learning alongside their peers and instructors. While there are a range of activities which fall under the auspices of active learning, the pedagogical style is commonly defined as activities that students […]

Embracing an improvisational mindset in engineering

teacher at chalkboard writing

Just say yes, start anywhere, and embrace your mistakes. These are not only the foundations of theatre improvisation, but also the key principles of problem solving and innovation in engineering. For nearly 25 years, Joseph Holtgrieve has been supporting Northwestern University engineering students develop foundational knowledge for practice in addition to critical skills such as […]

Digital storytelling in STEM

Students in the Faculty of Science at the University of Technology Sydney are using digital media platforms to enhance their comprehension of—and communication skills in—scientific foundations. A lecturer in the Faculty of Science, Jorge Reynas saw an opportunity to improve the way his students learn and retain information through Learner-Generated Digital Media assessments (LGDM). Starting […]

New feature: Flexible grading

educator assessing an assessment online

Fasten your seat belts Crowdmarkers, we have a big product announcement! In January 2018 we will be launching our new Flexible grading feature. This has been in the works for quite some time based on numerous requests from our community of educators. Flexible grading will enable your team to grade multiple questions on a single […]

New feature: Points on comments

teacher at chalkboard writing

Earlier this year we introduced a library feature to keep your collection of comments organized. This allowed Facilitators to edit comments in bulk and create comments for team use. In this release we have added points to comments. This not only improves grader consistency but also saves time entering and adding up scores. Comments can […]

New feature: Multiple choice

Have you wanted to use Crowdmark for some assessments but you’ve been held back because of multiple choice exams? This is no longer an issue. Educators can now include multiple choice/bubble sheets in exams. This means you can have long answer, short answer and multiple choice in any of your exams and grade them on […]

Interview with Fiona Dunbar, University of Waterloo

student being graded in an online course

Panicked eyes and pale expressions. This is the response Fiona Dunbar gets from her colleagues when she jokingly raises the notion of returning to traditional grading. The lecturer at the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing was an early adopter of Crowdmark, and now uses it as often as she can to enrich […]

Interview with Sara Lapan, University of California, Riverside

teacher at chalkboard writing

Developing, coordinating, and teaching university math courses is a daunting experience, but one Sara Lapan handles with aplomb with her passion for education and a little help from Crowdmark. This Assistant Professor of teaching at the University of California, Riverside, is responsible for introducing Precalculus to around 300 students per term. Sara was introduced to […]

Interview with Robert Craigen, University of Manitoba

Photograph of Professor Robert Craigen in front of whiteboard.

Robert Craigen is one of many instructors across Canada using Crowdmark to provide his students with more formative feedback. Robert’s first experience with Crowdmark was during the 2012 Canadian Open Mathematics Competition (COMC). This was the beta test of Crowdmark’s grading platform, where Robert and 146 other graders across Canada used the platform to grade […]

Augmenting reality in medical education

woman at computer with lightbulb

Holographic patients are bringing a new dimension of teaching and learning to the nursing curriculum at the University of Canberra. The Australian university is introducing HoloLens, a mixed augmented reality platform by Microsoft, to gauge its potential in teaching, assessing, and potentially changing nursing education. Traditionally, patient assessment is taught using mannequins or actors. However, […]

Education through exploration

Ariel Anbar’s students learn science by exploring the unknown rather than mastering the facts. As the director of the Centre for Education Through Exploration (ETX Center) at Arizona State University, Anbar aims to disrupt the traditionally siloed and rote teaching approaches of STEM education by promoting the pedagogy of science exploration through engaging and adaptive […]

Releasing Your Rubrics

Pen with paper showing checkboxes of outstanding-to-unsatisfactory options

Few will argue against the value of rubrics. Relatively easy to design in both low and high-tech environments, and adaptable to virtually every type of assignment and academic discipline, the ubiquitous tool has helped countless instructors and teaching assistants grade in a more consistent and efficient manner. They may also offer the same benefits to […]

Automatic grading to improve scientific literacy

Educators at Wake Forest University are developing an automatic feedback platform to improve the scientific literacy and communication skills of STEM undergraduates. Strong communication skills are becoming a necessity for pursuing an academic or professional career in the STEM industry; however, a disproportionate number of students are entering the workforce with inadequate writing skills. Over […]

The digital shift in higher education

Instructor teaching a class on students

Photo courtesy of Roanoke College Digital technologies are transforming higher education for the better. While the core principles of higher education remain consistent throughout the centuries, the technological advances achieved in the past 30 years have made academia more accessible, equitable, and—certainly in terms of research and grading—productive. Students beginning—or returning—to their campus this September have […]

Productivity, flexibility and insight from Crowdmark

image of student looking in the distance

Welcome back! The Crowdmark team is excited to collaborate with educators to help students learn. This post provides an update on where Crowdmark is now and where the platform is headed over the upcoming academic year. Crowdmark started as a productivity tool for paper-based exams and has since grown into a universal assessment platform. Crowdmark […]

Screencasting

Instructor giving feedback to a student

This article was updated on March 15, 2021. Screencasts are an innovative grading tool for instructors to provide personalized feedback for students in online courses, especially for students who require academic accommodation. As an alternative—or addition—to traditional handwritten feedback, instructors may send short videos addressing specific sections of students’ assignments while orally discussing areas of […]

The Art of Multiple Choice

person doing multiple choice test

Multiple choice has a mixed reputation. Some educators swear by multiple choice as an efficient way to design, administer and grade assessments targeting student comprehension of core concepts. Other educators critique it for the same reasons, emphasizing its overuse in assessments and the lack of formative feedback provided to students. Fortunately, there are ways to […]

Managing ePortfolios

teacher at chalkboard writing

People regularly organize myriad aspects of their lives—careers, projects, and finances—into portfolios for easy reference and reflection. It is a valuable habit and one that educators are introducing to students at an early stage through ePortfolios. An ePortfolio is a cloud-based repository and assessment tool where students—in any academic discipline—may upload and organize course assignments […]

New feature: Automated matching through artificial intelligence

teacher at chalkboard writing

The Crowdmark team is very excited to announce the launch of a Beta version of our Automated Matching feature. Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Crowdmark is now able to automatically match exams to student identity. This new feature will eliminate manual matching and save you hours per administered assessment. OCR uses artificial intelligence to read […]

New feature: Comment library

teacher at chalkboard writing

The comment library Comments are an invaluable tool to provide personalized feedback when grading assessments. We’ve made the process of leaving comments more efficient and added a library feature to keep your collection of comments organized. Facilitators can now edit comments in bulk and create comments for team use. Frequently used comments We’ve updated the […]

New feature: Distance education and accessibility support

Crowdmark, in partnership with OCE, the University of Waterloo and the University of Guelph, designed and launched a new feature to support distance education and accessibility services. Distance education students and co-op students who are living and working away from campus have to write exams too. Until now, this required extra planning and logistics to print […]

Comprehensive calculus preparedness

Students sitting together and smiling.

In 2013 the University of Portland developed an innovative assessment program to improve the retention rates and academic success of at-risk engineering students. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the seven-element program provides freshmen and sophomores with academic, social, and professional support while providing faculty with regular qualitative and quantitative insights into their progress. […]

Approaching student evaluations

Student evaluations stir up a lot of emotions within faculty, administrators, and students. No one argues with the concept of student evaluations being necessary measures of teaching competency and student learning, but their effectiveness and reliability in doing so is contentious. Part of this is due to nearly every institution administering the evaluations with their […]

Comprehension through ConcepTests

teacher at chalkboard writing

Students may nod along during lecture, but is the information really getting through? The next time you’re unsure, considering using a ConceptTest, a quick and efficient strategy to gauge and address student comprehension mid-lecture. Developed by Harvard physics professor Eric Mazur, ConcepTests allow instructors to nimbly and proactively address gaps in student comprehension without engaging […]

Accountable group work

Students working on an assessment in the library

Photo courtesy of University of Wolverhampton For most of my academic career I loathed group work. I often found myself doing the majority of the work and receiving the same grade as my teammates who contributed nothing. There was little individual accountability during and after assignments, and the process became frustrating. It wasn’t until my third […]

Challenging misconceptions of assessments

There are a number of misconceptions regarding the role of assessment in contemporary education. Unfortunately while these beliefs may shape opinions outside of education, they also have the potential to influence the attitudes and behaviours of current instructors and students. Following are three prominent misconceptions towards assessments and ways to address them in the classroom: […]

Addressing Academic Dishonesty

Person taking test while looking at phone under desk

This article was updated on March 15, 2021. Dealing with academic dishonesty is a nightmare for any instructor. When suspicions of cheating arise, the onus often falls on the professor to demonstrate proof, secure the assessment’s integrity, and identify the guilty students. It’s a painful scenario that damages professors and institutions’ reputations and destroys students’ […]

Classroom tickets: A way to motivate preparedness?

teacher at chalkboard writing

Want students to arrive in each class prepared and ready to engage with the material? Consider charging a ticket—a brief academic prompt—for admission. In order to enter or exit the classroom, a growing number of instructors are having have students submit a brief response relating to the course readings or information presented in lecture. These […]

ABET vs. CEAB accreditation

This article was updated on March 15, 2021. Accreditation signifies that programs have undergone a process of peer-review and were determined to meet or exceed the established benchmark of quality. While the process is voluntary, ABET and CEAB accreditation is necessary for engineering and technology programs across Canada and the United States to remain competitive, […]

Why don’t students collect grades?

Stack of paper exams

Students and instructors are using the Crowdmark platform to improve their learning and grading in all kinds of interesting ways. Many students are eschewing paper, instead using Crowdmark to create digital portfolios of their work. Why waste paper writing up an assignment when you can work out your solutions on a whiteboard, take a photo […]

Improving grading efficiency with Crowdmark

teacher at chalkboard writing

Andrew Eberhard, a Professional Teaching Fellow at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Business and Economics, is responsible for teaching and grading thousands of undergraduate students each year. While Andrew has a genuine passion for teaching—earning five awards of excellence since 2011—he quickly found grading to be a logistical nightmare. When preparing to grade an […]

Assessment is an arc, not episodic

Twenty-five years ago, the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) published the “Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning”, a framework which continues to shape and influence pedagogy in academic environments across the world. The framework posits that instructors and administrators must embrace assessment as an arc, rather than an episode, aligning them with […]

Preemptive Assessment

woman thinking and doing preemptive assessment

Few instructors have ever taught a course in which all students enter sharing a uniform level of knowledge, theory, and skill. Even when factoring in filters such as year levels and course prerequisites, students will enter courses with a broad range of subject matter comprehension. Unfortunately, instructors are often unaware of these gaps until the […]

The benefits of failure

Young distressed woman with forehead on table, surrounded by crumpled up papers.

You’re sitting in class eagerly anticipating the return of your latest exam. The professor approaches your desk, hands back your booklet and your heart sinks as you gaze upon the scarlet letter in the top-right-hand corner. Sound familiar? It’s a feeling most of us have experienced and can still vividly recall. It may also be […]

Wrap up your assessments

What is often the first thing students do when receiving a freshly evaluated assessment? They flip through the booklet—pages brimming with a wealth of feedback—only to land on the final page for their grade. This is all too often the extent to which students will interact with the returned assessment, much to the chagrin of […]

Is grade inflation an assessment issue?

Grade inflation is a result—rather than the cause—of poor assessment practices in higher education. In a recent study from Penn State Erie, The Behrend College suggests that some instructors who believe they are using “badly designed or poorly executed assessments” are more likely to engage—either consciously or subconsciously—in lenient grading as a corrective measure. To […]

Re-adjusting flipped learning

Students working on an assessment in the library

A growing number of post-secondary classrooms are adopting the “flipped” learning model. This pedagogical style reverses the traditional model of lecture followed by assessment, by having students learn the fundamentals on their own time—through pre-recorded lectures or readings—and dedicating class time to applied exercises and discussions. Proponents of the model say it improves comprehension and […]

Motivate students with data and feedback

A recent study by the Michigan School of Information, in collaboration with Blackboard, sought to determine whether providing students with personal performance data and motivational feedback at specific times throughout the semester will improve study habits and GPAs. To test this hypothesis, 47 student volunteers were enrolled in a simulated classroom environment and divided into […]

Introducing Parallel Evaluations

woman at computer with lightbulb

Multiple evaluations left on student work Instructors who use Crowdmark have requested improved ways to collaboratively grade. Our new feature, Parallel Evaluations, allows Facilitators to compare and extend evaluations left by Graders. We will soon update the grading interface to make ownership and tracking of feedback more transparent. These changes enable instructors to get new […]

Dealing with grade challenges

Pile of paper assessments ready for grading

Photo courtesy of Tom Henderson They typically begin trickling in 15 minutes after grades are shared with students.. You watch helplessly as your unread messages steadily grow along with your feelings of anxiety and annoyance. There is no escaping grade challenges, regardless of whether you’re a tenured professor or a teaching assistant. You can, however, take […]

Crowdmark team highlights Jamie Gilgen

Jamie riding a bike

Jamie racing in Belgium. Photo by Benjie Fabella. Jamie Gilgen is known to many as an engineer, world-class athlete, and entrepreneur. However, at Crowdmark we also know her as a mentor and teammate whose insatiable curiosity and contagious commitment to lifelong learning pushes us to reach our full potential. Growing up in London Ontario, Jamie […]

New term, new technology

Teachers assessing new technology in a meeting

Photo courtesy of Knight Foundation For many educators the first day of the January term is a harbinger of exciting opportunities for teaching, research, and—to potentially less fanfare—learning how to use a new LMS or classroom technology. Technology is now ubiquitous in higher education, and that is a good thing. Predictive analytics are assisting institutions in […]

Education trends to expect in 2017

glasses sitting on a book

The future of education technology is bright, with higher education institutions and faculty increasingly recognizing it as a boon rather than a burden. 2016 saw more classrooms embrace learning technologies to engage and educate their students while an increasing number of departments have helped more students stay enrolled by acting on predictive analytics. All signs […]

Being scientific about administrative research

Student writing a pen and paper response to a test viewed on a laptop

For a sector drowning in data, higher education does not seem to use it as much as it should. When it comes to persuading administrators on decisions relating to strategy and policy, narrative and instinct seem to carry more weight than research-based evidence. With so many board administrative studies being requested for the sake of […]

Taking a student-centered approach to data

teacher at chalkboard writing

Younger students in higher education have grown up in a world of personalized two-way communication through social media. In exchange for their personal data, platforms like LinkedIn provides students with tailored information on internships, Facebook suggests them curated friends and events, and Twitter provides curated news. According to a recent Ellucian survey, some students are […]

Watson: It’s elementary and higher ed

teacher at chalkboard writing

Photo courtesy of IBM Watson IBM is partnering with Blackboard and Pearson to bring its Watson technology to K-12 and higher education. While products from the partnership will not be widely available until 2018, the technology is expected to focus on improving student learning and graduation rates. Many expect IBM to accelerate the digital transformation of […]

EQAO moves forward with online OSSLT despite cyberattack

teacher at chalkboard writing

A cyberattack compromised the online pilot of a province-wide standardized test in Ontario on October 20, 2016. Originally thought to be the result of rampant technical and server issues, many students were unable to access the assessment which was eventually cancelled later that day by the administering Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO). Over 190,000 […]

Digital learning technology’s increasing role in the classroom

Over 80% of college students report that technology is improving their grades and study habits. In August 2016 McGraw-Hill and Hanover Research surveyed 3,311 students at the associate’s, bachelor’s, and graduate level to assess their digital study habits and the role technology has in their education. The findings demonstrate that mobile and digital learning technology […]

World university rankings: Measurements of teaching or research?

teacher at chalkboard writing

Reputation is an invaluable asset which colleges and universities use to recruit the best and brightest students from across the world. University rankings explicitly or implicitly influence the decisions prospective students—and their parents—make in choosing where to study. One of the most important components of global rankings is teaching; an element which is under increased […]

Are your students reading? Use multiple choice

student taking multiple choice exams

Multiple Choice. The mere mention of this form of evaluation causes: A) students to shudder; B) professors to lament; C) graders to experience relief; or E) all of the above. Multiple choice is by no means a perfect tool for evaluation. It is a narrow tool for measuring facts rather than the application of ideas. […]

Want to improve your teaching? Become a student again

teacher at chalkboard writing

Photo courtesy of KMo Foto Looking for ways to teach more effectively? Try walking a mile in your students’ shoes. A growing trend amongst professors and teaching assistants is completing their own assignments before or alongside their students in order refresh their pedagogical framework and better engage their students. A common critique of post-secondary assignments is […]

Curbing the curve

Upside down rollercoaster

Photo courtesy of DebMomOf3 Over 40% of all grades awarded in 2012 across 200 colleges and universities were in the A-range. In 1988 and 1960, A-level evaluations accounted for only 21% and 15% of all grades respectively. This is longitudinal evidence of grade inflation, a controversial topic which threatens the reputation of all American institutes of […]

Measuring institutional achievement in Canada

Instructors in a workroom

Photo courtesy of University of the Fraser Valley This September over two million Canadian students are heading back to college and university to earn an education. There will be lots of learning, late-night study sessions, and assessments taking place at campuses to ensure students are graduating with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in […]

Improving feedback from high stakes testing

High stakes testing is a ubiquitous aspect of American education. At the macro-level their results have significant influence on education policy and funding, and at the micro-level they shape a student’s academic future. Unfortunately, while the assessments provide meaningful insights to administrators they fail to provide the same formative feedback to the students and instructors […]