Below is an outline for benefits to students when using Gradescope.
Benefits to students
- Transparency in points breakdown (partial credit) for the score a student receives on a question because the points assigned are linked to comments explaining what was done correctly or incorrectly
- Students receive more feedback from TAs grading their assignments
- Quality of feedback a student receives is superior to that they could get from hand-written comments by a TA
- Electronic return of graded assignments to students permits rapid feedback used by students to gauge learning gains and progress towards mastery
- Can be integrated into Blackboard to allow secure sign-in with UIC NetID and Password (regular credentials)
Benefits to Instructors and TAs
- Rubric-based scoring system allows for more consistent and fair grading
- Choice of using a positive (points added for correct answers) or negative (points taken away for wrong answers) rubric
- Positive scoring rubrics reward students for their achievements and sets a positive tone in a classroom – one that is focused on what students are doing right, rather than what students are doing wrong
- This feature can help to create an inclusive classroom climate that supports the success of all students, a goal that aligns with the recommendations of the 2015 Hurtado & Sork Report
- Streamlines the grading process, achieving greater grading efficiencies in large-enrollment courses
- TAs can replicate the same feedback to multiple students without having to re-write the same comments over and over again (a very time-intensive effort)
- Changes to scores get propagated to all assignments, so TAs save time because they do not have to regrade questions
- Electronic grading provides flexibility
- TAs can grade assignments from anywhere (home, a café, their lab)
- Academic integrity issues mediated with repository of electronic, scanned copies of every student’s exam or assignment
- Tracks and reports analytics per-question, per rubric item, and per-assignment giving instructors and TAs significantly more feedback on student mastery of concepts and skill
- Per-question statistics: Tag questions using categories such as learning outcomes or Bloom’s Taxonomy and then analyze student responses in the context of these categories
- Rubric-level statistics: See which mistakes are made most often by students
- Per-assignment statistics: Provides formative feedback that informs how to make mid-quarter revisions or adaptations to a course to improve student learning
- Great online documentation with instructions (including video tutorials), suggestions and short-cuts
Benefits to the University
Aligns with campus strategic plan by providing a cost-effective approach to accommodate increasing undergraduate enrollments without compromising educational quality, innovation, and social impact
- UIC will enhance the quality of education for our undergraduates despite having fewer graduate student TAs to support instruction
- TAs will spend less time grading and more time facilitating student learning
Supports accreditation processes by documenting student learning
- By tagging questions with student learning outcomes, departments may track achievement of those outcomes as is necessary for UIC to meet its accreditation requirements.
- UIC faculty are required to incorporate student learning outcomes into their syllabi