Gradescope – A New/Modern Way to Grade Assignments

Colleagues,

Since the dawn of time (or at least formal education), grading has been a challenging and seemingly interminable part of teaching.

Several of our Cornell colleagues – in engineering and math – are now using a tool called Gradescope that can indeed simplify and improve the grading process.  It is not necessarily the right solution for every course and instructor, but it is a “rare tool that helps faculty and graduate TAs save time while providing students with better, more timely feedback” (CTI testimonial).   Based on feedback from the engineering and math faculty, the Deans were convinced to fund a university-wide license.  As an added benefit, it integrates into Canvas.

There is a pleasantly short (1:50) YouTube video (https://youtu.be/LhTYHi1GG9c) that gives a nice introduction to the key concepts.

Hadas Ritz (MAE and MTEI) was one of those enthusiastic pathfinders (evangelists), using Gradescope in one of her large classes.  On Monday (Jan. 20), Hadas will hold drop-in hours from noon to 2:00 pm in Rhodes 195 to discuss and help with Gradescope.  Stop by to talk about how it really functions or to get help setting it up for your course.

Some of the key benefits of using Gradescope include:

• developing and revising rubrics (as you grade) resulting in simpler and more uniform grading
• reuse of comments for common errors
• electronic submission of assignments; students receive immediate email confirmation
• assignment returned from within Gradescope; students quickly see graded work which saves class or section time
• easy “return” of group assignments to all members of each group
• digital record of all assignments (for ABET and/or academic integrity purposes)
• consolidated history of regrade requests
• responsive and helpful technical support from Gradescope

Since the University is funding the license, we in engineering might as well make use of the tool where appropriate.