Why we’re measuring grading time at Labflow
Knowing how long it takes Teaching Assistants (TAs) to grade their students' work is a critical part of any laboratory course.
Being able to measure the time on task for grading helps you to:
1. Ensure consistent grading across students
When TAs are overloaded with work, they may tend to rush through grading, resulting in inconsistent or inaccurate grading.
On the other hand, if TAs have plenty of time to grade each student's work carefully, they can give each student's work the attention it deserves and provide accurate and fair grades.
2. Allocate human capital and resources optimally
With recent collective action from GTAs across the country, the administration in science departments want to know whether TAs are being overstretched with their teaching appointments. Knowing how long it takes TAs to grade their students' work can help academic institutions to better allocate their instructional resources.
For example, if TAs are taking longer than expected to grade assignments, institutions may need to provide more resources, such as additional TAs or grading assistants, or scale back the scope of lab experiments. Making these decisions can ensure that TAs are not overworked and that students are also receiving feedback on a regular cadence.
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of your grading scaffolds
Knowing how long it takes TAs to grade their students' work can help academic institutions to evaluate the effectiveness of their systems for evaluation.
For example, if TAs are taking an unusually long time to grade assignments, it may indicate that the grading criteria are unclear, or the assignments are too complex.
By analyzing how long it takes TAs to grade assignments, academic institutions can identify areas for improvement in their grading systems, which can help to enhance the overall learning experience for students.
4. Promote a culture of regular feedback
Finally, knowing how long it takes TAs to grade their students' work can help to ensure that students receive timely feedback. Feedback is critical to the learning process, as it helps students to identify areas for improvement and build upon their strengths.
When TAs take too long to grade assignments, students may not receive feedback until it is too late to make meaningful changes. By analyzing how long it takes TAs to grade assignments, academic institutions can ensure that students receive timely and constructive feedback, which can help them to succeed academically.
Want grading time data for your course?
At Catalyst Education, we are helping hundreds of universities gain insight into the health of their courses with data. We are currently developing state of the art techniques to estimate and evaluate grading time.
Knowing how long it takes TAs to grade their students' work can serve as a valuable way for you to ensure that students are receiving a quality education.
If you’re interested to know more technical details about how we are solving this problem and providing value to our customers, check out our Data Scientist Dr. Dane DeSutter’s article on the subject here.
To learn more about how Labflow can give you insight into your classroom and time spent grading, schedule a demo today!