By Jenny Wong on October 18, 2017
Please go to the following link: https://jennywong2.wixsite.com/mysite to view my Analytical Publishing Project. It is designed to also be easily accessible on mobile devices.
Please listen to the Introduction podcast before proceeding with the additional videos. Enjoy!
Although this post is a few years old now, the content is still very much applicable. Arguably more so now that we are teaching remotely. The various functions and advantages that Jenny Wong has highlighted on her website (with helpful videos and images) are based on the Canvas LMS, which we have all experienced as students of this program. These are applicable to most LMS’s like Google Classroom and MS Teams as well. I had been noticing in the last year or so that the time I spend writing personalized and detailed feedback on my students’ papers is mostly wasted because they look for their grade and ignore all the writing. I also found that using any colour other than red had a little more success. Some of my students began sharing their Google Doc with me instead of printing it out when it was time to submit it, and I found it quicker to leave comments on the document directly. This was also better accepted. I also recorded audio feedback and that was even more of a success because my students felt like I was talking to them. Basically, written comments are becoming obsolete. The audio, video, commenting, highlighting features for feedback that Jenny illustrated are also available on other platforms like PDF documents and even offline Word documents, which means having an LMS for this is not entirely necessary. However, the LMS makes it easier to return the assignment to the students, rather than say, having to email it individually and separately. Jenny has also shown in her video how the important grading features can also be accessed on a mobile device, making assessment-on-the-go easier.
As more and more people are subscribing to LMS’ now (See, for example: https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/29/21241972/microsoft-teams-75-million-daily-active-users-stats) I can only assume (hope) that the assessment features will get more and more streamlined and sophisticated. It may not be too far-fetched to have predictive grading in the near future for more open-ended assignments as well. Maybe students can choose what format they would prefer their feedback in. Maybe some built-in AI and the use of databases (like Turnitin does) would allow for even faster personalized feedback. What do you think?