Assessment, Feedback, and Time

We just finished up our first unit of study in this course, and so I had 4 graded items to look at and score for each student... After 5 hours of work (and still 20% more to go), it occurred to me how important it is in online learning to take this time requirement into account!!

I have 2 choices - either not do as thorough a job next time and save myself work, or think about why I feel it is important to spend the time to give meaningful and detailed feedback and then discipline myself to do it...

I don't have control over the course design in this case, I am just the facilitator, but if I were designing the course, I would take all of this into account - and weave together assessments that allow for more balanced interaction - still meaningful, but not as time demanding each week!!!

Additionally, each graded item has a rubric, so one would think that grading would be a snap... but I was soon discovering first hand a lot about assessment and my own values associated with it..

So I could have easily just given each assignment a grade and moved on...but I felt it would be better to explain in detail why students received a certain score - for the underachievers, letting them know where the gaps were - for the high achievers to use the feedback as an avenue to continue the conversation about the course and the ideas being discussed - for everyone as a motivation to keep going - to be heard - to be a real presence in the class - to make myself a real presence as well... to distinguish our inter-activities from just a self-study course - to a learning community... to acknowledge that if they had taken the time to write something, I was going to take the time to respond meaningfully and responsibly and if they did NOT take the time or did a sloppy job, to let them know that there is accountability and expectations for their work.. and role modeling so maybe they will move up to the expectations set...

The last thought I had and the one that was taking the longest was how to give feedback to help students do better the next time... So the three steps all added up to a lot of time on my part...

1. determine the grade
2. articulate why they earned the grade they did - high, low, in between - talk about their work in a meaningful way
   
3. suggest ways to improve their performance next time... or ways to share what they have done well
   

To me this extra step makes the difference and turns assessment into a learning event (if students take advantage of it)

Will this get faster the next iteration?