How do you annotate student assignments in STEM subjects?

Poll created by andyr on Feb 25, 2019

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Hi. Just wanted to gather some views. As a science lecturer my students' assignments contain a lot of symbolic text. Giving feedback requires me to use a mixture of equations, drawings and plain text. Box View's hideously flawed interface is not allowing me to give the quality of feedback that we'd traditionally provide with a good old fashioned pen. So, if you too have the same challenges... how do you mark and give feedback to your students in the Blackboard environment? I'd like to get a sense of what everyone's doing, as I'm on the verge of returning to paper.

Not sure if you can leave comments on a poll but I'd really like to get a sense of what the STEM community in particular are doing about digital marking and annotation of student work.

Thanks

Andy

6 total votes You cannot vote on this poll

Use Box View to annotate seamlessly in a STEM subject. No complaints.
0
Use Box view but only with text boxes because hand annotating doesn't work properly.
2
Use Box view,with some hand annotation, but worry about the appearance and quality of the feedback
3
I use Box view and limit hand annotation using symbolic notation because it's not practical or legible
1
Use Turnitin
0
Print students' digital submissions and hand mark/annotate
0
Students upload to a file space and I edit in Word etc then electronically upload to students.
0
Students upload to a file space and I print, then hand mark and return the old fashioned way
0
Use Bb only to keep a confirmation copy that students have completed their task - they submit on paper
0

lwl2 Feb 25, 2019 8:33 PM

Following this post as I'm interested to know too, as we move towards paperless.

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andyr @ lwl2 on Feb 25, 2019 11:23 PM

I figured a lot of us are wondering what the trends are, so it'll be interesting to see. BTW - did you vote?

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lwl2 @ andyr on Feb 26, 2019 3:36 AM

For us some course use the Math editor to input equations and formula, there are some course that get students to submit hardcopy.

So no suitable option to vote.

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andyr @ lwl2 on Feb 26, 2019 4:46 AM

The Math Editor is for general Bb comments and content, not for annotation though. Thanks for your input anyway. I'm interested in how users mark and correct students' math and scientific notation with symbolic representation.

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agilbert14 Feb 28, 2019 9:35 AM

We have so many complaints about the new Box inline grader at our community college. It has been awful for our English and Math faculty that grade online. One of our faculty members downloads all of his submissions and uses OneNote to grade his assignments. He uploads individual files back into the feedback area. This is time intensive, but he teaches many upper level math courses online, so he has found something that works for him. He shared his instructions with me and this is what he does:

I download the latest version of all student submissions for a particular assignment.
I unzip the zip folder.
I open OneNote and create a new tab in my MTH212Spring2018 notebook, naming the tab with the assignment name.
I open the folder with student submissions (all single PDF files, each of which contains a student’s entire submission), clicking on the type header to get all the PDFs together.
I select the PDFs (11 or fewer at a time), right-click on them and print them (on my computer the default printer is to OneNote).
This should place all these student submissions in the open tab (although I think I may have needed to set a setting in OneNote to be sure this works like this).
I can then type a name at the top of each student’s assignment.
I created a shortcut template button at the top of OneNote to PUBLISH the current assignment to a PDF, so that when I finish grading it, I just have to click on this template button and the file is saved to my graded folder.
OneNote makes it easy for me to grade assignments page-by-page, using my tablet pc, marking up the papers as if they were paper.
Once I have the assignment graded, I just upload each one into the feedback area of the grading pane in Blackboard for the student’s assignment, entering the score in the appropriate box, and saying something like, “See the graded PDF below for details.”

I hope that helps!

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andyr @ agilbert14 on Feb 28, 2019 1:07 PM

Hi Andrea and thanks very much for sharing your colleague's multi-step process for digital marking. It's a really sad reflection on Box View, and Blackboard's project management of this addon, when teaching professionals have to step out of Bb and perform such a lengthy and unwieldy sequence of actions just to do some grading. I really appreciate the time in writing out his method.

Let's hope that Bb's senior leadership, such as Tim Atkin or @emily_crespin or @lee_blakemore or even Tim Tomlinson take the time to look at your post and understand the magnitude of the failure that we are using workarounds for every day. What frustrates me just as much Andrea is the flannel we receive over timelines for fixes and improvements. I think this because there aren't enough teachers involved in giving feedback - we're all too busy working and finding ways to cope with Box View - and the tech guys simply don't comprehend the impact of flawed software on those who mark, grade and give feedback to students. So, Tim Atkin please give everyone involved in new Box View a rev up and provide your universities, colleges and teachers an update on progress and be more definite in when we can expect to have a version of this software which works and has 21st century functions. Thanks again Andrea Gilbert

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djagger Mar 7, 2019 5:35 AM

Added a vote but we support various different approaches across faculty. As a faculty team we have recently purchased a couple of Surface Pros so that Staff can trial using the pen/tablet combination to mark math/equation type assignments.

I asked a similar question so you may find some of the responses here useful/cathartic

Mathematical Coursework Submission

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andyr @ djagger on Mar 8, 2019 1:04 AM

Hi Dan. Thanks for the pointer towards your previous question. We avoided the Surface Pro route because we want a flexible marking system that's not based around a few expensive assets. Sometimes our markers are PG students and we wanted to avoid burdening them with expensive IT. That's why we went for the USB tablets and pens, which are 10 times cheaper. So far we've had mixed success - largely because of the Bb/Box View problem - but part of this issue appears to be differences in OS config between computers across our school, so we'll let Bb off the hook for that... Colleagues had a brief discussion about using google or one drive for student assignment storage but we are reluctant to come out of the Bb environment. But... wouldn't it magical to view their submissions in a folder (such as Windows Explorer) and then have the choice to right click and edit with Word or Acrobat...? For me that would be a good lash up until Bb and Box sort their awful collaboration out. Speaking of which, we're now running a book in the office on when a version of Box View with colour annotation and an eraser function will come out. Nobody bet sooner than July this year! Andy

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8 Comments

lwl2 Feb 25, 2019 8:33 PM
Following this post as I'm interested to know too, as we move towards paperless.
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
- andyr @ lwl2 on Feb 25, 2019 11:23 PM
  I figured a lot of us are wondering what the trends are, so it'll be interesting to see. BTW - did you vote?
  Like • Show 0 Likes0
  Actions
  - lwl2 @ andyr on Feb 26, 2019 3:36 AM
    For us some course use the Math editor to input equations and formula, there are some course that get students to submit hardcopy.
    So no suitable option to vote.
    Like • Show 0 Likes0
    Actions
    - andyr @ lwl2 on Feb 26, 2019 4:46 AM
      The Math Editor is for general Bb comments and content, not for annotation though. Thanks for your input anyway. I'm interested in how users mark and correct students' math and scientific notation with symbolic representation.
      Like • Show 0 Likes0
      Actions
agilbert14 Feb 28, 2019 9:35 AM
We have so many complaints about the new Box inline grader at our community college. It has been awful for our English and Math faculty that grade online. One of our faculty members downloads all of his submissions and uses OneNote to grade his assignments. He uploads individual files back into the feedback area. This is time intensive, but he teaches many upper level math courses online, so he has found something that works for him. He shared his instructions with me and this is what he does:
1. I download the latest version of all student submissions for a particular assignment.
2. I unzip the zip folder.
3. I open OneNote and create a new tab in my MTH212Spring2018 notebook, naming the tab with the assignment name.
4. I open the folder with student submissions (all single PDF files, each of which contains a student’s entire submission), clicking on the type header to get all the PDFs together.
5. I select the PDFs (11 or fewer at a time), right-click on them and print them (on my computer the default printer is to OneNote).
6. This should place all these student submissions in the open tab (although I think I may have needed to set a setting in OneNote to be sure this works like this).
7. I can then type a name at the top of each student’s assignment.
8. I created a shortcut template button at the top of OneNote to PUBLISH the current assignment to a PDF, so that when I finish grading it, I just have to click on this template button and the file is saved to my graded folder.
9. OneNote makes it easy for me to grade assignments page-by-page, using my tablet pc, marking up the papers as if they were paper.
10. Once I have the assignment graded, I just upload each one into the feedback area of the grading pane in Blackboard for the student’s assignment, entering the score in the appropriate box, and saying something like, “See the graded PDF below for details.”
I hope that helps!
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
- andyr @ agilbert14 on Feb 28, 2019 1:07 PM
  Hi Andrea and thanks very much for sharing your colleague's multi-step process for digital marking. It's a really sad reflection on Box View, and Blackboard's project management of this addon, when teaching professionals have to step out of Bb and perform such a lengthy and unwieldy sequence of actions just to do some grading. I really appreciate the time in writing out his method.
  
  Let's hope that Bb's senior leadership, such as Tim Atkin or @emily_crespin or @lee_blakemore or even Tim Tomlinson take the time to look at your post and understand the magnitude of the failure that we are using workarounds for every day. What frustrates me just as much Andrea is the flannel we receive over timelines for fixes and improvements. I think this because there aren't enough teachers involved in giving feedback - we're all too busy working and finding ways to cope with Box View - and the tech guys simply don't comprehend the impact of flawed software on those who mark, grade and give feedback to students. So, Tim Atkin please give everyone involved in new Box View a rev up and provide your universities, colleges and teachers an update on progress and be more definite in when we can expect to have a version of this software which works and has 21st century functions. Thanks again Andrea Gilbert
  Like • Show 0 Likes0
  Actions
djagger Mar 7, 2019 5:35 AM
Added a vote but we support various different approaches across faculty. As a faculty team we have recently purchased a couple of Surface Pros so that Staff can trial using the pen/tablet combination to mark math/equation type assignments.

I asked a similar question so you may find some of the responses here useful/cathartic

Mathematical Coursework Submission
Like • Show 0 Likes0
Actions
- andyr @ djagger on Mar 8, 2019 1:04 AM
  Hi Dan. Thanks for the pointer towards your previous question. We avoided the Surface Pro route because we want a flexible marking system that's not based around a few expensive assets. Sometimes our markers are PG students and we wanted to avoid burdening them with expensive IT. That's why we went for the USB tablets and pens, which are 10 times cheaper. So far we've had mixed success - largely because of the Bb/Box View problem - but part of this issue appears to be differences in OS config between computers across our school, so we'll let Bb off the hook for that... Colleagues had a brief discussion about using google or one drive for student assignment storage but we are reluctant to come out of the Bb environment. But... wouldn't it magical to view their submissions in a folder (such as Windows Explorer) and then have the choice to right click and edit with Word or Acrobat...? For me that would be a good lash up until Bb and Box sort their awful collaboration out. Speaking of which, we're now running a book in the office on when a version of Box View with colour annotation and an eraser function will come out. Nobody bet sooner than July this year! Andy
  Like • Show 0 Likes0
  Actions

How do you annotate student assignments in STEM subjects?

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