Online exams and marking made easy using Gradescope
Gradescope is an assignment tool that supports online submission, grading and feedback of assessments with diverse question types and response formats. Assignments are created in the LMS that link through to the Gradescope interface. Different assignment types are available, allowing online responses to questions, or the submission of files containing images of hand-written responses. Gradescope provides a question by question marking workflow with structured rubrics and feedback options, promoting consistency and reducing marking time.
Gradescope has been used throughout 2020 and 2021 for a range of assessments during semester and for final exams across many different subjects including Mathematics and Statistics, Sciences, Accounting, Engineering and Languages. Below, we hear from some early adopters in 2020 who share how Gradescope was used in their subjects and how these assignments helped manage assessment and marking.
Using 'Homework/Problem Sets' in the School of Mathematics and Statistics
Dr Robert Maillardet from the School of Mathematics and Statistics shared his experience using Gradescope in his subjects. Gradescope was used in almost all the undergraduate subjects, with several thousand submissions each semester. Students completed in-semester assignments and Zoom supervised final exams. The “Homework/Problem Set” assignment type was used where questions were presented in a templated document which students printed or annotated to produce a PDF to upload. The students were provided with a masked template of the exam before the event so that they could print this in advance. Robert identified several benefits of using Gradescope as they made the transition to completely online assignment submissions last year:
“It was a boon and we will use it in the longer term. It makes assignments immediately available to markers wherever they are and eliminates handling overheads, allows easy feedback, has structured marking rubrics for consistent marking in large subjects, and permits very efficient question by question marking. It was a good marking interface for tutors and the training was straightforward.”
Using 'Online assignments' in the Department of Accounting
Matt Dyki, Teaching Fellow in the Department of Accounting, used the Gradescope “Online Assignment” type for the final exam, including short answer questions, ranging from 2-3 sentences up to around 2/3rds of a page. These questions were application and discussion-based, with sub-questions to facilitate case-based questions.
Matt identified several ways this helped the management of the assessment:
“Marking was easy, the rubrics used within Gradescope matched our normal marking guides and were on the screen all the time and marks were allocated via the rubric. The rubric had number pad short cut keys associated with each criteria, allowing easy selection. This improved the consistency of our marking. Being able to use shortcut keys to mark either question by question, or paper by paper also increased the speed of our marking. Gradescope clearly showed how marking was progressing and provided a comprehensive set of stats informing me how students were performing that could easily be transferred and combined with other assessments to calculate final totals for each student. It’s fair to say that Gradescope probably provided the best exam marking experience I have had in my career.”
Further information
If you would like to use Gradescope in your subject, see the following:
- What is Gradescope?
- Getting started with Gradescope (University of Melbourne guide)
- Gradescope getting started menu (vendor guides)
- Online open book exams with Gradescope
Upcoming workshops:
- Gradescope on Thursday, April 29th.
- Setting up Gradescope exams on Wednesday, May 12th.
To register go to the Workshops and Training website.
If you need support setting up Gradescope assignments in your subject, please contact Learning Environments.
The Gradescope marking interface showing the student submission on the left, and the marking scheme on the right.