Lecture 05: Grading
CS298 / EDUC298
Fall 2023
Stanford University
Computer Science Department
Lecturer: Chris Gregg
- Grading is probably not what you are most forward to in your teaching career.
- Assessing your students is an essential part of your job
- It is particularly important for the students!
- Assessing your students is an essential part of your job
- Grading can be overwhelming
- If you don't have enough (or any) TAs (getting more common as classes get bigger), you may not have enough time to do a good job grading (or it could simply take too much time)
- It is easy to get behind in grading, and this can be painful long-term
- Most importantly
- You should focus your efforts on your students understanding and ability to do something, rather than their grades
- Your students will directly correlate their grade to their understanding, which is not always true
- What will you grade?
- Not everything needs to be graded, e.g., in-class assessments, section problems, etc.
- Exams, projects, presentations, problem sets should probably be graded
- Students will perform differently on different types of assignments
- You should attempt to grade a variety of types of assignments
Lecture 05: Grading
- Do the best you can to give feedback on an assignment before the students hand in the next similar assignment
- If students don't know what you expect, they will make similar errors again
- Students do like to see how they are doing in the course as it progresses
- Give feedback on what is correct and incorrect
- Only some students will actually use the feedback, but it can be important
- The more information you can provide, the better, but be judicious: you probably don't have to give as much feedback on a final exam as you might on the first assignment in the course.
- TAs
- You need to teach your TAs how to grade your assignments!
- It is best if some TAs are veterans of TAing the course. They can mentor new TAs.
- It is best if TAs have taken the course before
- Sometimes, though, they expect it to be exactly the same as before!
- Provide your TAs a clear rubric for grading
- The more detail, the better
- The rubric can be modified as grading goes on -- you may not expect some answers
- It is a good idea to spot-check your TAs work, especially for new TAs
- You want the TAs to grade consistently
- You need to teach your TAs how to grade your assignments!
Lecture 05: Grading
- Grading Programming Assignments
- If you can auto-grade for functionality, that can be a great tool -- don't make it the only grade!
- Provide feedback for autograding tests! This doesn't have to give away the actual test, but it should provide some actionable information. E.g.,
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Failed test for long input string (over 1024 characters). Error: segmentation fault.
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- Having students write their own tests can be helpful, and you could have students write tests that get folded into other tests for other students
- Provide feedback for autograding tests! This doesn't have to give away the actual test, but it should provide some actionable information. E.g.,
- You want to provide some style guidance, especially for novice programmers
- Spend as much time as is reasonable (this goes for your TAs, too)
- One-on-one post-assignment meetings can be great, but are time-consuming
- If you can auto-grade for functionality, that can be a great tool -- don't make it the only grade!
- Grading Projects
- The rubric is key -- you may consider giving it to the students ahead of time so they know what to expect
- Have a calendar that students can rely on -- potentially grade at every checkpoint.
- Grading individual work can be tricky!
- You can have students grade each other in their group
Lecture 05: Grading
- Grading Exams
- This can take a considerable amount of time
- Don't shy away from good multiple choice problems (e.g., "What is the output of the following program? A/B/C/D")
- Grading parties work great, and TAs can bounce ideas off of each other (make sure you feed them!)
- Use technology as best you can (Gradescope is a great tool)
- What do to if? questions from Chapter 9
Lecture 05: Grading
Lecture 05: Grading
By Chris Gregg
Lecture 05: Grading
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