Instructions for markers to start using eMarking Assistant

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Below are instructions which can be modified and used when training markers and graders when starting to use eMarking Assistant. These instructions are provided and the URLs are shown in full so they can be easily copied, edited and reused.

The eMarking Assistant install includes a comment bank with academic writing and APA comments and several rubrics. However, experience has shown that markers will immediately see the value of eMarking Assistant if you have prepared a bank of sample comments or a sample marking rubric.

Introduction

This year we suggest you mark the assignments using the eMarking Assistant electronic marking tool (requires Microsoft Office for Windows). You can download eMarking Assistant from download page at http://emarkingassistant.com/download/emarking-assistant/ or your institution’s page may have a site license showing more specific information e.g. http://emarkingassistant.com/sites/uc/

eMarking Assistant integrates into any version of Microsoft Word for Windows so you do not need to learn to use a new package and you can continue to use tools you are familiar with e.g. track changes or spelling checker. eMarking is like any skill that becomes easier and quicker with familiarity. A survey of 7 markers showed:

  • Compared to paper marking 3 said it was “a little faster”, 3  “twice as fast” and 1 “more than twice as fast”
  • 6 out of 7 said that creating and using reusable comments were either “useful” or “very useful”
  • 7 out of 7 said the automated rubrics were “very useful”
  • Would you use eMarking Assistant in future: 3 “perhaps”, 2 “yes”, and 3 “definitely yes”
  • most people said that after within less than an hour they were familiar with eMarking Assistant and where working more productively than before

We have arranged a staff training and Question and Answer session on <date> at <time> in <room>.  The session will be most use to you if you have downloaded and installed eMarking Assistant and also used it to experiment with ways of marking or used the guided tour at the start of the eMarking Assistant document. Feel free to view the demonstration videos on the eMarking Assistant site or contact Peter Evans using any of the methods listed on http://emarkingassistant.com/emarking-assistant-home/contact-emarking-assistant/ including online chat or 0407 742851.

We hope to see you at the training and Q & A session.

Below are suggestions for how you can most quickly start using eMarking Assistant. These instructions refer to pages in the http://eMarkingAssistant.com site and in the eMarking Assistant document which you can download from http://emarkingassistant.com/download/emarking-assistant/

1. Install eMarking Assistant on your Windows computer (see video at http://emarkingassistant.com/demo-videos/downloading-installing-the-30-day-trial/).

2. Have a quick play around with the eMarking Assistant toolbar by opening a Word document and doing the following (the toolbar is shown on page 2 of the eMarking Assistant document):

  • show the eMarking Assistant toolbar by pressing ALT/F8 anytime Microsoft Word is open (if the toolbar is not shown you have not installed eMarking Assistant and you might want to view the online FAQ at http://emarkingassistant.com/faq/
  • click the ?/Install tab to open the show options for getting help or license ID. Clicking the Install, Comp. ID … button will show your license information
  • click the Setup tab to show common options you may use before starting to mark assignments e.g. displaying possible spelling errors or grammar errors, or paragraph marks, using a larger font in comments, or turning on track changes
  • clicking a comment name in the field near the top of the toolbar to see the text of the comment in the field at the bottom of the toolbar
  • clicking in the field of comment names and pressing the down arrow will select the next comment
  • clicking in the field of comment names and starting to type a comment name will select the comment name that starts with that text
  • click the green arrow at the bottom right to move it from a portrait to a landscape orientation depending on your work habits

3. Experiment with an automated grading eRubric by opening the eMarking Assistant document and scrolling to page vi and following the instructions.

You could also insert a rubric into your own document by:

4. Experiment with the reusable comments by opening the eMarking Assistant document and scrolling to page ii and doing the following:

  • insert a reusable comment into either the margin of the word document by highlighting a phrase in the document, highlighting the name of the comment you want to insert, then clicking the Margin button (see video at http://emarkingassistant.com/demo-videos/inserting-reusable-comments-into-paper-or-assignment/).
  • insert a reusable comment in the body of the assignment by highlighting the comment name and clicking the Text button
  • you can also modify the reusable comments or create and save your own for reuse in future

5. Experiment with some of the other features of eMarking Assistant e.g.

  • Googling a word or phrase in the assignment (page v in the eMarking Assistant document)
  • Highlighting words or phrases throughout the assignment (page v in the eMarking Assistant document)

6. If the course convenor has supplied you with a comment bank containing comments and rubrics for you to use, you can now import these comments into the eMarking Assistant toolbar by doing the following (see video at http://emarkingassistant.com/demo-videos/sharing-comment-banks-by-importing-and-exporting/):

  1. show the eMarking Assistant toolbar by opening Word and pressing ALT/F8
  2. click the Setup tab near the bottom of the toolbar
  3. use the Manage comment banks drop down menu and select Delete all comments to delete
  4. use the Manage comment banks drop down menu and select Import comment bank then browse to the comment bank document that your course convenor sent to you.
  5. click Import to start importing the comment bank
  6. some comment banks contain a code that makes it easier to select the comment. Generally you will click No unless your course convenor has told you to include the code
  7. generally you will want to list the comments alphabetically

You may find it easiest to become familar with the comments in the reusable comment bank by opening the Word document containing them and printing them out (the default comments are included in the table at the end of the eMarking Assistant document).

You should now be reasonably familiar with most aspects of the eMarking Assistant software. Of course the more you use it the more familiar it will become.

1. Bulk download your assignments from Moodle to your computer

(see video at http://emarkingassistant.com/demo-videos/moodle-emarking-egrading-workflow/downloading-all-assignments-from-moodle/)

  • open the course in Moodle
  • click the assignment activity in Moodle to go the assignment page
  • click view/grade all submissions at the bottom of the page to view the grid layout showing one line for each student in the course
  • if the course is setup in groups, you can select your group name to display only your students
  • use the Grading action menu and select: Bulk download the assignments to download a single zip file to your computer containing all assignments
  • use the Grading action menu and select: Download the grading work sheet to download a a CSV file (which you can open in Excel) your computer

Unzip the file containing the downloaded assignments. The files are stored with the student name and an ID added to the start of the file name used by the student. Comments are not downloaded so it is best not to enable Allow Comments when setting up the Moodle Assignment activity.

Open the grading worksheet to see a row for each students and columns showing the student name and identifier. You will enter the mark or grade into the column titled grade and you can enter a short comment into the column titled feedback.

2. Mark the assignments using eMarking Assistant

If the assignment is a traditional report written in Word you can mark it in the following way. If it is an offline assignment (e.g. a class presentation or a video or model) or if is has been submitted in a format which Word can’t edit (e.g. a PDF file or a PowerPoint or a computer program) you can do many of these things listed below after reading the paragraph at the end of this section.

  • open the assignment or the assignment cover sheet if the assignment is an offline assignment
  • open the eMarking Assistant toolbar (ALT/F8)
  • insert the rubric into the end of the assignment or into a feedback document if the assignment is an offline assignment
  • read the assignment and insert reusable comments
  • complete the rubric by making judgments by selecting a cell in the rubric and pressing F6, You can use F5 or F7 to vary it up or down
  • you can insert the last rubric assessment into the margin of the assignment by highlighting a section of the assignment and pressing F6
  • click in the rubric and press F8 to total the marks and convert it to a grade
  • if you want you can delete the marks from the rubric by highlighting the relevant cells and pressing the Delete key

If the assignment is an offline work (e.g. a class presentation) or a video or a PDF document  or another type of document you can still use many of the features of eMarking Assistant by entering the comments and the rubric at the end of the assignment cover sheet or by entering them into a feedback document. If you create a feedback document is must use the same start of the filename followed by something like “feedback” to ensure that the document is returned to the correct student e.g. Alan Turing_9319_assignsubmission_file_TURING_alan_A2(feedback).docx

  • Comment on specific parts of the assignment by pasting the text into the Word feedback document or my pasting screen grabs into the word feedback document (see video at http://emarkingassistant.com/demo-videos/grading-a-web-page-or-physical-assignment/)
    • Make sure that the part of the portfolio you want to capture is shown
    • Clicking under the rubric where you want the screen image to be inserted
    • Use the Insert Tab > Screenshot > click screen Clipping > the screen will go grey and you can use the mouse to drag from the top left to the bottom right of the image you want to capture > release the mouse button and the image will be inserted into the document.
    • If you want you can use a reusable comment on the screen clipping
    • When you have finished marking the portfolio click in the rubric and press f8 to total it

After you have finished marking the assignment use save as and add the grade or the mark at the end of the filename e.g. SMITH_Peter_Portfolio1_(60).doc. You must not change the first page of the file name as this is used to determine who the assignment is returned to when the files are bulk uploaded to Moodle

Put the mark into the Worksheet next to the student name so you can bulk upload the marks to Moodle.

3. Bulk upload  the feedback files and the marks to Moodle

(see video at http://emarkingassistant.com/demo-videos/moodle-emarking-egrading-workflow/uploading-the-marked-assignments-feedback-files-and-the-grades-into-moodle/)

  • Zip the marked assignments and feedback files
  • In Moodle use the Grading action: menu and select Upload multiple feedback files in a zip option to upload the assignments and follow the prompts to check that all the marked assignments are listed.
  • In Moodle use the Grading action: menu and select Upload grading worksheet option to upload the marks and follow the prompts to check that all the marks are listed

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