The lazy professor's guide to grading: How to increase student learning while decreasing professor homework: Food science education research

Abstract

The busy instructor wants to help their students learn but is often pressed for time. This article presents 6 grading techniques that help the students learn without taking a lot of time. First, not grading an assignment saves time and can still be valuable as long as the instructor carefully structures it so the students still have an incentive to complete the assignment and still learn from the assignment. Second, students can grade their own assignments and receive immediate feedback on the correct answer using commercially available scratch off sheets. Third, giving team rather than individual grades encourages peer tutoring as long as teams are carefully managed. Fourth, in-class peer grading lets students learn from each other, by reading how others did the assignment and discussing it with their team. Fifth, doing an in-class grading lecture over all of the students' assignments at once allows you to give feedback on common mistakes and is especially helpful when students are unclear on the assignment. Sixth, a grading rubric saves time writing comments and helps the students understand exactly what is expected and is the basis for their grade. These techniques can save time in grading while helping the students to learn the material better. © 2008 Institute of Food Technologists.