Tech Tuesday : try GrADING WITH vIDEO

Tuesdays 
@ the CTLA or Screencast 

It may take a couple of attempts to get comfortable with grading by video, but I've found that there are many advantages...

• Many of today's students are more likely to watch a video than read your comments.
• Once you get started, video grading takes less time. Not that it will cut your grading time in half, but I do find that the total amount of time spent grading is less (for me, anyway) than when I am writing out comments - I can say it faster than I can write it.
• It humanizes the grading and feedback, from the student's perspective - let's face it, red ink just doesn't scream "supportive"!
• I've found that I get less pushback/arguments about grades with this method (probably due to the humanizing factor mentioned above...).
• I have all of the original video files, so I have incredibly detailed records of student performance if I ever need them!

​Here is an example of the type of video feedback that I would give a student on their project - what's working, what's not, how they can improve, and reiterating that they have a chance to make changes before the end-of-semester project, which is an instructor & peer evaluation of the end product:

This student had done quite poorly on the first assignment (I’d had him the previous semester for another class, so I knew he was generally a good student), but thanked me profusely for the video feedback, and really turned it around on the second assignment.

Here is the same student, on the second project assignment:
Do you notice the change in the quality of the work?
Do you notice the change in the type of feedback?

BOTH OF THESE VIDEOS WERE RECORDED USING TECHSMITH'S SNAGIT (Education pricing is about $30 for a license), but there are many other screencasting tools available to you out there! Screencast-o-matic is another one I would definitely recommend, because it is ridiculously intuitive and easy to use, and there is a FREE version that quite likely has all the features that you would need.
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​Once you've mastered screencasting with either of these simple tools, you may want to consider assigning screencasts for student assignments!

If you would like assistance with Screencast-o-matic or any other screencasting tool, or if you have questions about other topics, come by the CTLA (Room MSQ150).