Another Wayby

Ben CraceAmerican University of

Kuwaitbcrace@auk.edu.kw

© 2013 Ben Crace

Outline

• The Perennial Problem• Marking Caricatures• Another Way • A Technological Solution • Responses from Students• Conclusion

© 2013 Ben Crace

The Perennial Problems

Error correction?

Feedback?

Time consuming?

Effective?

© 2013 Ben Crace

Marking Caricatures

The Minutiae Marker

The Macro Marker

The Hieroglyph Marker

The Representative Marker

The Zen Marker

The Student Conference Junkie Marker

© 2013 Ben Crace

Another Way

Is there a way to marry the benefits of conferencing with best practices in marking?

© 2013 Ben Crace

A Tech Solution

Screencasting and highlighting

Instructor’s Equipment: headset with microphone and

http://screencast-o-matic.com/

Student’s Equipment: ear buds/headphones

© 2013 Ben Crace

© 2013 Ben Crace

A Sample

© 2013 Ben Crace

Student

Responses

“As for the grading method, it was the best method I have ever seen.”

-- Ahmad

“Video recording from a teacher is a new experience to me, i am used to the other method which is correcting papers or correcting errors on a word document. In my opinion, it is not helpful to me so i will appreciate if you can start correcting papers and i know its more work but its everyone's benefit.”

-- Seif

© 2013 Ben Crace

“On a recent assignment, we were asked by professor Ben Crace to write an essay about caffeine addiction. The professor asked us to email him the first draft, so he can grade it and show us our mistakes. He then decided to record himself on video, while he was correcting the drafts. This method was new to me, but I have to say it’s more beneficial than just writing a marking on the paper that I might not understand. I really understood my mistakes clearly this way; also his advice was a real factor in upgrading the quality of my essay. I really liked this method, its more helpful and all students benefited from it. I wish more teachers decide to adopt this way.”

-- Bashar

Student

Responses

© 2013 Ben Crace

For the past few years I have been searching for a more efficient way of grading students’ writing. With my traditional paper and pencil method it could take me 20 minutes per paper. I tried the review feature of Word but found it cumbersome and time consuming. This semester I switched to screencasting, and I’m glad I did for several reasons. First of all, I can talk faster and more clearly than I can write. Also, when I start recording, I am talking to the student, so there is a social element to it. I feel that I am interacting with the student, and I actually enjoy that. Thirdly I can thoroughly cover all aspects of marking – from content to format - and have my corrections unfold before the students’ very eyes in waves of color as I highlight areas of their documents while talking. Finally, my students’ reaction to their audio-corrected writing has been overwhelmingly positive. They can understand clearly what they need to do because they can listen to my corrections as many times as needed. The best part is that screencasting gives me a time limit so it forces me to spend less time grading. What it boils down to for me is much less time grading, much better spent.

--AUK IEP teacher, Alison Larkin Koushki

Faculty

Response

© 2013 Ben Crace

Conclusions

Pros Cons

Re-playable Unchangeable

New New

New Media based Low-tech ss?

More detailed Time consuming

Aural/visual input Kinesthetic ss?

bcrace@auk.edu.kw

© 2013 Ben Crace