Combining auto-multiple-choice and

Gradescope for paperless grading

Matthew Leingang

New York University

MAA Session on Technology and Apps for Teaching

Mathematics and Statistics

San Diego, CA

January 13, 2018

About me

• I use a mixture of fixed-response (MCQ) and free-

response (FRQ) items

• I like tech, hate paper, but need paper

• I love two applications for grading and I want to

marry them

auto-multiple-choice (AMC)

• Desktop app (Unix, MacOS)

• Open source (Gtk3, Perl, SQLite)

• LaTeX driven

• Optical Mark Recognition (OMR)

• Exports annotated PDF which can be emailed or

uploaded to LMS

Gradescope (GS)

• Web application

• Free for a limited time

• PDF driven

• AI trained by Instructor

• Student views annotated PDF and comments on GS

website

gradescope

AMC problem types

Fixed-response

• options

permuted by

student

• programmable

Free-response

• marked by

instructor on

paper or

scanned PDF

• no support for

rubric

GS problem types

Fixed-response

• AI grouping of

common

responses

• no permutation,

programmability

• More features

“coming soon”

Free-response

• simple PDF

annotation tools

• develop rubric on

the fly

• add comments

The Marriage Problem

• Write exam in LaTeX for AMC

• grade MCQ in AMC

• upload cover page and FRQ to GS

• grade FRQ in GS

• Then what?

Solutions

• Three columns in LMS for each

assessment: MC in AMC, FR in

GS, and a total

• Or: Programmatically incorporate

GS scores (and comments?) into

AMC and import to LMS from

there

Progress

• Command-line script to import GS scores

file as AMC responses (“captures”)

• Re-scoring in AMC records corresponding

scores

$ AMC-Import-Gradescope --qlist FR-Sch-35-9 FR-Sch

Developing

• merging the

annotated PDFs

from GS and AMC

• plugin to the AMC

GUI

Complications

• AMC uses an Object-relational mapping (good)

which is lightly documented (bad)

• No slot for GUI plugins at the capture stage

What now?

• Might go back to the three-

column solution for spring

• Look at deeper injection

into AMC application

architecture

• Welcome collaborators

Thank you

https://slideshare.net/leingang

https://github.com/nyumathclinic/AMC-Gradescope

CreditsNaval Surface Warriors

CC-BY-SA

Helen Taylor

CC-BY-NC

Carolina Biological Supply Co.

CC-BY-NC-ND

CreditsJohnny Silvercloud

CC-BY-SA

James

CC-BY

MarineCorps New York

CC-BY

Thank you

https://slideshare.net/leingang

https://github.com/nyumathclinic/AMC-Gradescope