7 Proven Strategies to Improve the Grading Process in Moodle

Kiran

Grading and evaluation is a crucial part of the learning process. But when it comes to grading in Moodle, teachers view it as a complex and time-consuming task. It’s time to change this thought.

As an all-round e-learning solution, Moodle offers the best functionality. Right from creating advanced courses to assessment and reporting – Moodle has you covered. But although there are options you can use to get the task done, not all processes are at their optimal best. Especially when it comes to grading.

Grading in Moodle is a step forward than traditional classroom evaluation methods. But then the interface isn’t at its best. You have to keep switching between screens taking up a lot of time when you have multiple quizzes and students to be graded.

To reduce teacher frustration and grading headaches here are some effective strategies you can follow (with the help of some tools) to better student evaluation in Moodle.

Here you go.

#1 Add automated feedback

Feedback is as important as the grade itself. Students need to know how they can improve their understanding of the subject matter or the points where their knowledge is lacking. Automated feedback can help you save grading time by reducing repetitive comments. Feedback, like resource material or detailed explanations, can be offered immediately for common mistakes. 

#2 Using a single-screen grading tool

Grading in Moodle involves a lot of switching and going back-and-forth. But there are tools that come to the rescue, like Edwiser RapidGrader. Using such a grading plugin helps you reduce grading time drastically. You can grade all the questions of a single student – so as to give out feedback in batches. Or, you can check the same question across students in a single-window – making it quicker to go through grading a single quiz.

#3 Allow grades to be reviewed

Similar to collaborative teaching, you can have assistance when grading as well. A plugin like Grade Reviews helps you get another pair of eyes on the evaluation process. Teachers can add comments on submissions made by students or on the remarks added by the evaluator, which will be visible to fellow tutors but not students. This is needed when you have amateur tutors – to improve their evaluation – or you’re bringing in special teachers to detect plagiarism.

#4 Keep track of things that aren’t graded

In Moodle, it can get difficult to grade all questions and students in a single session. What happens is, you either end up skipping students or certain questions but it becomes difficult to then go back and figure out the questions which have been left out.

Grade Me can be used to identify all of the assignments or quizzes which have been submitted and not yet graded. You’re saved of all the headaches and you don’t have to worry about missing out on giving student feedback.

#5 Have a mix of question types

When it comes to grading, assignment and essay type questions need customized feedback. Whereas, MCQs or drag-and-drop type questions can benefit from automated feedback. When designing quizzes it is a good idea to have a good mix of different types of questions so that the grading process is less effort-intensive and the learner is assessed in a holistic manner.

#6 Use advanced grading methods

If you’re comfortable with traditional grading methods and most of Moodle’s interface, you can move on to advanced grading – Rubrics.

With Rubrics, you can set up a more robust grading system that’s suitable for certain course types and quizzes. You can calculate a percentage grade, assign negative points, add scoring criteria, and a lot more.

#7 Plan grading time 

Probably the most important point is to add grading time when planning your course schedule. Teachers often miss taking into account the time that will be needed when it comes to grading. Including that in your calendar will save you the stress of having to then squeeze it in your busy schedule.

Final Word

A happy teacher yields happy students. When teachers are less stressed, have time on their hands, they are more involved and the overall learning process is benefitted.

All you need to do is equip Moodle with the right set of tools and empower teachers to get the best out of the platform. With grading tools like Edwiser RapidGrader, Grade Me, and Grade Reviews, you can take the learning and evaluation process to the next level.

Got questions about what we’ve discussed? How do you improve your grading process? Let us know. We’d like to hear your thoughts.