Information for Faculty Using Gradescope

Syllabus blurb on Gradescope (Feel free to adopt/adapt as you see fit.)

In this course, we will be using Gradescope (as a plug-in tool within Canvas) to grade and provide feedback on assignments and exams. This will allow your graders to provide more timely and effective feedback. It also promotes fairer grading practices by facilitating anonymous grading and question-by-question (rather than student-by-student) grading. In addition, Gradescope makes it easy for you to access and review all your (graded) work.

During the semester, students will use Gradescope to (a) submit work online, (b) view feedback and scores on graded work, and (c) make a re-grade request within prescribed guidelines. To access Gradescope, simply log on to our course’s Canvas site and click on gradescope in the left navigation menu. We have prepared this website for students to provide more information on using Gradescope, including how to scan assignments via iOS and Android devices, where to find copier/scanners around campus, and how to submit assignments online to Gradescope.

Note: A key step in submitting your work to Gradescope is getting a high-quality scan (i.e., digitized version) of your work. Be sure to take the following important policies and procedures into account whenever you are submitting work to Gradescope:

• If you are writing your assignment by hand (on paper), be sure to use a dark pencil or pen, and write clearly!

• When you upload your work to Gradescope, be sure to (a) indicate where each question is located within your submission via the click-and-select interface and (b) after you submit, review each page of your uploaded submission to make sure everything is clear and legible.

• Give yourself some extra time to prepare and submit your assignment online to Gradescope, especially for the first few assignments when you are still getting familiar with it. (See “assignment 0” below; it is designed to give you a chance to practice a successful gradescope-submission workflow you can use throughout the semester.)

• Keep a soft copy of each scanned assignment for your records.

• <If you have a re-grading request policy/parameters/timeframe, insert it here.>

• If you need help with technical issues related to Gradescope, email: canvas-help@andrew.cmu.edu .

• Important grading policy: If the grader cannot read your submission, there is no way to award points, so the default grade will be 0.

Sample Assignment 0 

This assignment is designed to give you a chance to practice submitting to Gradescope and to confirm that your workflow leads to a successful submission.

1. Consider how you will be completing most of your assignments for this course (e.g., with paper and pencil) and complete this homework in the same manner.

2. Write out a two-page assignment. Page 1 should include your name and andrewID at the top and then “1.” (for question number 1) with <your favorite animal>. Page 2 should include “2.” (for question number 2) with <your favorite number>.

3. Create a high-quality scan (pdf file) of your two pages. See this guide for specific tips and suggestions and this map of available scanners around campus. Then, transfer the file to a web-enabled device (e.g., by mailing it to yourself and downloading).

4. From the device with your downloaded scan, log onto Canvas and click on Gradescope within the left hand nav. Then click on “Assignment 0” to begin the submission process. 5. Follow the prompts to (a) submit a pdf, (b) browse to the correct file, and (c) click “Upload”. Then use the web interface to assign question 1 to page 1 and question 2 to page 2 before clicking “Submit”. This last step of identifying the page where each question is located is important to make the grading process more efficient. 6. Review your online submission to make sure it is clear and legible within Gradescope. Otherwise, return to step 3.

Selected Strategies for Faculty Using Gradescope

• Adopt (or adapt) the syllabus blurb on Gradescope from this document 

• Include an Assignment 0 in your course that students are required to submit but that is not assigned points or that is very low stakes (points). If you already have a diagnostic assignment (especially one that is not for a grade), it would be natural to adapt the instructions for assignment 0 above to wrap around your preliminary assignment.

• If students bring technical how-to questions on Gradescope to you, remind them that they can email canvas-help@andrew.cmu.edu for help.

• Be encouraged to invite an Eberly technology consultant to sit in/stand by during your first Gradescope grading session. Email me when that might be, so I can help coordinate.

When Using Gradescope for Homework Assignments

• Be sure to create a “question outline” before you release a homework assignment that students will be submitting online to Gradescope. This way, students will be prompted to indicate where each question is located within their submission (and hence speed the grading process). If you need help with that, feel free to email me.

• As indicated in step 5 of Assignment 0, emphasize to students that they must indicate to Gradescope the page where each question is located.

• If student responses to your assignment questions tend to be long (e.g., close to a page or more than a page in length), tell your students to start each question on a new page.

• If it would be natural for students to complete their homework by filling in a worksheet (instead of writing open-ended responses), consider giving students a worksheet to fill in and then scan and upload. In this case, you would upload a blank version of the worksheet to Gradescope (as a pdf) and indicate each question’s specific region.

When Using Gradescope for Exams completed in class (on paper)

• In addition to the sub-bullets below, feel free to share a draft version of your exam with an Eberly technology consultants. We can provide feedback on tweaks to your exam format that could foster easier/speedier grading.

• If you have multiple choice questions, be sure to use a box or circle for each choice, and instruct students to fill in the box/circle corresponding to their answer.

• If you have an open-ended question where you want students to write a response with an expected length, draw a box on that portion of the exam paper. This leads students to keep their responses in the targeted area and speeds grading.

• Similarly, if you have an open-ended response where you want to grade students on their solution process as well as their final answer, draw a box for the final answer. Gradescope can use its “AI techniques” to process student writing within the box and potentially make grading easier.

• Remind students to use a dark pencil or pen when writing their exam responses.

• After collecting students’ completed exams, cut off the corner with the staples (e.g., using a big paper cutter). Then scan papers in your copier/scanner in whole-exam chunks. Don’t worry about producing multiple pdfs to capture your full class’s exams; Gradescope can accept multiple pdfs. If you would like assistance the first time you (or your TAs) do this step, let me know, and I can coordinate help.

Student-facing webpage on Gradescope: www.cmu.edu/teaching/gradescope/ The student-facing webpage on Gradescope will have information for students that is loosely organized by the categories below. This page will include links to targeted resources (e.g., videos and/or flyers) designed to answer questions and provide step-by-step guidance).

• Preparing and submitting an assignment

• Tips for getting my grade and feedback

• Making a re-grade request

• Getting help with Gradescope