Feedback database
Grading major projects, essays, presentations, and other major assignments can be difficult, especially for more larger classes. Students expect and deserve fairly detailed feedback and justification for the grades they receive. Feedback should describe the various strengths and weaknesses of a student’s performance – exactly what s/he did well, and where s/he lacks or needs improvement. Feedback is also an opportunity to provide students specific advice on how to improve.
A common practice for grading such work is a feedback database or grading bank. Since many students make similar errors, or show similar strengths or shortcomings, writing out the same feedback for each student is time-consuming. The more efficient method is to create a “database” the first time you grade an assignment. This is a text file, a word processor file, or a spreadsheet, containing the various kinds of comments that you need to provide to students. These comments can be copied and pasted (and perhaps modified and personalized a bit) from the database into an email or printout for each student.
Contents
1 Examples
1.1 Simple example
Let’s say that you are grading an essay assignment, and are watching videos of the students’ presentations. You can create a database file as you grade it for the first time. While grading, you can use this as a source for specific feedback to students. As you grade the same kind of assignment later, you can add to it, and draw from it to give feedback whenever you grade the same kind of assignment. Let’s say that in the process of grading the essays, you’ve had to write the same kinds of comments to several or many students, like these.
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Then these can be copied and pasted as needed into comments for another student, e.g.:
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2 Guidelines
When giving feedback, specifics are helpful, and such a database can make this work easier. It’s helpful to provide some positive feedback – even if it’s not a good paper, at least try to find something positive to comment on; otherwise, a fully negative set of comments may seem mean-hearted. Even good students need positive feedback, because they need to know what their strengths are, so they can build on them or feel good about them. When giving negative feedback, it’s best to also give specific advice about what they can do to improve – e.g., something they can refer to, something they can read for more background knowledge on the topic, some references that you know of, or specific suggestions for better research, study, or preparation skills. Again, negative comments with no advice that they can act on can make you look unkind or uncaring, or might make them too discouraged to try to improve.
3 Grading bank + rubrics
Grading banks can also be used in conjunction with grading rubrics. A rubrics can be done in a spreadsheet, along with a column for comments for each student. The spreadsheet can be used for emailing students feedback on rubric categories and comments via email merge. Similarly, a Google Form can be constructed based on rubric categories, and checkboxes for common issues or comments. Each rubric category corresponds to an item in the online form, with checkboxes; each checkbox contains a commonly used comment. The instructor can fill out a form for each student, tick the appropriate checkboxes, and submit the form, which goes into a spreadsheet, which the instructor can then use for grade records. From the spreadsheet, the instructor can create an email merge to send each student feedback for rubric criteria and comments. See the page on spreadsheet tips for grading for more.
3.1 Within a document
A rubric can be printed out, with key items underlined or highlighted to draw students' attention to particular issues or strengths in the assignment. Similarly, a Google Doc rubric can simply be pasted into a students' file or online submission, to provide rubric feedback and comments, like the example below.
| # | Criteria (My comments are in blue) | Score (1-10) |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Rationale, goals, objectives – Clear rationale & explanation of why the project is needed, goals, and its benefits
Which group / people / areas are you targeting, specifically? What kinds of areas are you priority? Since the Lifestraw and Waka are already existing technologies, what exactly are you proposing that is novel or inventive?
|
5 |
| 02 | Contents – Sufficient contents & explanations
What aspects of your concept are novel, creative, innovative…?
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7 |
| 03 | Project details – Sufficient details & explanations
Where do you want to carry out the project, and how are these devices to work together in your concept?
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7 |
| 04 | Other details – Timeline, budget, participants, etc., as necessary
Few details here.
|
8 |
| 05 | Explanations – Clear explanations, easy to understand follow;
It’s not clear what new ideas are presented here.
|
8 |
| 06 | Clarity & expression - Clear expressions & style; clear sentences; writing that shows sufficient work, revision, & proofreading | 8 |
| 07 | Organization - Well organized; clear intro & conclusion
Weak conclusion
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8 |
| 08 | Format - Readable; appropriate formatting. Also, if used, suitable and well-done graphics, tables, charts, graphs, etc. (not required)
Long paragraphs; hard to follow.
|
7 |
| 09 | Value – Overall social, practical and scientific value & benefit; creativity and originality |
7 |
| 10 | Persuasiveness - Overall, the proposal would be persuasive and interesting to a professional audience | 5 |
| Grade | 70 |
3.2 From a spreadsheet
Rubric evaluation can be done in a spreadsheet, with a column for extra comments from a feedback database. The following example shows a rubric for group presentations. Group identifiers are included, so the instructor can easily sort the spreadsheet by groups. After entering comments, the feedback can be emailed to students via email merge. See the page on spreadsheet tips for grading for more.
| id # | name | grp | 1rat | 2cont | 3detail | 4klar | 5org | 6vox | 7intaxn | 8ppt | 9eq | 10efx | score | com1 | com2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019362479 | Alice Cooper | d1.g1 | 9.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 9.8 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 9.7 | 9.8 | 10.0 | 8.8 | 97.1 | A clearer case can be made for why this is unhealthy, or regarding its negative effects, or why this is a significant issue. Good explanations here of reasons for this belief, though more systematic explanation of this would be good. For addressing this problem, more specific, effective, or convincing ideas can be developed here. | A great topic, and nice debunking here. For the PPT, the text size and layout could be improved a bit, along with more key terms or talking points in the slides; occasionally, more graphics or pictures could be included for memorable better visual aids. |
| 2020362028 | Miles Davis | d1.g1 | 9.0 | 9.5 | 10.0 | 9.5 | 9.8 | 8.5 | 8.8 | 9.7 | 9.8 | 8.5 | 93.1 | A clearer case can be made for why this is unhealthy, or regarding its negative effects, or why this is a significant issue. For addressing this problem, more specific, effective, or convincing ideas can be developed here. It seemed some contents (the chemistry of Ge) were a bit beyond what you were comfortable with. | A great topic, and nice debunking here. For the PPT, the text size and layout could be improved a bit, along with more key terms or talking points in the slides; occasionally, more graphics or pictures could be included for memorable better visual aids. |
| 2020362028 | Bruno Mars | d1.g1 | 10.0 | 9.0 | 10.0 | 9.5 | 9.8 | 10.0 | 9.6 | 9.7 | 9.0 | 9.5 | 96.1 | For addressing this problem, more specific, effective, or convincing ideas can be developed here. This was a bit brief; more contents and details would be good. | A great topic, and nice debunking here. For the PPT, the text size and layout could be improved a bit, along with more key terms or talking points in the slides; occasionally, more graphics or pictures could be included for memorable better visual aids. |
| 2021361340 | Angela Merkel | d1.g1 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 10.0 | 9.5 | 9.0 | 8.2 | 8.5 | 9.6 | 10.0 | 8.0 | 90.8 | A clearer case can be made for why this is unhealthy, or regarding its negative effects, or why this is a significant issue. For addressing this problem, more specific, effective, or convincing ideas can be developed here. | A great topic, and nice debunking here. For the PPT, the text size and layout could be improved a bit, along with more key terms or talking points in the slides; occasionally, more graphics or pictures could be included for memorable better visual aids. |
| 2021361351 | Jeremy Corbyn | d2.g1 | 7.5 | 8.0 | 7.5 | 8.0 | 8.5 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.5 | 6.0 | 7.0 | 74.0 | More explanation would help regarding why people believe in these creatures, and why such beliefs are unhealthy. More specific ideas for addressing these beliefs would be good. | A great topic, and interesting info. A more readable or professional looking font and layout would be good in the PPT, along with more key terms or talking points in the slides. It would help to make a clearer case for why these beliefs are unhealthy. Also, a clearer rationale for why you’ve put aliens with cryptids in one talk would be helpful – I can see how they might belong together, but it would help if you explained more clearly to the audience why these are similar and belong together. |
| 2021362120 | Søren Kierkegaard | d2.g1 | 9.5 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 9.8 | 9.8 | 10.0 | 9.0 | 9.8 | 10.0 | 8.8 | 96.7 | Good explanation of why people believe this. More debunking of alien myths would also be good (more about why alien beliefs are misguided). More convincing and effective ideas for addressing these beliefs would be good; some ideas here seemed a bit general or vague; and government restrictions seem unconvincing – what kinds of restrictions, and what about free speech concerns, or the possiblity of restrictions backfiring? | A great topic, and interesting info. A more readable or professional looking font and layout would be good in the PPT, along with more key terms or talking points in the slides. It would help to make a clearer case for why these beliefs are unhealthy. Also, a clearer rationale for why you’ve put aliens with cryptids in one talk would be helpful – I can see how they might belong together, but it would help if you explained more clearly to the audience why these are similar and belong together. |
| 2021362481 | Weird Al Yankovic | d2.g1 | 9.5 | 10.0 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 9.8 | 9.5 | 9.2 | 9.6 | 9.5 | 8.8 | 94.9 | Good debunking. But Heaven’s Gate is a rather extreme example, and more persuasive reasons or examples could be given here. Some proposed solutions seem vague or general (and the part about social control was unclear); more specific, feasible and effective ideas could be developed here. | A great topic, and interesting info. A more readable or professional looking font and layout would be good in the PPT, along with more key terms or talking points in the slides. It would help to make a clearer case for why these beliefs are unhealthy. Also, a clearer rationale for why you’ve put aliens with cryptids in one talk would be helpful – I can see how they might belong together, but it would help if you explained more clearly to the audience why these are similar and belong together. |
| 2021362522 | Bernie Sanders | d2.g2 | 7.5 | 10.0 | 9.0 | 8.5 | 9.5 | 9.2 | 8.6 | 8.5 | 10.0 | 8.0 | 88.8 | Some good explanation of why people believe these things and some of the risks. It’s not clear why fan death is included here, as it is more of an urban legend or other type of misconception, not a supersition (it depends on poor understanding of basic science rather than anything magical or unlucky). The one about butterflies was new to me; some other unique supersitions can be discussed here as well. | It would help to make a clearer case for why these beliefs are unhealthy. More specific ideas for addressing these beliefs would be good, as some of the ideas here seemed a bbit general or vague. Larger, more readable text is needed in the PPT. |
| 2021362725 | Rick Ocasek | d2.g2 | 8.5 | 10.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9.5 | 9.0 | 8.5 | 8.8 | 10.0 | 8.5 | 90.8 | Some good explanations of the problems, but some points seemed a bit general, and more detailed explanations would be good. Some of the proposed solutions seemed a bit vague or general. Persuading believers by presenting evidence is known to backfire oftentimes, for various psychological reasons. | It would help to make a clearer case for why these beliefs are unhealthy. More specific ideas for addressing these beliefs would be good, as some of the ideas here seemed a bbit general or vague. Larger, more readable text is needed in the PPT. |
| 2021362177 | Ruth B. Ginsburg | d2.g2 | 10.0 | 9.0 | 10.0 | 9.5 | 9.8 | 10.0 | 9.6 | 9.7 | 9.0 | 9.5 | 96.1 | Some good explanations of the problems, but some points seemed a bit general, and more detailed explanations would be good. Some of the proposed solutions seemed a bit vague or general. Persuading believers by presenting evidence is known to backfire oftentimes, for various psychological reasons. | It would help to make a clearer case for why these beliefs are unhealthy. More specific ideas for addressing these beliefs would be good, as some of the ideas here seemed a bbit general or vague. Larger, more readable text is needed in the PPT. |
3.3 From a Google Form
An instructor can create a Google Form with rubric categories and checkboxes for common items from a feedback database for each category. The instructor can fill out one form for each student, entering a score for each category and checking the relevant checkboxes. After submitting each form, another form can be filled out for another student. The form submissions go into a spreadsheet in Google Drive, which the instructor can access, download, and use for emailing students feedback via email merge. Two out of ten categories from a rubric for essays are shown below, with checkboxes, another blank for extra comments, and a blank for a score for each category.
| 1a. Focus
[ ] Clear focus throughout the paper
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| 2a. Organization & structure
[ ] Good organization
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4 See also
