In our previous newsletter, we introduced you to how Professor Anderson successfully implemented formative assessment into her marketing course at the College of Charleston. We also talked about how she implemented TimelyGrader and its AI grading and feedback features, in stages and how each stage got better and better. Overall, she was very happy with the platform and wants to use it again.
It would be amiss if we didn’t talk about the specific student and instructor outcomes that resulted from 1) shifting to more formative assessment and 2) providing more feedback.
This wasn’t exactly a surprise but more feedback led to an overall improvement in the quality of student work from all student teams.
As a company, we aren’t comfortable saying that using TimelyGrader led to an X% increase in grades because there are so many factors but…here is what Professor Anderson said:
“I would say qualitatively the work has been better.”
Giving students more feedback also helped them build a habit of improving their drafts and applying feedback.
“If you give feedback at the moment, you build that habit of the feedback loop where they're applying, applying, applying.”
The platform was accessible to everyone in the classroom meaning that less tech-savvy students were disadvantaged.
80% of student respondents said that the platform was very easy to use, and intuitive, and they would want to use the platform again.
“Democratizing generative AI product across the classroom - I think that's a really interesting aspect of this product”
One clear barrier to implementing more formative assessment was that it increased the instructor’s workload. Instead of grading one round of papers, you might need to have several rounds of grading because you can’t provide feedback without gauging the student submission.
Implementing an AI grading and feedback tool helped minimize that bottleneck to a point where formative assessment can be deployed.
"I was already planning on splitting it up. But this made it even more affirmed that integrating something like a feedback tool was necessary."
As mentioned in our last newsletter, Professor Anderson used the AI grading and feedback tool for getting grading suggestions and first-pass feedback. While it did not fully automate her process (not something we want to do anyway), it did save her significant time.
"A process that usually took a day and a half only took half a day."
It also lifted some invisible weight off of her shoulders as evidenced by her saying, “It helped my life be a little bit more balanced - the ultimate grading was eased.”
Enhancing education with AI-powered grading and feedback.
