Changing Custom Scoring Default for Essays

Changing Custom Scoring Default for Essays

by William Merrifield -
Number of replies: 2
I am working with a text heavy Moodle curriculum that uses lesson activities liberally. This is my situation.

  1. Within the lessons there are questions on the lesson reading that have been set up in pages as essay questions within the lesson.
  2. These are mostly knowledge reproduction questions so a content page was added directly after the essay question with the answers to the essay questions so that students can self-check their answers.
  3. The lessons are graded on a simple complete or incomplete. If the students provide answers and works through the lesson, they get credit unless their answers are completely off target.

The issue now is that our tutors have to manually open and grade each essay question within the lesson. There are sometimes up to 8 questions in the lesson and, again, they are largely self-correctable.

I am wondering a couple of things.

  1. Is it possible to set the default custom grading to Credit instead of No Credit so that tutors would only have to manually grade answers that are incorrect or way off target? I am looking for a way for students to get credit without the tutor having to open every single essay question.
  2. Is there a better way to accomplish what we would like to accomplish? Basically, is there a better way to set up these questions within the lesson so that students can self-correct after filling in answers?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and would save our tutors hours of unnecessary clicking.

Thank you!

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In reply to William Merrifield

Re: Changing Custom Scoring Default for Essays

by David Powell -

If the questions are really simply knowledge reproduction, I'd put in the design legwork for some closed-answer options.  Multiple choice, gap fill (cloze), matching ... .  [Just once, l tried a short answer type where the computer scans for a keyword.  (Yes, I think that was in Lesson, and not Quiz).]  Typically, I provide coaching for wrong answers and a return to the question, but if you're worried about reflexive clickers, you could require an essay question only on failure to answer the multiple choice question correctly first time.  That would limit the marking burden on teachers to those students who didn't think the same way as the test writer.  Personally, as the follow-up content pages in your situation provide the answers anyway, I'd just go with closed answer questions, reserving 'essay' types for where there is a real need for reflective or original work on the student's part.

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In reply to William Merrifield

Re: Changing Custom Scoring Default for Essays

by John Jefferson -

William,

I like your suggestion and it appeared that the reply suggested using another question type.

Did anyone ever think setting the default to full credit was a viable option?

Thanks, 

John

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