I have my students use the forum to make an initial post and then they have to reply to two others.
What is the easiest way to grade my students? I don't see a GRADE ALL SUBMISSIONS button like I do for the Assignment activity. Right now I have to hunt all around the forums looking for a students posts.
Also, if a student has three posts overall, then each one has a grade item. I just want one grade for all the posts.
There has to be an easier way to grade forums?
Hello,
How about using Activity completion to check whether each student has completed the requirement of one initial post and two replies, and then add a manual grade item in the gradebook for the students' overall grades. You can see all the posts a particular student has made via a 'Forum posts' link on their profile page.
How about using Activity completion to check whether each student has completed the requirement of one initial post and two replies, and then add a manual grade item in the gradebook for the students' overall grades. You can see all the posts a particular student has made via a 'Forum posts' link on their profile page.
Unfortunately, I think that's the only way to do it. That probably involves at least 6 clicks per student to drill down to that information. The Forum posts link doesn't distinguish by specific forums AFAIK.
I use forums quite a bit in my courses. I use grading, sum of all rating, restrict to time period, to accumulate the student grades for their posts. Using this method, I can go into forum posts and see which posts I have graded and which I have not. This works really well for me.
However, I am of the philosophy that if students make posts, I must read, then grade them. I do not agree with a "Grad All Submissions" feature, because then you might not have read them. So I don't feel that I am "hunting" for things, I just watch for posts that I haven't graded.
I usually first grade forum posts within the forum. This allows me to grade student's post "in context." Then, I use the Moodle "search forums" feature to search for all forum posts. I scroll through each page, looking for posts not graded. Most frequently, if a post is not graded, I view this post "in context" and grade it there.
Yes, I understand that some instructors might prefer to not read and grade individual posts, and a "grade all" would be handy. Not me.
So I just step thru the various topics and grade individually.
I do have a tracker suggestion that the Search Forums provide a "search for not rated" feature." Consider voting for it. It is MDL-34195, closed, but voting might re-activate it.
I usually first grade forum posts within the forum. This allows me to grade student's post "in context." Then, I use the Moodle "search forums" feature to search for all forum posts. I scroll through each page, looking for posts not graded. Most frequently, if a post is not graded, I view this post "in context" and grade it there.
Yeah, I get that. In D2L, you can pull up all of the posts and replies a student made on a forum in a convenient format. It does take it "out of context", but D2L generates links to go visit the "in context" format.
I'm just trying to speed up the grading process. I can grade a forum requirement for 4 posts in about a minute for D2L, opposed to several minutes trying to chase down all of the posts by a student in Moodle.
Okay, there are actually faster ways to grade forum posts for those who don't want to read what students are saying, in context.
1) Go to your grade book, edit the item, pick override all, perform a bulk insert, insert a value, then save. You have just given every student the same grade in less than one minute.
2) (Slower than #1, but you can claim that you looked at their post) Go to advanced search, search for the forum of interest, then simple rate each student's post. You should be able to rate around 10-15 per minute. (This is faster than D2L.)
3) (Slower than #2, but you can look at all posts student by student.) Start like #2, but add the student's name in the filter dialog box. Then you will see all the posts for a forum by student. Using this method, if you leave off the forum name, you can simply grade all of one student's posts across all forums. This method is good for teachers who don't care to grade forum posts until the end of the course.
4) If you really don't care what students say, don't include forum discussions as part of their grade. (i.e., Don't use ratings.) This is really the fastest. There are probably many students who would really like this method.
5) What students would like most, and involves the absolute shortest amount of your time and theirs, is simply to not have discussions.
My guess is that there are probably other ways.
Some LMSs can do word counts. I don't recall if Moodle attempts to do this, but I do recall that D2L might. When students catch on, they will learn that the following paragraph is a great way to get full points.
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum."
2) (Slower than #1, but you can claim that you looked at their post) Go to advanced search, search for the forum of interest, then simple rate each student's post. You should be able to rate around 10-15 per minute. (This is faster than D2L.)
Good. A couple of issues:
I might be able to hack the code to change both of these.
3) (Slower than #2, but you can look at all posts student by student.) Start like #2, but add the student's name in the filter dialog box. Then you will see all the posts for a forum by student. Using this method, if you leave off the forum name, you can simply grade all of one student's posts across all forums. This method is good for teachers who don't care to grade forum posts until the end of the course.
I'd have to type all 150 student's names to pull up their posts. If I can just hack the code in option #2, that would be exactly what D2L does.
Notice that each result has a "See this post in context" link so I can see the context.
Thanks for replying. I didn't know there was an ADVANCED FORUM SEARCH option.
Relative to #2, you are correct. These are sorted by time, not by user. Often, users will make most of their posts at approximately the same time.
You might want to create a feature request for your need.
If you are thinking about hacking code, maybe what will be easier (I don't have any clue) is to write an SQL query, sorted by name. I think that all you really want to do is scan what student have written, and an SQL query might work. Then, after looking at the results of the query, you can provide a grade.
Since you are not concerned about whether what a student says makes sense in context, what are you really looking for? Do you really spend time reading grouped-by-student posts, or are you essentially doing a word count, or a quick visual check to avoid Ipsom...? In other words, do you ever give a student less than maximum points, and if so, do you spend time writing the student? I ask these questions because I am just curious about your technique, not to dissuade you.
Consider letting students know about the Advance Search feature so that they can find their own posts.