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Definitely scope for research whether as a route to more chocolate or otherwise.


My practice, cos I really don't like online, is this:

  1. download
  2. convert 12-point arial (which I hate) on wide margins all-round, 1.5 or double spaced to 9-point comic sans with tiny top and bottom margins, normal LH binding margin and 4cm RH margin.
  3. now we've cut 5-50 pages to 2-10, print.
  4. hand-mark, commenting in the RH margin.  The numerical mark can be withheld depending - 2nd marking, moderation etc
  5. scan and forward the scan to student and as required (module leader, external examiners, Uncle Tom Cobbley and all)
  6. as required, summarise on moodle etc 

 

I can get my head round dense type in a way I cannot round interminable screens.


And having the scanned hard copy means I can not only argue my judgments, good and bad, with anybody but change my mind with confidence.


Simon (Horsman)


From: Online forum for SEDA, the Staff & Educational Development Association <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Brown, Sally <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 25 September 2017 14:35:10
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Does Marking Make You Fat?
 
Well I don't do marking any more and I've lost 32lb since April and 46lb since 2 years ago. Any correlation do you think?

Best wishes
Sally Brown
[log in to unmask]

On 25 Sep 2017, at 14:31, BLAND TOMKINSON <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

The original question was “Is there a correlation between the number of chocolate biscuits that I consume and the mark that I give when marking Masters’ dissertations?”  However, monitoring the first few that I have been marking suggested that the results were likely to be little better than random –bang goes another theory (and an opportunity to bid for a research study using a bigger number of markers and a huge volume of chocolate biscuits).  However, I have noticed that there are some triggers for reaching for the chocolate.  The obvious one is a dissertation written in poor English: perhaps the less obvious one is that I reach for the biscuits more frequently when marking online – at the moment one course is marked entirely online and the other has online scripts some of which I have printed out) but offline marking forms.  (This wasn’t helped when BlackBoard refused to give me access to the courses!)  What concerns me more is that I spend less time marking a dissertation online than I do with a paper copy.  Doubtless Jo Johnson (and the university) would tell me that this is because it is more efficient, but I have a strong suspicion that not only is marking online more stressful (evidenced by chocolate biscuits) but also less reliable.  After all, I could make the system really “efficient” and resort to random number tables – that would make the whole process less time-consuming, if somewhat unreliable.

Does anyone else have assessment-induced cravings (I notice that my coffee consumption also goes up)?  Does anyone else feel that marking online is less reliable (is there any research data)?

Any scope for a research bid?

Bland

C Bland Tomkinson BSc BA MEd PFHEA FAUA
Visiting Lecturer, University of Manchester
Special Consultant, South East University, Nanjing
Associate Editor, HERD
Co-Editor, IETI



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