We are strong believers that itslearning saves teachers time – and here is a concrete example. Paul Jørgen Clarke, a Grade 8 English teacher at Hop lower secondary school, recently experienced the time saving benefits of using itslearning to mark assignments in his English class. “I reduced my time spent on correcting assignments by 10% by using itslearning,” says Paul Jørgen.
Paul’s previous method of giving feedback involved uploading assessment criteria (a.k.a. a grading scale or rubric) as a Word document onto itslearning which the students would then download and open. He calculated that he would spend 20 minutes marking an assignment, for example an essay. Using itslearning he reduced time spent assessing assignments to about 18 minutes.
No more uploading and downloading
“In the past, I would open the rubric in Word, highlight what the students did well, save the document with the student name and upload it onto itslearning. It took a lot of time, and it was not ideal for students because they then had to download the file and open it to see the feedback,” Paul Jørgen explains. “Now I simply paste the assessment criteria right into itslearning. It was very straight forward and user friendly. The criteria for each student is clearly visible under each student’s name.”
“I have calculated that I save about two minutes giving feedback per student per assignment compared to my old method. That may not sound like very much, but it is significant when you have 60 students like I do. Technically, it is also a lot easier to deal with assessment criteria this way because I no longer have to upload documents.”
This means that Paul Jørgen spent 18 hours grading assignments instead of 20 by using itslearning to post rubrics instead of uploading them as a Word file. If he assigns three essays a semester he saves six hours using itslearning.
Equal assessment across grade
But saving time was not the only advantage of using itslearning rubrics. Students also appreciate the new method, says itslearning Education Research Manager Morten Fahlvik. “The process is more streamlined by putting the assessment criteria onto itslearning. The old method of uploading a Word document is too time consuming. There were also too many steps (logging in and downloading the document and opening it) to take them to the information they needed.”
Morten adds that giving students access to rubrics is essential for their learning. “It gives them an indication of the goals they have achieved,” he explains. “Paul Jørgen was also very concerned about accessing his students equally across the entire grade. Putting assessment criteria into itslearning makes this crucial information easily accessible for both him and his students.”
Click here for a step-by-step guide to adding rubrics to an assignment.
