2. eLearning - paperless courses: The problem with electronic marking - is PDF the answer?

In "1. eLearning - paperless courses: Going to the cloud" I wrote about how I was trying to cut down on the paper in my life, and as I said in the post I have been experimenting with this for 4 months now, and things aren't going great. So far I have encountered a number of problems, but by far the most difficult is electronic marking.

For some time a particular colleague has been asking that I mark reports on one course electronically. I have resisted doing this for two reasons:

1. The Screen Issue - I know from previous attempts at electronic marking that I can't mark on a computer screen as I have trouble really reading and understanding material on a screen, and annotating the text with feedback. One big problem I face is 'cross-referencing', which is going back and re-reading some sections. For some reason I find it easier to locate the material I which to re-read on paper than on a screen, plus on paper I don't lose your place as I can have a paper document open at two places. This is particularly true when marking reports of 30 - 50 pages.

2. The Format Issue - Here I am not taking about size and shape of the screen, but what happens to documents when they get passed between different users on different computers using slightly different versions of a program, that is, the documents tend to reformat, and if there are marks attached to style and layout (or presentation) this can be a serious problem.

The Screen Issue

I think I now have this solved, and the answer, for me at least, is the iPad. In fact, I think any tablet computer (assuming a suitable size of screen) would work.

The reason I think I can mark on an iPad is because it is like marking on paper. That is, to move around the screen (or page) I don't have to look at or use a keyboard, I can use my fingers. Plus, if I want to annotate the text I can just touch the text in question and a keyboard appears and I can type in feedback (for more on this see Using an iPad (or equivalent) for marking and/or feedback?).

The Format Issue

I have argued for years that the problem with electronic marking (particularly when there may be marks involved with presentation/layout, or when the way things are presented can impact understanding) is that the same Word file on different machines can appear wildly different, and PDF, although not an ideal solution, can be a better file format because if the participant produces the PDF they can then be more confident that the person receiving the file is seeing the document with the layout and format that they wanted.

Is PDF the answer?

In my opinion PDF is the answer. Yes, there may be some issues with non-standard fonts being available, but overall PDF tends to preserve the format of the written piece. This is particularly important if some of the marks are awarded for correct formatting and presentation.

PDF and annotation

If we accept the argument the PDF is the best solution for providing written work for marking, there still exists the problem of annotating the document with feedback.

In an earlier post I described how dictation (see Handy hint: Dictation and feedback) can be used to produce extensive feedback, however, even when using dictation there is still a need to annotate certain parts of the text. This is fairly easy to do with pen on paper, but becomes more problematic with the PDF.

There are a number of packages available that can allow you to annotate a PDF. My favourite is GoodReader (see Using an iPad (or equivalent) for marking and/or feedback?), and I've been using it now for around about a year.

GoodReader

The great thing about GoodReader is it runs on iPad, and can access dropbox. So when it comes to marking student work, I load the PDFs into dropbox, and then download them to GoodReader. Once in GoodReader I can open the document, and annotate it with a simple touch of a finger and some typing to enter the text.

GoodReader then allows me to e-mail the PDF with annotations, and a summary of the annotations, to the student or colleague.

Summary

So, I think going paperless with marking is possible, but that there isn't an ideal solution as it requires that students produce their work as a PDF and then there is a bit of fiddling in getting the work in to a system so that it can be marked, and then there is the problem of getting the feedback returned to the student.

A number of companies have 'floated' solutions for this, e.g. Blackboard and TurnItIn, but both require internet connections so don't really allow marking 'on the go', and in my testing I haven't been particularly impressed as they are susceptible to the 'Screen Issue' mentioned above, and tend to impede the marking process.

If you have any thoughts or ideas on how to go paperless with marking then please share them below.

Disclaimer: I do not work for the company that sells and/or produces GoodReader, and I do not get a 'kick-back' from the company for writing this article. I do, however, routinely use GoodReader in my teaching, I do find it extremely useful, and so I thought I would share my experience.

Image: wikimedia

0 Comment

2. eLearning - paperless courses: The problem with electronic marking - is PDF the answer?

share

Email your Friend