Assessment design ...

I think before you read on, you must digest this confession ...
I am a lazy marker; favouring speed rather than time.
Before academics everywhere wave their undergarments in disgust. I am not slipshod or inaccurate. I am simply not a fan of marking. It is something that I have always treated as a necessary chore. At one time I would design an assignment for 20 students. I could commit the time and donate the effort accordingly. As the volume grew, one quickly realised that there was a time/cost/numb-brain benefit to getting the right assignment in front of the students.

More effort during assignment design, equals less time and greater accuracy during marking. I am all for fair and accurate grades, but this must be balanced by my attention span. I am unscientifically inclined towards the view that there is a time period beyond which the mark is devalued when the academic is allowed to spend too much time on any assessment.

So does this help in my role as a SSV ... partly no, as I refused to be involved in any of the off the shelf assessments. Principally, because what works for me and the teams I support, is unlikely to work for others. Partly yes, as this mindset helps me when verifying assignments and giving centres guidance on how they may improve.

From an blended distance learning perspective, the sheer volume of assessments makes this worth some serious consideration. Personally I do feel that we can be somewhat clumsy ... forgetting that we pay our AL's/Markers a fixed rate that varies in value depending on the module and the assessment at hand.

Have I perfected the marking, hmm arguable I am sure. But recalling T155, I know that the marking team were oft impressed how quickly one could deal with scripts. Being paid piece work, one could render better than minimum wage per marking hour, something that I wonder about with some other assessments.

Maybe we should try and mark our own exams, assignments and other assessments?

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