{"id":21870,"date":"2025-11-28T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T16:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/?p=21870"},"modified":"2025-11-27T10:39:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T16:39:40","slug":"brightspace-tip-552-manage-your-grading-workflows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-552-manage-your-grading-workflows\/","title":{"rendered":"Brightspace Tip #552: Manage Your Grading Workflows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"window<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

In a Chronicle of Higher Education<\/a> article, Kevin Gannon<\/a> wrote about what he describes as grading jail. He found that he would enter his grading jail around the 13th week of the term. After a career of repeat offenses against efficient and timely grading of student work, he saw that he could only blame himself. He described himself as a hopeless recidivist.<\/p>\n

The hard time he served was enough to rehabilitate him, and turn him into a productive member of the grading society. He shared what he learned, hoping to save others from the same fate. He acknowledges that providing students with prompt feedback<\/a> is a better practice. But too often this does not happen.<\/p>\n

Kevin\u2019s three strategies to better manage grading workflow are:<\/p>\n

\n
<\/dt>\n
Pre-semester calendaring.<\/strong> Before classes start lay out a calendar for every month of the term. Then using different colors for each course, plot out the due dates for every assignment that you will give throughout the term. A cluster of different colors in a three-day span is a quick visual cue that you should reconsider some due dates.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
<\/dt>\n
Rubrics \u2014 done well \u2014 are your friend.<\/strong> A well-constructed rubric involves a significant investment of time on the front end, but once designed, using it to assess student work will cut grading time. The time saved allows you to concentrate on providing more meaningful individual feedback. Having specific criteria and clearly defined benchmarks provides consistency in grading.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
<\/dt>\n
Speech-to-text and voice comments.<\/strong> Using speech-to-text to transcribe comments in real time is one way to provide substantial feedback on a large amount of student work without getting writer's cramp. However, it is even more meaningful to record comments and then share them with individual students via an audio file they can listen to on any device.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Kevin says these three strategies are the academic equivalent of your \u201cget out of jail free<\/em>\u201d card. <\/p>\n

\n\"get<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

If this has piqued your interest, you can read more in Kevin's \u201cHow to Escape Grading Jail<\/a>\u201d article.<\/p>\n

Want more information?<\/h2>\n

Brightspace Tip #479: Simplify Grading and Giving Feedback<\/a>
\nBrightspace Tip #536: Simplify Assignment Collection<\/a>
\nBrightspace Tip #497: Assignments<\/a>
\nBrightspace Tip #204: Interactive Rubrics<\/a>
\nFormative Assessments and Fitness Bands<\/a>
\nDictate Your Documents in Word<\/a>
\nHow To Speech-to-Text in Google Docs<\/a>
\nTip: Audio Notes in Brightspace<\/a>
\nBrightspace Tip #299: Video Notes<\/a>
\nBrightspace Tip #516: Video Notes \u2013 Closed Captions<\/a><\/p>\n

View current, past, and preview upcoming Continuous Delivery release notes<\/a>
\nInstructors Quick Start Tutorial<\/a>
\nBrightspace Known Issues<\/a>
\nRequest a sandbox course<\/a>
\nSign-up for Brightspace training sessions<\/a>
\nYou can find Brightspace help<\/a> at D2L's website.
\nJoin the Brightspace Community<\/a>.
\nTry these Brightspace How-To documents<\/a>.
\nVisit our Brightspace FAQs<\/a> for additional Brightspace information
\nor schedule a one-on-one session<\/a>, email<\/a>, or
\ncall Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.<\/p>\n

Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Image Credits:
\nImage<\/a> by ohergo from Pixabay<\/a>
\"Get_Out_of_Jail_Free_Card<\/a>\" by Mark Strozier is licensed under CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a Chronicle of Higher Education article, Kevin Gannon wrote about what he describes as grading jail. He found that he would enter his grading jail around the 13th week of the term. After a career of repeat offenses against efficient and timely grading of student work, he saw that he could only blame himself. ...continue reading \"Brightspace Tip #552: Manage Your Grading Workflows\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[403,8],"tags":[402,385],"class_list":{"0":"post-21870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-brightspace","7":"category-teaching","8":"tag-brightspace","9":"tag-grading","10":"h-entry","11":"hentry","12":"h-as-article"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82MQk-5GK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19261,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-382-escaping-grading-jail\/","url_meta":{"origin":21870,"position":0},"title":"Brightspace Tip #382: Escaping Grading Jail","author":"Janice Florent","date":"April 16, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"In a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article, Kevin Gannon wrote about what he describes as grading jail. 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The automatic zero grading feature automatically assigns a score of zero (0) to unsubmitted learner activities once the due date passes. 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ICYMI, read my Give Students Feedback That Helps Them Learn blog post for information on providing better feedback. Are you looking for ways to simplify grading and for providing feedback on assignment submissions? 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