The SpeedGrader Tool

Clipboard with a checkmark The tool that instructors use to assign grades and give feedback to students is called SpeedGrader (it's awesome!).

The SpeedGrader tool can be used for giving students feedback on any Assignment, Quiz, or Graded Discussion. It allows you to look sequentially at each student's work and give feedback (text and/or audio/video comments and a grade or score). It shows you your progress for that item and its options include hiding student names.

When grading an Assignment for certain file types (MS Word, MS PowerPoint, and PDF), you can provide inline commenting on student submissions. Note that those annotations cannot be viewed by screen readers, so for usability purposes the same information should be provided in the comments field of the sidebar for students requiring that accommodation.

Students can view their feedback in two ways: via their submission view if the graded assignment was online (Graded Discussion, Quizzes, and online Assignments) and via the Grades link in Course Navigation. Students can only see their own grades and not those of their classmates. Their view includes a nifty "What-If" feature that allows them to forecast future grades based on upcoming assignments. It also shows both their current score (based on assignments graded) as well as their total score (including all points possible for the course).

For instructors, the same Grades link on the course menu displays the entire Gradebook, with all students and all assignments for the class. Scores and comments can be directly entered either from the Gradebook page or taking advantage of the SpeedGrader tool. One terrific feature is the ability to "mute" an item until you've finished grading the entire class (thus relieving you of the burden of hearing, "Tony got his grade; where's mine?!"). Other options include exporting and importing scores, viewing the grades of students who have been dropped from the class, and excusing a student from an assignment so that it is not included in that student's overall calculation. Finally, you can also write notes about particular students that are separate from any particular grade item.

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