Reply To: Too much time spent grading homework in a college course

[Jon]

Hi there Xianwei, 

It sounds like your struggle is that grading is taking too much time and you also think it’s not being used effectively. Do I have that right? 

Feedback is important for students to know how they’re progressing on the learning goals of the course. Feedback is important so that students can learn how to improve. So can you provide that feedback to students so they know where they stand and what to do next in other formats? 

For me, I give a lot of feedback on the fly when students are working through problems in class at their vertical whiteboards. This allows me to grade less. I know where my students are (my past self would only know this after grading papers) and my students know where they stand. 

I also give shorter more frequent paper based assessments which limits time grading. 

What does your learning time look like? How can you adjust it so that you give more feedback on the fly?