Grading in peerScholar

Configuring Grading in peerScholar

A student’s grade for an assignment is calculated using the grading configuration that the instructor set up in peerScholar. There are three main considerations for grading:

• Student participation (in the peer review phases)
• Peer ratings
• Instructor or teaching assistant evaluations

Each of the three main considerations is optional but at least one option must be chosen if a grade will be awarded via peerScholar. Some activities will include participation, peer assessment and ratings, and instructor grades as part of the student’s overall grade. Other assignments may include peer review but the instructor is fully responsible for grading the assignment. There are many scenarios based on the type of assignment, the learning outcomes, and the evaluation scheme.

There are two areas of peerScholar where evaluation of an assignment can be configured. Click on each for details.

Sample grading table

The following table includes considerations for grading a peer review assignment in peerScholar.

Assessment Consideration	Phase	Assessment Task	Value /Points
Instructor/Teaching Team Evaluations Points will be awarded by the instructor or teaching assistant when all phases are complete and closed	Overall	The instructor can use one or more assessments to assess the final version of the assignment. The resulting grade will be an overall grade for the assignment	10
	Create	The instructor can assess the draft version of the assignment. The grade can be assigned during the Create phase	1
	Assess	The instructor can award point based on the students effort during the Assess phase	0
	Reflect	The instructor can assess the final version of the assignment to determine if the student reflected on and used the feedback that their peers provided	1
Peer Ratings Points can be awarded by peers via completion of assessments during the Assess phase	Create	Not applicable
	Assess	Generate assess grades for a student using the mean, median, mode of the assessments that students completed for their peers during the Assess phase	3
	Reflect	Generate reflect grades using the mean, median, mode of the student ratings of the usefulness of the feedback that a peer provided	1
Student Participation Points can be awarded by the system based on how the activity was built	Create	The student completed Entire Create Phase (including additional questions)	0
		The student submitted an Original Composition	1
	Assess	The student completed the Entire Assess Phase (including additional questions)	0
		The student submitted Feedback	1
		The student submitted Self Assessments in Assess phase	1
	Reflect	The student completed the Entire Reflect Phase (including additional questions)	0
		The student assessed Peer Feedback	0
		The student submitted a Revised Composition	1
Total:			20

The following image shows the grading setup, based on the table above, and a summary of the grades.

Grading in peerScholar

Depending on how the grading was configured, the grading area of peerScholar will allow instructors to do the following:

• View the feedback that each peer provided on the student’s work
• View the original composition, revised composition, and composition changes for each student
• Grade the final version of each student’s assignment
• Grade all students according to:
  • Peer Ratings configuration
  • Student Participation configuration

Steps for Grading

Step one: Open the Student Grading area – there are two ways of doing this

• Click Student Progress & Grading and click the arrow under grades for the student whose grade you would like to calculate
• From the Overview page, click Grade Now

Step two: Select a student to grade

• If you use Grade Now, the grading area will open on the first student in the list
• You can choose a specific student to grade via Student Progress & Grading
• Choose a different student in the grading area by clicking the list icon in the orange bar or by using the forward and back arrows

Step three: Evaluate and provide a grade using the Instructor Grades panel

• Using the assessment(s) provided, grade the final version of each student’s assignment
• Consider the following information as part of your evaluation:
  • Peer feedback
  • Improvements/changes made to the original composition
• Click Save

Step four: When all students have been evaluated, complete the Peer Rating and Student Participation grades

• Click the vertical ellipse, then Grade All and confirm by clicking “okay”. All students will be graded according to Peer Ratings & Participation
• The Overview page will show the number of students that have been graded
• When complete, change the star icon in the grading box of the Overview page to make the grades visible to students

Viewing Student Grades

There are several ways to view and export student grades in peerScholar:

1. Click Gradebook on the left-side navigation – student grades will be displayed for all course activities
2. Click Gradebook and then click Download CSV
3. Click Grade Now and then click the vertical ellipse in the Student Grading. Click Grading Details to download a spreadsheet of the student grades

Transferring Grades

There are several ways to transfer grades from peerScholar to Brightspace where students can see their grades.

1. Manually (useful for fairly small classes)
   • Open the Gradebook in peerScholar. All of the student grades for each activity will be displayed here. Open Grades in Brightspace and manually enter the grade that each student achieved.
   • NOTE: You can also enter the grades manually using a spreadsheet of the grades (see #2 and #3 below)
2. Export and Import Using a CSV file (useful for fairly large classes)
   • Open the Gradebook in peerScholar and click Download CSV. Follow the instructions for importing grades in Brightspace.
3. Sync Grades Between peerScholar and Brightspace
   • Open the Gradebook in peerScholar and click Sync Grades. peerScholar will create a grade item in Brightspace for the assignment and will populate the grade item.