Look
and See
MarkThis
Pro Ver
3.0
...screenshots...
1. Start the MarkThis Pro running. Then, look for the menu item that will enable you to load the electronic manual. Then, either print the manual, or alt-tab between the manual and the program, as you learn to use it.
(NB:
Notice how MarkThis Version 3.0 is designed to fill an XGA (1028x768)
monitor,
giving you more room in which to display students names and marks).
2. Before you begin marking, the first thing you will need to do is to create a list of student names.
(NB:
To save you time, there is a wizard that lets you copy and paste names
from a Word or Excel table - and another wizard that lets
you import names from other MarkThis files).
(NB: MarkThis now contains the facility to keep a note of 'groups' where
students have worked with others).
3. Having input a list of student names, you will then need to type in a set of general comments and marking criteria. The comments and criteria relate to the kinds of assessment you might make of student work. For example, insight = good, or amount of research apparent in the report = poor.
NB: To save you time, these comments can be copied from word processor - or can be copied from other MarkThis files. So the more you use MarkThis, the more time you should be able to save.
4. While the use of general comments and marking criteria is an effective way to provide general feedback on a piece of work, sometimes, you want to make more detailed comments. For example, you might want to make specific suggestions for ways that a student might make future improvements to their work. As an experienced teacher, you will know that, when marking a class of students, you will often need to repeatedly type the same advice - again and again. To reduce the amount of typing you need to do, you can create a bank of detailed common comments - comments that can be quickly copied and pasted.
NB:
To save you even more time, we have provided you with access to several
hundred of our own common comments, in a form that you can customise
and edit to suit your needs.
NB:
Even if you never use MarkThis to mark with, you may find these comments
of interest. They are in rich text format files, which means they can
be easily edited, copied and pasted using most Windows word processors.
5. By now, you have a list of students, a set of criteria, a set of general comments and a set of more detailed comments. As a final piece of preparation, you also need to provide each criterion with a weighting.
NB MarkThis uses your weighting to calculate the final mark for each student.
6. With your MarkThis file prepared, you are now ready to begin marking. For each student, you will look at their work, and then use your mouse to click on the comments that best reflect that work. In general, we find that once a teacher has used MarkThis a couple of times, they can begin to mark work more quickly, and they can more easily provide detailed feedback. We have also been pleased to hear students reporting that they find MarkThis generated feedback more useful than feedback provided by other means.
NB: Notice that, as you look at the screen where marks are applied, you can arrange for a simultaneous 'read-out' of all the marks for all other students for that criterion. This can be a useful when marking group work, when you want to quickly refer to the mark which other group members received for a piece of work.
7. Finally. Having marked all the students' work, a word processed report is only a couple of mouse clicks away. The report contains both tables of marks and individual feedback. The report also contains addressed letters to students who have been indicated as not submitting work.
Or - if you prefer...
MarkThis can arrange to send your report to the MK Mailer email module. The MK Mailer email module will arrange for a set of emails to be placed in the DRAFT tray or the OUTBOX of Microsoft Outlook. All you need to do then is to press the SEND/RECEIVE button - and your feedback can speed out into cyberspace...
NB: If you lack the email address of a couple of your students, those feedback sheets will be placed in a separate word processor file that you can print out.
8. At the end of a course, if the same group of students undertake several pieces of work for you, you can ask the ModuleLeader facility to collate the marks from several assignments, and to generate an overview of the marks obtained. The overview is in the form of a table containing names, marks, the overall course average and the overall course standard deviation. In addition, the ModuleLeader facility will identify and highlight any anomalies, such as missing work.
