--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>Anonymous Grading</B></P>
+
+<P>A peer graded assignment can be graded anonymously. In this
+ case the names (and any photos) of the students doing the grading
+ are not shown. Only the (file) names of the submissions are used to identify
+ the peices of work being graded.
+
+<P>When the peer graded assignment is not graded anonymously, the
+ pieces of work are shown with the names (and any photos) of the
+ students who submitted the work. This may lead to bias in the gradings.
+
+<P>Note that if the teacher's grades are shown to the students these are
+ never shown anonymously.
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>Peer Graded Assignment Type</B></P>
+
+<P>A peer graded assignment can have one of two types:
+
+<OL>
+<LI>Only feedback on the assessment elements and the general comment
+ is entered. The grading of assessment elements is not seen in the
+ grading pages. Assignments themselves are not given an overall grade.
+ However, the grading performance of the students is measured and
+ this, and only this measure contributes towards the final grades given
+ to the students.
+
+<LI>Here the teacher and peers are asked to provide both feedback and
+ grades. The assignments are given an overall quantative grade as well
+ as the qualative data. The final grade for a student will be calculated
+ from the (weighted) contributions of the teacher's grade, the mean
+ peers' grade and the student's grading performance.
+
+</OL>
+
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>The Breakdown of the Final Grade</B></P>
+
+<P>The table on this screen shows your final grade and how it was calculated.
+ The final grade is made up from three possible components.
+
+<OL>
+<LI>The teacher's grade for your submitted work.
+<LI>The average of the peer grades for your submitted work.
+<LI>A grade for your performance in the peer grading phase. This
+ performance was based by (a) whether your grades were too high or too low
+ when compared with the average grade of the other students (this is called bias),
+ (b) whether your grades follow, again on average, the grades given by
+ the other students (this is called reliability)
+ and (c) on the quality of your comments on the other pieces of work you graded.
+ This was graded by the teacher. These three performance grades were weighted
+ by the factors 1:2:3 respectively to give an overall "grading"
+ grade. In other words the teacher's grading of the comments is given the
+ same weight as the Bias and Reliability factors combined.
+</OL>
+
+<P>These three components can be weighted as deemed appropriate for the
+ assignment. These weights are shown in the smaller table.
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>The Calculation of the Final Grade</B></P>
+
+<P>The table at the foot of the screen shows the final grade for each student
+ for this assignment. Their grade is made up from three components.
+
+<OL>
+<LI>The teacher's grade for their submitted work.
+<LI>The average of the peer grades for their submitted work. This can optionally
+ include the teacher's grade. This grade would be included if the number of
+ peer gradings is very low or it is thought that the peer gradings are suspect
+ either because of bias (usually on the high side) or for not being reliable.
+ If included the teacher's grade is treated in the same way as a peer grade in
+ the calculation of the average.
+<LI>A grade for the student's performance in the peer grading phase. This
+ performance is based by (a) if their grades are,on average, too high or too low
+ (this is called bias), (b) if their grades follow, again on average, the grades given by
+ the other students (and that of the teacher if included) (this is called reliability)
+ and (c) on the quality of their feedback to the other students, this is graded
+ explicitly by the teacher in the top half of the page. These three are weighted
+ by the factors 1:2:3 respectively in the calculation of the "grading"
+ grade. In other words the teacher's grading of the comments is given the
+ same weight as the Bias and Reliability factors combined.
+</OL>
+
+<P>These three components can be weighted as deemed appropriate for the
+ assignment. For example the teacher's grade might be weighted strongly
+ if the peer grading part of the assignment is only considered a minor part
+ of the assignment as a whole. Alternatively, if no teacher grading is done
+ at all then the teacher's grades should be given a zero weighting. If the
+ assignment is all about the students as judges and the providing of feedback
+ then first two components may be set to zero (or low) and the students'
+ grading abilities will dominate the final grades.
+
+<P>Note that this screen is used iteratively and the final grades are not normally
+ made available to the students until all the grades for the comments have been
+ entered AND the component weights (for the teacher's grades, the peer
+ grades and grading performance) have been finalised. Once these two separate
+ tasks have been done then the final grades can be made available to the
+ students.
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>Peer Graded Assignment Elements</B></P>
+
+<P>For ease of grading a Peer Graded Assignment should have a reasonable
+ number of "Assessment Elements". Each element should cover
+ a particular aspect of the assignment. Typically an assignment will have
+ something between 5 to 15 elements for comments and grading, the
+ actual number depending on the size and complexity of the assignment. A peer
+ assignment with only one element is allowed and has a similar assessment
+ strategy to the standard Moodle Assignment. Elements have
+ the following three features:
+<OL>
+<LI>The DESCRIPTION of the assessment element. This should clearly state what
+ aspect of the assignment is being assessed. If the assessment is qualatative
+ it is helpful to give details of what is considered excellent, average
+ and poor.
+
+<LI>The SCALE of the assessment element. There are a number of prefined
+ scales. These range from simple Yes/No scales, through multipoint scales to
+ a full percentage scale. Each element has its own scale which should be choosen
+ to fit the number of possible variations for that element. Note that the scale
+ does NOT determine the element's importance when calculating the overall
+ grade, a two point scale has the same "influence" as a 100 point
+ scale if the respective elements have the same weight...
+
+<LI>The WEIGHT of the assessment element. By default the elements are given the same
+ importance when calculating the overall grade of the assignment. This can be
+ changed by giving the more importance elements a weight greater than one, and
+ the less important elements a weight below one. Changing the weights does NOT
+ effect the maximum grade, that value is fixed by the Maximum Grade parameter
+ of the peer graded assignment.
+</OL>
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>The Final Grades</B></P>
+
+<P>The table on this screen lists the final grades and their breakdown as shown to
+ the students. If an error is seen in the table then it is possible to "go back"
+ and make a correction in some cases. There are a couple of possibilities.
+
+<OL>
+<LI>If a teacher's grade needs to be changed then the piece of work can be
+ re-graded by going
+ to the teacher's Management screen for assignment and clicking on the link "View
+ (n) submitted Assignments". The piece of work can be re-graded. Once this has
+ been done then the Phase 4 screen "Grade Comments" should be displayed AND the
+ link at the foot of that page clicked so that the new final grade is stored in the
+ database.
+<LI>If it is desired to use a different weighting scheme then the link
+ "Calculate Final Grades" can be clicked and the new weights entered. Clicking
+ on the button at the foot of the screen will save the adjusted weights and re-calculate
+ the final scores.
+</OL>
+
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>A Graded Peer Assignment</B></P>
+
+<P>This shows the grades and comments made on the submitted piece of
+ work. You can if you wish reply to this assessment and choose not to
+ accept it (at this stage). If that is the case, please enter your reply in the
+ box at the foot of the page giving the reason why you are not happy with
+ the assessment. Then click on the button at the foot of the page and
+ choose NO when asked whether you are happy with this assessment.
+
+<P>If, on the other hand. you are happy with the assessment simply
+ click on the button at the foot of the page and then click on YES when
+ asked whether you are happy with this assessment.
+
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>Grading of Peer Assignments</B></P>
+
+<P>For ease of grading a Peer Assignment is divided into a number of
+ assessment "elements". Each element covers
+ a particular aspect of the assignment. For each element you should
+<OL>
+<LI>Enter a Grade by clicking in the appropriate button or selecting an appropriate
+ number from the drop down menu.
+
+<LI>Enter an explaination of why you gave that grade in the Feedback box. If
+ you feel that the reason is obvious then leave the box empty. Note, however,
+ that the person whose work you are asessing has the opportunity to get back
+ to you and may well query a grade if there is no explaination.
+</OL>
+
+<P>The last box on this form allows you to make a general comment on the
+ work. This should justify your assessment. It should be polite and as far as
+ possible constructive.
+
+<P>Note that not all the assessment elements may be counted equally. The
+ higher their "Weight" the higher they count when calculating
+ the overall grade.
+
+<P>You may find that once you have assessed several pieces of work, you want
+ to re-assess one or two of them. This is allowed and, indeed, this is good idea as
+ it will give your asessments a greater consistency.
+
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>Grading the Peer Comments</B></P>
+
+<P>This screen is used to enter the teacher's grades for the comments made
+ by the students during the peer grading phase of the assignment. A relatively
+ simple grading is used, the score out of 20. The treacher can decide what is
+ being graded and the relative scores from the instructions given to the students
+ before the peer grading started. For example, at a higher level the students may be
+ required to give critical comments, at an intermediate level the students may be
+ required to point out strengths and weaknesses, and at a lower level the students
+ may be simply pointing out errors and inaccuracies.
+
+<P>The comments are grouped together by submission, that is each set of
+ comments refers to the same piece of work. If available the teacher's own
+ comments are shown first as a kind of benchmark.
+
+<P>Note that this screen can be used iteratively and there is no need to grade all
+ the comments in one go. Indeed it may be desirable to regrade some of the
+ comments once the "standard" of the comments has been established.
+
+<P>The grades of comments that have been scored are
+ saved by clicking on the apprpriate button at the foot of the page. Once the
+ teacher is happy with all the comment grades the next step is to calculate
+ the Final Grades.
+
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>Including Self in the Assignment</B></P>
+
+<P>A peer graded assignment can optionally include the student's own work
+ in the set of pieces each student is asked to grade. This will mean that if, say, the
+ number of peer assessors is 5, then each student will be asked to grade 6
+ pieces of work, one of them being their own work.
+
+<P>If the number of peer assessors is set to zero and the include self option
+ is turned on then the assignment becomes a self-graded assignment. This
+ may or may not include the teacher's grading depending on whether that
+ option is set or not.
+
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>Managing a Peer Graded Assignment</B></P>
+
+<P>A Peer Graded Assignment is more complex than an ordinary assignment.
+ It involves a number of steps or phases. These are
+<OL>
+<LI>The assessment of a peer assignment should be broken into a number
+ of assessment ELEMENTS. This makes the grading of an assignment less
+ arbitary and gives the students a framework on which to make assessments.
+ The teacher has the role of setting up the assessment elements thus making a
+ grading page. (See that page for more details.)
+
+<LI>With the grading page set up the assignment is made available to students.
+ There is a submission deadline for the work done by the students. During this
+ phase the teacher can, if desired, grade some or all of the submissions. The
+ grading need not be final, the grades are used as a guide in the next phase...
+
+<LI>After the submission deadline has passed, the teacher moves the assignment
+ to the peer grading phase. First each student is allocated a random selection
+ of the submitted pieces of work. If there is a sufficient number of <b>graded</b>
+ submissions, the system ensures that each student is allocated at least one
+ "good" piece of work and at least one "poor" piece of work.
+ Each student now has a number of pieces of work to grade. This must be done
+ within the "Grading" deadline. A student can comment on these
+ assessments (made by other students) of their own peice of work and they
+ can go back for re-grading if the student is not happy with some aspect.
+ That loop continues until either the student is happy with the amended
+ assessment, the deadline for grading is reached or the teacher intervenes
+ in the process.
+
+<LI>After the grading deadline has passed the teacher must grade the comments
+ made by the students on submissions. This is a single grade score. Once the
+ comments has be graded the teacher can calculate the final grades of the students.
+ These final grades are normally made up of three components, teacher's grade,
+ mean peer grade and grading performance. The later is mainly the mean score
+ entered by the teacher against a student's comments. This three components are
+ first weighted before the calculation takes place.
+</OL>
+
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>Number of Peer Assessors</B></P>
+
+<P>A peer graded assignment will normally have around 3 to 8 peer
+ assessors. That is, in the peer grading phase, each student will be
+ asked to grade this number of pieces of work from the other students
+ in the class. The larger the assignment is, in terms of content, the
+ smaller this number should be, else the grading burden on the
+ students becomes onerous. However, each student should see sufficient
+ examples to gain an insight into what constitutes a good piece of work
+ and a poor piece of work. Further for the grading performance of a
+ student to be assessed meaningfully the greater the number of peer
+ gradings the better. This performance is unlikely to be valid if only three
+ or four gradings are done by each student.
+
+<P>Provided there is enough pieces of work submitted (actually 10 or
+ more), the system will allocate each student at least one "good" and
+ at least one "poor" piece of work. However, this can only be done if the
+ teacher has graded the pieces of work BEORE the allocation of (peer) grading
+ work is done. The teacher does NOT, however, have to grade all the
+ pieces of work, a sample is sufficient. Further, the teacher's gradings need
+ NOT be the final gradings, a preliminary grading is good enough. Note,
+ however, that if the option to show teacher's gradings is turned on,
+ these gradings will be shown to the students at the end of the submission
+ phase.
+
+<P>The number of peer assesors can be zero. In which case the assignment
+ becomes either a self-graded assignment if that option is turned on, or
+ a normal teacher-graded assignment.
+
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>Resubmitting assignments</B></P>
+
+<P>By default, students cannot resubmit assignments once the teacher has graded them</P>
+
+<P>If you turn this option on, then students will be allowed to resubmit assignments
+ after they have been graded (for you to re-grade). This may be useful if the
+ teacher wants to encourage students to do better work in an iterative process.</P>
+
+<P>Obviously, this option is only relevant during the submission phase of a peer graded
+ assignment. During the peer grading phase the grading is always done iteratively, the student
+ whose work is being graded has the opportunity to disagree with the set of
+ comments (and possibly grades) on their work and send a reply back to the student
+ doing the grading. This process continues until agreement is reached...
+
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>When to display Grades</B></P>
+
+<P>A peer graded assignment can have either of these characteristics:
+
+<OL>
+<LI>In the peer grading phase the students see the feedback on the
+ assessment elements, the general comment and the grades given
+ by the other students. The students are shown both the individual
+ assessment element grades and their overall grade. This may lead
+ into more disputes than the second type of peer graded assignment...
+
+<LI>In the peer grading phase the students see only the feadback on the
+ assessment elements and the general comment made by
+ the other students. The grades for the individual assessment elements are
+ not revealed (although they are held in the system). Further, the students
+ do not see their overall grades as given by their peers. Only when the
+ comments have been agreed are the grades (and the overall grade)
+ shown. This type of peer graded assignment is likely to be less
+ contentious than the first type.
+</OL>
+
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>Specimen Grading Form</B></P>
+
+<P>This page shows shows the details of the actual form used to grade
+ your assignment. It will be used by the teacher to grade your work. Further,
+ in a peer graded asignment, the same form will be used by yourself and
+ your fellow students to grade the submitted pieces of work.
+
+<P>Please note that although you can change the grades and add text on
+ this form these changes are NOT saved. This is simply a specimen form,
+ but a very similar form will be used by the teacher and by you during this
+ assignment.
+
+
+</P>
--- /dev/null
+<P ALIGN=CENTER><B>Display of Teacher's Grades</B></P>
+
+<P>A peer graded assignment can optionally make the teacher's comments
+ and grades available to the student's. If desired, these are shown after the
+ submission deadline, or later if the grades are not available then. The teacher's
+ comments and grades may well help the students when making their own
+ (peer) assessments on other student's work.
+
+<P>Note that even when the peer grading is done anonymously, the
+ teacher's grades are always shown to the students with the teacher's
+ name and, if available, their photo.
+
+</P>
projects / moodle.git / commitdiff