Introduction
In this article we will walk you through how to use Automated Feedback from the perspective of a teacher.
If you’d like more information on how this tool works, you can check out the overview article here:
Setting up Automated Feedback provides your students with additional formative feedback prior to handing in their work. Please do not use Automated Feedback to grade your students, but only provide it to them as an extra opportunity to reflect and improve upon their work. We are continuously working on improving our feedback by better training our algorithms, which means that we can’t guarantee flawless feedback.
Tool In Action
Overall Student Progress
At the top of the active assignment, you will see the Overall student progress overview. Click on statistics per active student to see individual students' progress. Here, you can see if students have read the instructions, and handed in an assignment.
Fig. 1: Overall student progress: Active assignment
Click on the headers in each column to change the order (ascending or descending) in which students are displayed. You can also click Fullscreen to pop out the full display of student progress.
Fig. 2: Full screen statistics per active student analytics
The check marks under read instructions and submissions mean that that student has finished the step. The light green dot means the student has not read the instructions or submitted his file yet.
Please note that the submissions box is only marked if a student uploads a document for Automated Feedback. If they choose to remove the document after receiving feedback, this box will be empty.
It is also possible to export all the student data into an excel file. This file contains information concerning review ratings, review comments and grading. You can download this export by clicking on the EXPORT ANALYTICS button in the overall student progress window.
Step 1: Instructions
Instructions: Setting Up
Here, you can see the instructions written when setting up the assignment. These can be changed by clicking on edit on the top right corner of the screen.
Fig. 2: Instruction: Setting up
Collaboration Options
Directly underneath the instructions, you can select options for student collaboration.
Fig. 3: Student collaboration options
When selecting student collaboration options, there are several configurations to choose from. Please bear in mind that collaboration options need to be selected before students participate in the assignment - once a student makes progress, the configurations can't be updated.
Fig. 4: Collaboration options expanded
Options for students hand in:
Individually
As a group
Instructions: Active Assignment
Here, you can view the instructions you wrote while setting up the assignment. You can edit them by clicking on the Edit button in the top right corner of the screen.
Fig. 5: Instruction: Active assignment
Step 2: Submissions
Submissions: Setting Up
When creating your assignment, you can configure submission options for your students.
Fig. 6: Submissions: Setting up options
Required number of files to hand in: Set the amount of files that students are required to hand in. The submission requirement can be set at exactly, minimum or between your chosen amount. Students can always hand in more files than required.
Scheduling deadlines: Set the hand-in deadline. Students have to upload their work before this deadline. After the deadline expires, students will no longer be able to submit their file and receive feedback. If no deadline is specified at this stage, students are free to utilize the submission section and receive feedback at their convenience.
If a deadline for submission has been set for the students, you have the option to allow for students to hand in after the submission deadline has passed. Simply enable this option (as shown on the screenshot below), and students will be able to hand in after the submission deadline as well. Keep in mind that enabling this option will not affect the student analytics - you will still be able to see if students have submitted on time or not.
Fig. 7: Scheduling deadlines: Allowing late submissions
File requirements: Although other tools may offer the option to choose various file types, currently, students are only permitted to submit documents such as .docx, .pdf, etc., for automated feedback.
Fig. 8: File requirement options
Plagiarism check: If your institution has opted into our Turnitin integration, you can select here whether the check should be toggled on or off. You can read more information here: Turnitin FAQ
Guiding students (optional): If you have specific hand-in instructions for your students (such as the desired font, line spacing, naming the file, etc.) fill them in here.
Example: Please name your student number in the file-name. Upload both your essay and the slides you will use when presenting about your essay.
Submissions: Active Assignment
Once the assignment has been set up, this step provides an overview of the students' submitted work, and which students have not submitted their work.
Fig. 9: Submission: Active Assignment
The students' submissions can also be viewed in the assignment itself. By clicking on the file in the files handed in column in the row for the student's name, you can see which files they have submitted. Click on view to view the submitted work.
Fig. 10: File view
All submitted files can be downloaded by clicking the download icon in step 2. The submissions are in a zip file, the files in this zip file have a name in the format [First name Last name Student] Original file name.
Fig. 11: Download icon located
Step 3: Automated Feedback
At this stage, you can see the results of the students that have handed in work to be checked by Automated Feedback. These are the results derived from the criteria you have chosen upfront when setting up the assignment. Please navigate to this article if you need some help setting up Automated Feedback and choosing the right criteria.
Once you have chosen these, you can navigate to Tryout to test your set-up. You can upload an assignment that you would like to be checked, and the results will give you insights into the feedback your students will receive with these criteria.
Fig. 12: Tryout upload file button
Once students have uploaded their work, you will see two different overviews. The criteria overview shows how well each requirement was fulfilled among all students that used Automated Feedback within that course.
Fig. 13: Criteria overview
The students overview provides you with information on how well each student did, and what feedback Automated Feedback provided them. If students have marked any feedback received as incorrect, a suggestion provided by the system will have changed to contested.
Fig. 14: Student option overview
You can also enter the document of the student to view the feedback that has been given. This can be done by clicking on either the submission title or on the passing percentage results circle.
Within the document, you can see the feedback the student has received in the same way they will see it. If a student has disagreed with the feedback provided, they can mark feedback as incorrect. In this case, the feedback item will automatically change from suggestion to contested. The comment will be displayed at the respective feedback item for you and the student.
Fig. 15: Automated feedback bar