[Discussions] Grading Discussion in the Discussion Stream

[lmielke]

I often use the Discussion feature as a Do Now activity for students in my classes. I try and reward students with points for participating in the discussions daily. Sometime going through the Speedgrader to grade these can be a longer process than what is necessary. I think if we could somehow include a grading box right along in the student stream where they post, it would be much easier to read replies, ensure student understanding, as well as saving time to grade students 1 by 1.

[mwolfenstein]

Does Blackboard let you reply while grading, grade from the board, or both?

[jacqueline_camp]

I also agree, I have instructors who ask for this feature all the time.   This is the most recent.   

"I just chatted with Canvas this morning and they told me there was no way for me to find out how many discussion posts each student authored."

[garichard]

D2L has the feature of grading right in the discussion post. When I switched institutions, I went from D2L to Canvas and grading directly in the discussion stream is one of the things I miss most from D2L.

[garichard]

Agreed! D2L had this feature and I really miss it!

[jennifer_fillio]

You are right in that discussion boards is they are not very grader friendly especially if you require aspects such as a student posting to the board's forum and then replying and/or following up to a certain number of students. In using the Speedgrader view, you can see a student's posts/replies to posts but not see contexts these are in nor understand if hierarchically they are a direct post to the board or a reply/follow-up to something someone else said.  While you can use the links at the top in Speedgrader to see the whole discussion and take another step - the search function - to find the student's posts/replies and click on them individually to see what came before and after them, this results in a lot of clicks for the instructor trying to reflect on student's overall work in a board and means difficulty getting back to the main student view in Speedgrader (a lot of back clicks). I do the work around mentioned by several (two tabs open) but still the process ends up being more work than I want.  To ease instructor grading of discussions in Speedgrader, I would like Canvas to consider tweaking the discussion board Speedgrader feature with two aspects.  The first aspect allows faculty to visually differentiate posts from replies.  This could be done by representing some type of hierarchical arrangement in the Speedgrade view (i.e. replies made to posts are indented more or by highlighting the post in a frame or other icon).  The second aspect is to allow the instructor to directly access the specific part of the discussion board where the post or reply was made (maybe as a pop-out or expanding sidebar that can be closed after the review is done) directly from the main Speedgrader view of the discussion board (thus lessening the clicks).

[anawintoncl]

I agree with you! Grading discussion should not be this time consuming!!

[djisaac]

I'm not sure I understand. Isn't this what speedgrader does? It shows me the original post I require as well as responses to at least two other students. Unless you mean for the whole course?

What I wish for is the ability to see an individual thread for each student instead of only seeing what he/she said in speedgrader. If learning is a conversation, then I want to see the interactions between student A and those who responded to her without the distractions of all other student post/responses.

[DJ15]

Re: Grading of Discussion in Discussion Stream 

I totally support this - a big plus for large classes.

I have 2 good ideas related to this. Before I answer I want to say that having 2 browsers open is not a solution because the order of students comments  in the discussion board and in the speed grader are different so you its too inefficient to scroll to find students.  With large class its impractical.

My suggestion's are: 

1. In speed grader when I am grading a discussion I can see all the comments by the students but I cant see my comments in response to the student. This should be added to the speed grader comments. 

2.  Along with grading in the discussion board I should be able to provide the students with confidential feedback in the discussion board. This is annoying to me that I have to go to speed grader, find the student and then find my my place back in the discussion page. Its not practical for 80 students. The instructor should have the option of making a comment confidential or public within the discussion page.  

[No-Time-2-Waste]

It would be beneficial to grade posts and threaded replies in the context of full discussions rather than continually jumping between students in speed grader or having the full discussion open in a separate tab. Why not implement the possibility of assigning rubric grades within the full discussion view? It would be much easier to track and grade discussion posts in context with one another and save all of the extra steps currently required to do so.

[rachel_page]

When marking graded discussions, I would like to be able to respond in the post made by a student in the discussion as well as add a comment in the graded section without having to switch into the discussion and search down for the post to add to a comment there as well.