[ARCHIVED] Grading with a stylus in Speedgrader App???

[jayoder]

Does anyone know of a teacher that is proficient in grading with a stylus on Canvas? I'd love to know what device they use and if they grade essays with it?

We have been testing out paperless grading and are struggling to find the optimal device and I really want to find something practical before I ask the district to invest money. We are currently in the "Goldilocks and the 3 Devices" mode. iPads seem to work the best with a decent fine point stylus, but we have had some glitches. We also have Chromebooks as a 1:1 and I wondered if a Touchscreen Chromebook would be better or how an Airbar would work since i know they are on the rise. My hesitation there is that I have seen issues where the web version of Speedgrader scrolls when you try and annotate so I'm not sure touchscreen windows version is best. Although...on the other hand the app doesn't have the functionality to leave a comment in the rubric since the view is limited on the app. So many variables! 

Anyone have some best practices to share???

TIA

 @erin_keefe ‌  @Bobby2 laurakgibbs

[Bobby2]

I'm sure  @scott_maccrum  has something to say about this! He's been experimenting too. 

[scott_maccrum]

Hi Johnathan,

yes, you are right in that the SpeedGrader (on the web version) moves the screen and doesn't let you annotate where you want to do so on the document.   Although it is not as quick to do the following process, it is still quite quick and works as a work around until the SpeedGrader is improved to allow annotations on the previewed doc (which I hope is coming soon). After student has submitted their document, you can try this: 

a) Download the student's assignment/task from the assignment space in Canvas course;

b) Use your computer's word processing program to annotate on the document:   in MS Word just click on "review" and then "Start Inking" to do this.  and then starting writing on the screen.

c) Save it to your computer

d) Then, you can give the annotated document (and the written feedback) back to the student by going to SpeedGrader and scroll down to the paper clip icon at the bottom of the screen. 

e) Then simply attach the annotated word document.  This will send it to the student via the assignment space.

so, it would be easier to use the SpeedGrader, but due to the reasons stated above, it might be just as good (for now) to annotate the document and give it back to the student by you using the 'attachment' icon in the SpeedGrader.

The process outlined above will also partially solve the issue of "Can't upload student work to an assignment on behalf of my student":

You can get the document from the student (e.g. via email, usb), annotate it in your computer's Word Process program and then 'attach' the document to the assignment with the 'attachment' icon.  Then you can also give written comments  in the Speedgrader and use the rubric in the Speedgrader to grade the piece of work. 

When the student goes into "Marks" and goes to the Assignment, they will click on the document link that you have placed there for them and the they will see/download the annotated document.

They will also read your comments and rubric assessment at the same time. The only difference is that you and the student can't see the document in the 'preview pane'  (but that is not a big deal as you have annotated it anyway and they just need to click on it and download the document to see what you have done with the document).

Hope this helps you out until SpeedGrader is worked out.

I am also interested in knowing if the Speedgrader does not work on all PC laptops or if it just doesn't work on certain types/brands of PC computers?

Yes, the Canvas Teacher App is good for annotating work for students and giving feedback.  However, when using it I suggest that you use the 'pen/drawing' function only in the App for marking work, as (if I recall when I last tried it out, which was a little while ago) the 'text box' option in the App for marking work does not produce very good results and it shows big boxes on the document when the students look at the marked document.  I will need to have another look at this to confirm my thinking around this and I can't recall if I could attach 'audio' or 'film' to the document as feedback for the student to hear/see.

Thanks Johnathan

Scott

[Bobby2]

Nice work Scotty! Knew you had this up your sleeve. 

[jayoder]

Thank you for such a thorough review, I would present that to my English teachers, but I'm pretty sure they would all stop listening and immediately throw their laptops out the window and say I'm just going back to old school paper! Change is siow! 

[Stef_retired]

 @jayoder ‌, I'm going to ask our mobile gurus to weigh on on this, because they've long advised me that the combination of an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil is the gold standard for grading in Canvas—and while that's the setup I have, grading is no longer part of my day-to-day, so I'm not the best person to confirm that endorsement.

[rseilham]

 @jayoder ‌, 

This is a great question. It might not be the cheapest solution (even though it's now significantly cheaper with pencil support for the entry-level iPad), but I think the iPad and Apple Pencil gives the best experience. It's fast and responsive and works really well for teacher annotations in Canvas Teacher and student annotations in Canvas Student. There has been a lot of work done over the last year to make viewing annotations on the web a better experience. See below: 

[jayoder]

We have really dived in with this and love the view feedback option! And Rubrics! Thanks for the tip. Seems that getting our teachers the best device to do this is not in the cards for now.  But we do have an older iPad I have 3 English teachers using with a generic pen and it is glitchy at times, but seems to be working for now. Hopefully as they take away more printers they will have more money to invest in paperless tech!

[tom_spoors]

I am happy to see thread. Our college has just implemented Canvas and the SpeedGrader has been a disappointment for marking/correcting my students' work. A simple feature like a tick mark or the ability to annotate on the actual document without the font size being 6 times the height of the students' text would be minimally useful!

Personally, I have found it quicker to download the file, print it out and use a pen to add notes and marks before returning students' work by hand. I use SpeedGrader only to record the grade. I don't think that this is the aim! However, my method, after some informal research, is currently 6x faster than SpeedGrader.

[rseilham]

 @tom_spoors ‌,

Is this your experience using SpeedGrader on the web, or through a Smartphone/Tablet through the Canvas Teacher app? 

[tom_spoors]

Hi Ryan,

Web-based. Through a Samsung Galaxy Tab. Even with a stylus the app is much too time-consuming. Marking on paper is currently 4 or 5 times faster!

The teacher's app is good on my Nokia 8 for looking at data but it is too flawed for general use such as marking. The app won't let me edit an UNPUBLISHED announcement! To correct an error means erasing all text backwards to the error and recommencing or some tedious copying and pasting.

This all sounds negative but it is my user experience to date.

Best regards,

Tim Sooors

Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/ghei36>

[jayoder]

My colleague in the English dept has been using an older iPad for about 2 months now and has been doing well with Speedgrader. A few things he wishes were better-the ability to comment on the rubric from the app and the ability to go to the gradebook or even to mute/unmute an assignment. He doesn't think annotating on Speedgrader saves him time per se, but its not adding too much time plus with the ability to not have to drag around papers has definitely made it worth it for him. So far its been a success...we look forward to updates to Speegrader and the annotation tools!

[rseilham]

Thanks for the additional info, and that makes sense that SpeedGrader inside Canvas Teacher does have some differences. I did want to respond to the following though...

 A few things he wishes were better-the ability to comment on the rubric from the app and the ability to go to the gradebook or even to mute/unmute an assignment. 

If you set a rubric to free-form comments, then SpeedGrader in the Teacher app supports comments: How do I use free-form comments instead of ratings in a rubric in SpeedGrader? 

You can mute an assignment in the Canvas Teacher app, it's just not in SpeedGrader. You need to do this from the settings menu in the assignment submission list before you enter SpeedGrader: 

As for the gradebook, that is trickier as you'll need to go through the assignment or look at individual grades through the People tab in the course. 

Hope this helps. 

[jayoder]

Thanks Ryan that mute trick is great.

I had told him about the free form rubric but the Eng dept uses a standard range rubric that matches the state assessments.

And he wants to access the gradebook to initiate the sync to our SIS (Skyward).

[rseilham]

No problem,  @jayoder ‌: 

As for the rubric and gradebook sync, I'd suggest a feature Idea be created:

How do I create a new feature idea in the Canvas Community?  

Let me know if you need anything else. 

[garichard]

I’m having trouble getting my students’ uploaded images to rotate when grading in the canvas teacher app. And I can’t use my Apple Pencil in speed grader on the web browser speed grader because the document just moves around. When I rotate in speed grader on the web, the rotation doesn’t carry over to the teacher app. Any thoughts?

[KristinL]

Hi Gigi -

I annotated on a number of jpg submissions today using my Apple Pencil within Canvas Teacher. In order for the pencil to work, you need to tap one of the annotation tools at the top of the screen. When you're done, remember to tap the annotation tool again to deselect it before swiping right or left to the next submission.

I went back into the assignment that I graded earlier and experimented with rotation. You're right. The rotation from SpeedGrader within the browser doesn't "transfer" over to Canvas Teacher. It does, however "follow" from browser to browser on different devices.

[garichard]

The problem with grading on my new iPad Pro (w/ apple pencil or otherwise) occurs when I use canvas in a web browser on my iPad . You click on the annotation button, but the pencil (or your finger) just moves the document around rather than drawing annotation. We tried on a colleague’s iPad and she had the same problem

I can annotate in the teacher app but the students’ submissions are sideways. And there is no option to rotate them. The other problem with this is that the annotation doesn’t show up correctly when you open the submission in the browser. I can include some screenshots and a screencast if that helps. 

Does anyone know if there is a related post suggesting that this be fixed so we can vote it up? I would really like to grade in my iPad but right now that just doesn’t work. 

Thanks!

[nancy_pence]

Thank you for that little comment you made about turning off the annotation tool before swiping to the next student!  I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't swipe.  You made my day!

[jackie_maggo]

I am using an iPad Pro to work at my high school and the Canvas App - with the SpeedGrader tool - still needs a lot of improvement.

I don’t have an Apple Pencil but just a stylus, and when inking on the assignments there is no way for me to change the thickness of the ink.
When posting an image, my students assure me that it is posted correctly, yet I see it sideways.

Grading on the web browser in the same Speed Grader is more cumbersome - especially seeing how the Speed Grader ishould enhance teacher’s productivity...

[ksammons]

Has anyone been able to make this work with a touchscreen Chromebook? I would like to write on student submissions using my finger or a stylus, but it just moves the document around. Open to suggestions other than downloading, annotating, and then re-uploading. 

[Friendr]

Something I have learned on the web browser version of Speedgrader is that Windows Ink will cause a pen to scroll instead of annotate properly.  I am using a Wacom Intuos Small Pen Tablet and was having the same issue.

Apparently WIndows Updates with Windows Ink has caused some issues for all pens and tablets.  I know for Wacom you can disable Windows Ink for all applications or just certain ones.  Here is the link to the steps on how to do this for Wacom products.  I would check with other pen/tablet manufacturer sites and see if they have similar steps.

https://support.wacom.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500006344062-Why-is-the-pen-scrolling-instead-of-drawin...

Hope this helps!