Can I randomize the order of students in the SpeedGrader?

[adamgoodkind202]

I would like to not grade the students in the same order every time. For example, by the time I get to the last one, I will consistently be tired? Aside from sorting by submission time, is there a way to randomly sort the students?

[awilliams]

Hello  @adamgoodkind202  Welcome to the Community! While it's not random, you can sort the list of students in different ways, How do I sort the student list in SpeedGrader? If you are interested in anonymous grading check out How do I hide student names in SpeedGrader?

[adamgoodkind202]

Thanks but none of the sorting options are to randomize.

On Tue, Apr 23, 2019 at 6:39 PM Adam Williams <instructure@jiveon.com>

[awilliams]

That's true. However with these options you can prevent grading the same student last every time to avoid bias from fatigue as you mentioned and with anonymous grading you can eliminate other types of bias. Are there additional challenges you are trying to solve for than those mentioned?

[adamgoodkind202]

Those are definitely the main challenges. I guess, and maybe I'm being

overly paranoid, the would still be a bias if I'm grading the "good"

students first.

[sjones7]

I agree that this feature (randomization) would be a valuable addition to Canvas and doesn't seem unreasonably difficult to implement.

[SusanNiemeyer]

I agree. I would like to be able to grade my students in random order. Now, I sometimes start grading in the middle of the group, but the names still appear in the same order.

In addition to changing up the order of students, I'd like to be able to grade their submissions without seeing the students' names. When I grade major essay exams, I print all of the submissions, fold over the names, and then shuffle the order of papers. That helps in eliminating bias. I'd like to be able to do that in Speedgrader.

[Bestuser]

I think that Speedgrader should

1) Offer a truly randomized order, and

2) Offer an option to hide student names from the text and the text files. (It could get the names from the list of people in the course.)

As it is, it's better than nothing, but at least the randomization should only take 3-5 minutes to implement.

[ngbc]

@adamgoodkind202 : You are not being paranoid at all.  I found a research article to back it up.  We (faculty) know that issue. 

Source: Zhihan (Helen) Wang et al, 30 Million Canvas Grading Records Reveal Widespread Sequential Bias and System-Induced Surname Initial Disparity (2023). On SSRN: ssrn.com/abstract=4603146

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Students whose surnames start with A, B, C, D or E received a 0.3-point higher grade out of 100 possible points than compared to when they were graded randomly.  Likewise, students with later-in-the-alphabet surnames received a 0.3-point lower grade—creating a 0.6-point gap.

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Summary: 

The University of Michigan researchers analyzed over 30 million grading records and found that students with last names starting with letters later in the alphabet tend to receive lower grades. This is due to biases in sequential grading and the default alphabetical order of submissions in the Canvas learning management system. These students also receive more negative and less polite comments, and their grading quality is lower, as measured by post-grade complaints. The researchers collected historical data from the fall 2014 semester to the summer 2022 semester and found a decline in grading quality as graders evaluate more assignments

U-M Researchers find a correlation between student grades and alphabetical ordering of last names [O... (2:35)

Extreme case:

Imagine a student getting the short end of the stick for every grading assignment for every class at college.  How much would the GPA be affected? 

[AJMillerMath]

@ngbc Thanks for bringing up this research report! Canvas really needs to do something about this and implement randomized order as the default in SpeedGrader.