How do I assign a grader to specific students?

[creiser127]

Scenario: I have a very large enrollment class with multiple TAs. I would like each TA to be assigned a randomly selected group of students to grade (discussions, assignments, quizzes, etc.)

As a simple example, 

• Suppose I have 90 students and 3 TAs
• Students are assigned a graded discussion with a rubric. 
• I would like to have the following:
  • TA 1: Grades the discussion for 30 students.
  • TA 2: Grades the discussion for a different 30 students.
  • TA 3: Grades the discussion for the remaining 30 students.

Tried Solutions that Did Not Work:

1. Moderated Grading. This tool doesn't apply to my situation. I do not want to have multiple graders grade one student (i.e., which is what moderated grading does). I want to divvy up the responsibility of grading one assignment to multiple graders.
2. Just have TAs grade their assigned groups. I would normally assign different groups to different TAs for grading ("TA 1, you are in charge of groups 1, 2,..."). However, my dive into this community has taught me that using multiple graders is a no-no on a single assignment: "SpeedGrader is generally designed for one instructor role to grade submissions at a time. Because of how SpeedGrader data is loaded and stored in the browser, multiple users should not grade assignments at the same time since each grader cannot view the most recent information for a submission."
3. Create sections. This was hopeful but my institution doesn't allow it. I have no ability to create sections for my course. 

Any ideas? 

[ProfessorBeyrer · Accepted solution]

Thank you @creiser127 for sharing the solutions you've already explored. Sections would help your students get feedback more efficiently, so it's too bad that isn't an option. It also sounds like coordinating exactly when each TA accesses the SpeedGrader for a particular assignment is not feasible, which would make Groups a good fit.

Here is an idea:

1. Download the submissions and distribute them among your TAs for them to score.
2. Export the gradebook and give each TA the export file. Since each submission has the student's name prepended to the filename, that will help your TAs populate those gradebook export files correctly.
3. Collect the gradebook export files from your TAs for importing back into the gradebook. Since you're doing the importing, this minimizes the risk of concurrent users providing feedback for the same assignment.

This won't help you if your TAs are providing comments or use a rubric, as neither of these are included in gradebook exports or imports. But if all you give students is a score, this method idea works as a solution.

[creiser127]

Thank you for the suggestion, @ProfessorBeyrer. I think I can use that for some assignments. For others, rubrics and individual feedback are a big component, so I hope Canvas comes up with something!

[DukeEgr93]

@ProfessorBeyrer  - that seems like a pretty incredible amount of work.  For instance, I have 14 TAs.  Having them create 14 different sheets that they give to me to re-import for each assignment sounds like one of the circles that Dante may have forgotten  🙂  I am currently manually adding each student to sections I created for each TA  (I know OP doesn't have the section option) - sad that Canvas doesn't have the batch add function that packages like Sakai have

[ProfessorBeyrer]

Thanks for mentioning how being able to create sections helps, @DukeEgr93. I looked at Dante's list and started work out where that intermediary circle might be but then realized he did not include Sisyphus. 🙃