=Paper=
{{Paper
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|title=Advanced Grading as a Modern Tool for Checking the Formation of a Competence or Elements of it
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|authors=Alexey V. Irshin,Elena N. Esareva,Alexey V. Eliseev
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==Advanced Grading as a Modern Tool for Checking the Formation of a Competence or Elements of it==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3057/paper13.pdf
Advanced Grading as a Modern Tool for Checking the
Formation of a Competence or Elements of it
Alexey V. Irshin1, Elena N. Esareva2, Alexey V. Eliseev3
1,2,3
South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk, Russia
Abstract.
The article examines modern grading tools in the electronic educational environment. We
describe and analyze the advanced grading of student papers in teaching with the use of
distance technologies. We outline the experience of the South Ural State University Institute
of Open and Distance Education in applying advanced grading using evaluations of student
papers in various technical disciplines as an example. We show the advantages of advanced
grading over traditional grades, in which the teacher evaluates the work by a five-point system
without specific criteria. We focused on the possibility of checking the formation of
competencies by dividing the grade into criteria, which makes it easier for students to navigate
their grades and understand what exactly needs to be corrected. The article analyzes the
convenience of using advanced grading for teachers working in a learning environment using
distance technologies. We aim to show the transparency of the advanced grading system and
the possibility of extending this method to other disciplines, thereby forming an understandable
picture of the development of a specific competence or part of it. Our results will be of interest
to teachers working in an electronic educational environment, as well as those who continue to
work in the traditional form.
Keywords 1
Advanced grading, criteria, labor intensity, grading time, comments, transparency, distance
educational technologies.
1. Introduction
The development of distance learning technologies and e-learning received a new impetus in 2020
due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Universities were forced to switch to new formats for lectures,
practicals, seminars, and laboratory classes and follow the requirements of sanitary rules in a complex
global epidemic situation [1,2]. With many years of experience in distance educational technologies,
both in the humanities (law, economics, management) and technical areas (electric power and electrical
engineering, construction, design and technical support of mechanical engineering industries,
metallurgy, computer science), the South Ural State University (SUSU) Institute of Open and Distance
Education (IODO) was fully prepared to implement these changes with consideration of all of the
nuances of distance learning [3].
The trends of modern education include the emergence of new opportunities in the digital
educational environment. Changes in the educational process include the transformation of the entire
system of production and provision of services based on the use of information and communication
technologies. According to the Federal Law On Education, distance educational technologies are
understood as those implemented mainly via information and telecommunications networks with
indirect (remote) interaction between students and teaching staff.
Proceedings of VI International Scientific and Practical Conference Distance Learning Technologies (DLT–2021), September 20-22,
2021, Yalta, Crimea
EMAIL: irshinav@susu.ru (A. 1); esarevaen@susu.ru (A. 2); eliseevav@susu.ru (А. 3)
ORCID 0000-0002-6657-2058 (A. 1); 0000-0002-1687-3864 (A. 2); 0000-0002-4549-5356 (А. 3)
©️ 2021 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
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Distance technologies have spread across higher education and are now widely used for both full-
time and part-time programs.
2. Task Setting
The purpose of this article is to study modern grading tools for online courses. With all the obvious
advantages of distance technologies, there are also difficulties in transferring the work from the
classroom to an online portal (shell, environment). The most striking problem is the lack of direct
contact between the teacher and the student, who may be located in different regions or even different
countries. Of course, switching from a standard lecture to the video conferencing format allows
educators to maintain live dialogue. However, when organizing practical classes, educators must use
appropriate tools to ensure that students have access to detailed comments on the design and content of
their practical assignments as they do the traditional classroom format, wherein assignments are
checked individually and students write reviews and comments and point out mistakes [4].
In the standard classroom format, the most common mistakes in each assignment can be discussed,
allowing the whole group to see and understand their assignment grade. When switching to distance
learning, assignments are sent electronically (text file, photo, file, etc.) to each student. With a large
number of students and assignments, the educator’s workload increases sharply, as they must provide
detailed comments and feedback, indicate what mistakes were made, and explain the grade given.
3. Method Development
Modern information technologies allow educators to use advanced grading, which is an excellent
tool to increase time efficiency. Advanced grading allows the educator to evaluate the work of students
according to specified criteria—either a specific competence as a whole or an element of it. For each
criterion, the educator can set the maximum number of points that they consider necessary. The final
grade is the sum of the grades according to the criteria.
When a student's work is evaluated with the help of advanced grading, it is easier for them to
navigate and understand what exactly needs to be corrected to increase their overall grade for the
assignment, because the student sees the criteria by which it was evaluated [4,5] Thus, the student gains
an understanding of the reasoning behind their grade, and the educator gains flexibility in their grading.
The educator must create a rubric, in which they prescribe the grading criteria and the points awarded
for the fulfillment of each criterion. In the simplest case, they can set one point for the fulfillment of a
criterion. The number of criteria is not limited to the usual five-point assessment the educator
automatically departs from the "five criteria—five points—top marks" system typically encountered in
Russia. On the contrary, by increasing the set of criteria that are associated with the most common
mistakes, the educator can expand the range of evaluation of the assignment and differentiate the
mistakes made by students. Students can receive, for example, 7 points for one assignment by
completing all seven criteria correctly. For the convenience of the students and the educator, these
points are then translated into the standard five-point grading system. In complex tasks, the educator
can apply deeper differentiation by setting several points for a certain criterion. Thus, the educator
creates a clear, transparent mechanism for evaluating student work.
4. Results
Let us consider an example of the application of advanced grading for an assignment in a course
entitled “Descriptive Geometry”. One of the graphic assignments contains the following tasks:
1. Construct surfaces and planes according to the dimensions in the task;
2. Construct the horizontal or frontal projection plane, depending on the further choice of additional
projection plane;
3. Construct an additional projection plane;
4. Transfer the images of surfaces and planes to an additional projection plane;
5. Determine the intersection points of the plane and surfaces;
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6. Use additional cutting planes to determine the intermediate intersection points;
7. Transfer the obtained intersection points to the main projection planes;
8. Connect the obtained points, thereby determining the intersection line;
9. Determine the visibility of the intersection line;
10. Write down the algorithm.
For the evaluation, the educator created a rubric of seven criteria. Figure 1 shows a fragment of the
rubric for this assignment (3 out of 7 criteria).
Figure 1: Fragment of the rubric
One point is awarded for each criterion in this task. The student sees their points, their grade, the
mistakes they made (by which criterion they received 0 points) and, if desired, can correct them. Figure
2 shows a fragment of a student's answer which received 5 out of 7 points.
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Figure 2: Example of a student answer
In this example, the student made two mistakes—they incorrectly fulfilled two criteria, for which
they received 0 points. Figure 3 shows a fragment of the educator's assessment for one of the unfulfilled
criteria.
Figure 3: Educator's assessment for incorrectly fulfilled criteria
Let us consider another example of advanced grading of tasks in the course Engineering Graphics.
The task is shown in Figure 4:
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Figure 4: Example assignment for the discipline Engineering Graphics
In this case, the educator created a rubric of five criteria. Figure 5 shows a fragment of the rubric
(only 2 criteria out of 5 are shown).
Figure 5: Fragment of the course rubric settings
Figure 6 shows a fragment of a student's answer which received 4 out of 5 points.
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Figure 6: An example of a student response
In this example, the student made one mistake—they incorrectly fulfilled one criterion, for which
they received 0 points. Figure 7 shows a fragment of the educator's assessment for one of the incorrectly
fulfilled criteria.
Figure 7: Educator's assessment for incorrectly fulfilled criteria
A similar method of advanced grading of student works is also possible for other assignments in
different disciplines (courses). It is widely used by educators of the Department of Engineering,
Technology, and Construction of the SUSU IODO.
5. Conclusion
Advanced grading allows educators to make their grades more understandable, transparent. By
setting a certain list of criteria, the educator forms a clear picture of the development of a specific
competence or element of it. Students immediately understand what exactly to pay attention to when
working on mistakes, and they can therefore better master a specific competence. As a result, students'
academic performance gradually increases, because the assessment is no longer a final result, but a
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point from which a new round of personal development begins. Thus, advanced grading acquires the
characteristics of constructive feedback.
By implementing advanced grading, the educator is no longer required to spend their time writing
comments to each student on their mistakes. The evaluation criteria are formulated just for the most
common mistakes. Also, the educator has the opportunity to analyze which competencies are most
difficult for students to master. This, in turn, allows them to see the shortcomings in their work, and to
work on improving the course.
6. References
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