Educators who adopt GradeAssist to improve the efficiency, quality, and effectiveness of their formative writing feedback join a community of thousands of professors, teachers, and academic administrators who use GradeAssist to enhance productivity and learning for both educators and students. We’d like to take a moment to share a bit about the unique philosophy behind the many GradeAssist products available today.
We believe that educators matter. They make a meaningful difference in students’ lives and educational experiences through powerful lectures and formative assessment, but also in bonds formed in the classroom, by email, in feedback on papers, or in lively chats in the student union coffee shop. In the best cases, such bonds inspire and guide students to greatness. In the worst, students’ interest in learning can be extinguished completely.
In recent years the responsibility for assessment has frequently been wrested from online and classroom educators. In some cases this is attributed to cost concerns, in others to vague fears of grade inflation. Educators have been replaced by computerized grading systems or faceless, distant hordes of impersonal assessors who grade papers by rote and have absolutely no interaction with students. No interaction generally means little to no responsibility for students’ academic or personal progress, no discretion to take action when necessary, no concern for students’ well-being. As educators’ hands-on responsibility for their students is stripped away, so too are the opportunities to mentor, encourage, inspire, teach. Unfortunately, neither computers nor long-distance graders are likely to notice or care when a paper crosses their desk that hints at the brilliance of the next Einstein or Stephen King. They’ll be neither inclined nor empowered to take action when a student’s writings exhibit difficulty mastering the intricacies of APA style, the basics of everyday grammar, or contain troubling signs of danger to themselves or others.
But in an age where budgets are slashed, educators asked to do more with less, and where metrics and assessment, accreditation concerns, and the latest US News college rankings play a substantial role, how can educators be expected to succeed for themselves or their students?
Like we've said, educators matter. When educators are removed from the assessment process, lost is that intimate, innate understanding of who's succeeding and why, who's struggling, and how to bring to bear teaching methods or other interventional resources to get a student back on track and encourage them to greater success. Because we believe in the fundamental importance of educators in every aspect of a student’s education, we’ve developed an approach that makes a measurable, meaningful difference for students and educators throughout the country. It’s designed specifically to support and empower educators to do what they do best: teach. We call it GradeAssist.
GradeAssist is a software tool for Windows that offers a revolutionary, standardized approach to assessing, commenting on, and grading students’ written academic work. Educators report that they’re grading faster — sometimes cutting grading time by 50% — when they complement their own personalized feedback with GradeAssist’s standardized comments. Students’ perceptions of their professors and their educational experiences are also measurably improved. Everything from a professor’s work ethic and helpfulness to the clarity and fairness of grading standards are all evaluated in a more positive light by students. But while productivity and student satisfaction are a few of the many benefits of using GradeAssist, there’s a more important reason to adopt this software at the individual, department, or institutional level: measurable improvements to students’ critical thinking, academic writing, and other key educational outcomes.
We’re committed to ongoing, iterative improvement, which in large part is based on listening to our fans and critics alike. So if you have any questions, comments, complaints, or concerns, tell us. We greatly value your experiences and insights and would appreciate hearing from you. You can reach us at 703-59-GRADE or at gradeassist@pappasvolk.com.
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