UPDATE: I made the switch. It’s awesome.
I’m seriously entertaining the idea of having students submit papers to me by sharing a Google Document rather than my current model. I have 10 reasons why I think this is a good idea. But first let me describe the two models.
My Current Model
I grade papers electronically. Students submit papers to a dropbox. I download them, and then I type comments in the margins. After that, I email them back to the student (or upload them to a course management dropbox).
Google Model
Students would write their paper in Google Docs (or some other Word Processor and paste a copy into a Google Document). Instead of uploading or emailing the paper, they would share the document with me. I’d write my comments/grade directly in the file they’ve shared with me.
Here’s are 10 reasons why I’m thinking about ditching the old electronic submission model in favor of a Google Docs submission model.
1. Avoids the Download Step
As it stands, I must download and organize all of the student submissions on my computer. There are ways to make this relatively quick and painless, but it still requires some extra admin time. It’s especially troubling if students submit papers with inappropriate file names or wrong file formats.
2. Avoids Word Processor Conflict
I give the students a list of file formats that I will accept, but I always end up getting a handful of papers that don’t meet this requirement. Sometimes I get a paper that is saved in the appropriate format, but it was written in some weird incarnation of word that doesn’t play nice with anything. This is a headache that Google Docs eliminates.
3. Reduce Student Anxiety
I asked students what they thought the biggest drawback was to electronic submission. By far the biggest fear is that the paper wasn’t submitted, but with Google Docs there will be no mystery. They can see if I have access to the paper or not in the “See Who Has Access” link in the Share tab.
4. No Failed-Attachment-Trick
Here’s a popular trick. A student sends an email and intentionally forgets to attach the file hoping that this will buy them sometime. This kind of trickery is more difficult with Google Docs. The paper gets written in Google and then all that is left to do is click “share” and enter the professors’ email address. There is no room for the plausible “I forgot to attach it” excuse.
5. Immediate Return to Students
Once you write in comments and slap on a grade, the paper is immediately available for the student. (They can even set up an email alert notice so that they get an email when changes to the paper are made.)
6. Avoids Return Time
This immediate return is great for the students, but it also has several benefits for the professor. If you email electronic papers back to students you have to set aside time to email each student. This adds up if you have 100+ students in a semester. With Google Docs, you can grade it and forget it. Once you grade the paper, it’s been handed back to the student for you.
7. Avoid Return Mix-ups
There is always a possibility (especially if students don’t label their files in the format you request) of accidentally attaching the wrong file in an email and giving some student the graded paper of another student. With the way Google Docs works, there is no attach file step that would introduce room for this kind of accident.
8. Avoid Double Submission Mix-up
A couple of times this semester, students have submitted a paper on to realize that they want to make some corrections. This will involve extra administrative time, and in some cases more serious mix-ups. Sometimes it’s not clear which paper is the second paper, especially if you batch download from a dropbox. With Google Docs students can make changes to the paper. And since Google Docs always tells you when the last changes were made (and tracks all revisions), you’ll know immediately if they’ve tried to do this after the deadline. So…they can make changes when it’s appropriate without submitting a new paper and this feature won’t make it easy to make those changes (without this being obvious) after the deadline.
9. Immediate Access to Student Papers on a Smartphone
Suppose a student stops you at the coffee shop on campus and wants to talk about their paper. You can access Google Docs from an Android smartphone (or an Iphone) and even the comments show up in the same color highlights. So, you can have a meeting about the paper right there.
10. Plagiarism Check
Have you ever suspected that a student might be submitting a paper to you that you’ve read before? One time I had students from different intro classes give me the same paper in the same semester. Google Docs gives you tons of storage and Google is also king of search. Search a few familiar passages from a student paper in Google Docs and it will bring up all papers with those passages. Since you have 7GB of storage you could over time check student papers against previous student papers from a few years back. We have capabilities like this already, but this method will be much more efficient.
11. 3 New Reasons [Update]
I made the Google Docs switch for JTerm to test it out. I loved it, and I discovered 3 new reasons. I outline them here.
So, I’m thinking it’s Google Docs all the way for student papers.
(NOTE: I had intended to include a discussion in this post about FERPA compliance, and something more specific about Fredonia, but this post is already a bit long. I think I’ll include a discussion about FERPA in my next blog post.)
It is worth noting the ‘view revision history’ function, and definitely worth making your students aware of.
Another advantage is that you will be able to see the exact time that a student finished working on their paper. Good for us who like to have midnight deadlines.
One thing that makes me hesitate however is that sometimes I like to go back and edit comments or grades (once I see the grade distribution for the class)… there doesn’t seem to be any way of doing this without letting the students also see. I think any work-around would also allow students to edit their graded papers without your noticing. Ideas?
I spoke too soon.
What you need to do is have your students set YOU as the owner of the paper. Then, you can restrict the students’ access to that of viewer. She will be able to see your comments, but not edit them after the paper has been submitted.
I’m now really tempted by this proposal for next semester. Thanks Andy!
That’s just what I was going to say. The owner option requires a few extra steps, but it would take care of the having students edit it.
Here’s another option. The only issue (I see) with students being able to edit their papers post grade is that they might try and argue with you that they’ve done something in the paper that you said was not in the paper. (e.g. you take off points for the argument being invalid, and they try and change it so that it’s valid).
If a student were to attempt this, then the first thing you would do is see when the paper had been last edited. If it turns out the student had made a change after the paper grade that would be the end of the discussion.
(I assume that is the issue you have with students having the option of making post-grade edits)
Yeah, I was wondering whether there was any way to delete the revision history (either selectively or in its entirety). I can’t find one, but if there was the ownership step could block it.
This does indeed sound awful handy, I am worried about the public documents aspect though. Aren’t Google docs public? Can they be made private? I for one will be waiting for that FERPA post you mentioned. Thanks, I’m excited to learn more about this!
Hi Karla,
Thanks for your comment.
Google docs are not public. They can be made public, but users must opt to publish them and make them publicly available. Your documents are protected in the same way your email is protected with a user name and password.
When students share, they select which Google users to share with (on a document-by-document basis) and only those Google users have access to the documents.
(that bit was going to be part of my FERPA post, but I have a lot more to say about FERPA that I hope to lay out in another post)
Thanks Andrew!
Another question, how do you explain this to your students? Would you be willing to share the step-by-step instructions you pass on to them, regarding setting this up, retrieving their papers, etc.? If you’re not comfortable doing that, no worries.
I tried Google docs a couple years ago, as a document storage method, I gave it up after a while, though I don’t quite remember why at this point!
I create assignment templates for one of my online schools, I’d like to store those as Word docs online, then link to them from within e-College, the platform that school uses.
At any rate, I think I’ll revisit Google docs during Winter break. Thanks again!
HI, Andy–
One thing about google docs that is a bit of a problem when you cut and paste–I had trouble with some of the formatting staying where I needed it to stay. It might just be an APA style thing…or something more specific to Psych and not to the humanities. I need the tables to lay the way I had them in MS Word. Also, I do tend to do most of my writing offline….I wonder if students do, too? SO, I am interested in knowing more about the cut and paste idea and if I am the only one who found the formatting moved when I imported from MS Word. Thanks!
Karla,
If I do this, I’ll have a tutorial on my course page with visual aids that I give students. I’ll post it here too.
Dani,
One drawback to Google Documents that I’ve found is that it’s not as feature rich as MS Word, but I’ve found that most elements of academic essays will transfer in (e.g. citation styles).
I’ve also found that the transfer is more successful with uploading papers rather than copy and pasting.
Here’s a quick table test I did.
1. I wrote a quick sample document in Open Office with a table inserted. Here’s the screen shot.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/120887/Tutorials/Google%20Table%20Test/Screenshot-googletables1.png
2. Then I uploaded it to Google Docs. Here’s what it looks like
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/120887/Tutorials/Google%20Table%20Test/Screenshot-googletabletestupload.png
3. Then I copied and pasted it into a different Google Doc. Here’s what it looks like.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/120887/Tutorials/Google%20Table%20Test/Screenshot-googletabletestcopyandpaste.png
You’ll notice that the formatting is very well preserved with the upload method. It’s pretty well preserved in the copy and paste method, but there are some minor differences.
I’d like to see a sample paper of yours and see what the elements are like. If the transfer doesn’t work well, I’d like to trouble shoot and see if there is a different solution in Google Docs.
Hi,
I couldn’t agree more. Looking forward to the day when my uni lets me use google doc for marking.
It might be worth adding to the list that there is a built-in LaTeX editor in google doc as well. This means that students can do some simple logic notation, fractions, etc. Unfortunately, they have yet to implement more heavy-duty environments, like derivation trees, but this will hopefully appear soon. Actually, people are working on making google doc a LaTeX editor in its own right, which would mean writing and compiling straight in to google doc.
Best,
Ole
Ole,
That is awesome. I used to use LaTeX. My main reason for switching is that I wanted to help support/explore Open Office as an MS Office alternative.
I thought the best way to do that would be to actually use it regularly.
If Google Docs were both standard word processor and a LaTeX editor…this is going to be huge if they pull this off. Thanks for the info.
Hey guys,
This sounds like a wonderful idea!
I’d like to try it with my class too, but there are a few sad students who are likely to delete other’s assignments from the dropbox. Is there a way to prevent other students from editing/deleting oneanother’s work within the dropbox?
I guess they could chose to share the document with the teacher only (though then they can’t read oneanother’s work either).
hmm.
Also, is there a way to close off submissions/uploads when the deadline falls due? Or to lock all users out from editing/changing their work (ie. after the deadline)?
Thanks for sharing your ideas & knowledge!
Kind regards,
Therese
Dear Andrew,
Your submission model is great, but I have a suggestion, which is based on the Google Docs API (via Python scripts).
When I give my students an assignment :
1°) I automatically create a GoogleDocs document for each student (the title takes the following form : “Class-IdAssignment-LastName-FirstName-Subject) : I’m the owner, the student can edit this document (if he wants to work on another software, he can just copy-paste his paper). The students don’t have to convert their document to GoogleDocs format, they don’t have to remember to fill out a header, they don’t have to share their document with the right kind of permission, they don’t have to worry about the title they give to their paper.
2°) After the deadline, I automatically delete all the permissions : I don’t want the students to be able to read my comments and their grade before I’ve finished to grade all the papers.
3°) When I’ve finished to grade all the papers, I automatically update the permissions, so that the students can read (or edit) their papers.
I’ve already written the Python scripts that are needed to automate the process, I hope it could be useful for other teachers !