A&S Teaching & Learning Community of Practice: Automated Testing and Efficient Grading Solutions

Presented by Faculty of Arts & Science, Teaching & Learning

Zoom Registration

This session includes the following two presentations:

Enhancing Student Learning through Automated Testing and Customized Data Problems in Introductory Statistics Education

Presenter: Nathalie Moon, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Department of Statistical Sciences

In 2024, I successfully implemented automated tests for programming problem sets in my first-year statistics course. Getting immediate feedback on weekly programming problem sets enabled students to learn independently, identify areas of confusion, and seek help to enhance their understanding.

In this session, I will demonstrate how we set up these tests using the MarkUs platform and the RMarkUs package we developed. We will also discuss the kinds of questions that are well-suited to this framework. We will end by summarizing feedback from statistics students and outlining next steps in extending this work. By the end of this session, attendees will be able to assess whether automated testing might be a good fit for their classes and how to create or adapt materials to implement this approach.

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Facilitating Formative Assessment and Expediting TA Grading in Chemistry Laboratories using the MarkUs Platform

Presenters:
Jessica D’eon, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Chemistry
Phoebe Tsz Shan Chan, PhD Student, Chemistry
Soha Ahmadi Nadoushan, Course Instructor, Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemistry
David Stone, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Chemistry
Mima Staikova, Sessional Lecturer, Chemistry
David Liu, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Computer Science

MarkUs is an online grading platform developed in Computer Science that can autograde computer code and numerical values. In CHM217H1 students generate substantial amounts of numerical data, and so we developed an autograding method run by the students to allow them to learn from, and correct, mistakes in their quantitative results before tackling the qualitative application questions. MarkUs has also been implemented in a large first-year course CHM135H1 to expedite TA grading and facilitate consistency between graders, and interfacing with the MarkUs API has streamlined the implementation of lab report extensions. This presentation will give an overview of our experience using MarkUs in chemistry courses and what to consider if you are interested in implementing it yourself.