Remote Assessment with Gradescope — Getting Started

What is Gradescope?

Gradescope is an online grading platform available to all instructors at OU and is integrated with Canvas. Gradescope allows for faster grading and more consistent feedback to students, particularly in courses where the work is short answers or handwritten completion of problem sets.

Now that we are in an all-online teaching environment, one important feature of Gradescope is the ability to use it as a platform for students to turn in their written assignments for grading. Once graded, students see their feedback directly in Gradescope. There is no need to "return" things to students.

Get Started

You can set up your free OU account in 3 easy steps.

1. At gradescope.com, set up an account and enter University of Oklahoma for your institution.

   
   
   

2. In Canvas, go to your course, then Settings>Navigation and drag Gradescope from the lower area to the upper (active) area and select Save. You should now see Gradescope in your menu bar in Canvas. Repeat for each course.

   
   
   

3. Set up your courses in Gradescope, then link the courses to Canvas.  There will be a link to load your roster into Gradescope.

Here is a video showing how to integrate with Canvas.

There are many more videos here to demonstrate setting up assignments and rubrics, grading, and publishing grades to students and to Canvas. 

Using Gradescope to help migrate your course online

Gradescope will be helpful in continuing to collect and assess student work if your course is moving to an online format. Assignments can be set up either in “quiz/exam” mode, where there is a template set up by the instructor and the instructor scans and uploads the completed assignments, or in “homework/problem set” mode, where the set of questions is entered by the instructor but students upload their submissions to each question themselves.

Homework mode will be the one mostly in use now that we are teaching remotely. 

You can use this mode for any type of assignment, including exams, worksheets, group work, and quizzes.

Here's how to set up an assignment for students to turn in themselves.

1. Set up an assignment in Gradescope by going to Assignments within your course, selecting "Create Assignment", and then choosing the "homework/problem set" mode.

   
   
   

2. Fill out the information, including due date/time. Select that students will upload the assignment. You are asked to upload a .pdf file listing the problems in your assignment. This can be a blank copy of a quiz/worksheet or any list of the problems. It's there for students to see during the upload process.

   
   
   

3. Gradescope asks for an outline of the assignment. Here, you indicate the problems you are asking students to upload.

   
   
   

4. Post the questions on Canvas or email, where students can find them and begin their work. You will likely create an assignment in Canvas. From Gradescope, in the assignment settings, you can link the assignment to the correct Canvas assignment.
   
   
5. Students do their work on their own paper, and by the deadline given, they:
   
   
   • Take a picture of each problem, then run the image through a scanning app like Jotnot or Notebloc to make a .pdf (Gradescope accepts the .jpg as well, but it is slightly harder to read.)
   • Upload the files directly into Gradescope; they are prompted to upload a file or files for each "problem" in your outline.

Here is a video demonstrating the assignment set-up:

Once students have uploaded their work, you begin grading using the adaptive rubric features in Gradescope. There are many videos showing these steps.

Gradescope Features

Gradescope is designed to make grading written student work more efficient. Here are a few of the key features.

• Gradescope's default for grading is to navigate through all the responses to one question, so you can grade Q1 for everyone, then move on to Q2, and so forth.
• The rubric for a graded item is adaptive, so changing the rubric will immediately and automatically apply the change to all previously graded problems.
• You can add comments directly on the students' scanned work, either via text box or, if you are using a tablet, via a writing tool.
• If you have a grader or team of TAs, you can all grade simultaneously, each from your own computer.
• Group work is also supported when students turn in work – they just match the names of the group members to the submission.
• Students access Gradescope directly from Canvas, so they don't need an account from a new place. Thousands of OU students already have experience with Gradescope.
• Students see their feedback directly in Gradescope, so there is nothing to return to students.
• Grades are published and transferred to the Canvas gradebook with just a few keystrokes.
• Rubric items and comments can include LaTeX for mathematical symbols.
• Gradescope retains data on student performance on each question, and also on the use of each rubric item. This can be useful for assessment of the course or the particular assignment.
• Multiple choice or T/F questions are grouped automatically as well (only in quiz/exam mode).
• (New) Timed assignments, with ability to give some students (e.g. ADRC students) extra time.
• (New) You can create online assignments that students take directly in Gradescope. This is likely similar to the capability in Canvas, but you will be able to use LaTeX here.

Questions

Gradescope has excellent online support and FAQs. If you need help getting started with Gradescope at OU, you can contact Keri Kornelson at kkornelson@ou.edu.