Grading Discussion Posts

Grading Discussion Posts

If you are using eCollege as your LMS, Waypoint allows you to evaluate Discussion Post assignments using a Waypoint Rubric.

Grading in Waypoint

After logging into Waypoint, locate your course which contains a Discussion Post assignment. The last date and time it was synced with Waypoint appears beneath its title. This lets you know when student post updates have been brought over and are now ready to be assessed. You also have the ability to sync the assignment manually by clicking on the "Sync" button. When you are ready to assess student work, click on the Begin Grading button:

In addition to your rubric being displayed on the left of the assessment screen, the student's history of discussion posts is also visible:

This dashboard provides insightful information, such as how many new (original) posts the student has created, how many replies they have submitted, and the topic or instructions for the assignment. If this text is lengthy, clicking the "Read More" button will expand this area and display it completely:

The Discussion Posts Overview area is also useful as it shows a historic account of the student's activity thus far. If they have created an original post or replied to another students' post, you can view when this exactly occurred by clicking on the "View Details" button. Depending on the number of posts and length of the discussion, original posts and replies are displayed as active links. You can navigate to those areas upon a single click:

The student's posts who you are evaluating are highlighted in yellow -- allowing you to easily locate their work. To help with assessment, the posts remain together with other students' posts in their original context. As you review original posts or replies to the student, you can click the "Reviewed" checkbox. Doing so will change the color of the post from yellow to gray:

You are not able to mark up the discussion through use of the Waypoint Comment Library so you will have to share all feedback through the Waypoint Rubric. When you are done reviewing the student's work, you can move on to another student or End Grading. When you return to Waypoint, any new posts will automatically be synced and you will be able to continue the assessment. Once complete, share the feedback with students by returning it to the eCollege Gradebook.