"Grading and evaluating non-print materials and projects"

Advantages

• no papers
• no papers
• no papers
• harder to misplace/lose
• have a persistent copy of student's work & evaluation
• can reuse evaluation comments

Disadvantages

• sometimes less convenient because some hardware (more than a pen/pencil) and software is required
• lose the connection to the student & the assignment, because evaluations aren't returned in person

I do two types-

Materials that could be turned in as print materials

• Computer Science I, (CPSC 220)
  • computer programs, answers to questions
  • students prepare a Web page with links to all their materials, http://people.umw.edu/~ernie/cpsc220/studentWebPagesS2005.html
    
• The Internet - Technology, Information & Issues (CPSC 104)
  • answers to exercises, blog postings
  • papers sent by email or digital drop box, blogs. http://people.umw.edu/~ernie/cpsc104/

Online projects

• Web projects for CPSC 104
  
  • HTML projects/assignments
    http://people.umw.edu/~ernie/cpsc104/studentPortfolioS2005.html
  • Web site projects
    http://people.umw.edu/~ernie/cpsc104/critschedS2005.html
    
• Web-based projects for Web server applications (CPSC 370K) & Data-driven Web sites (CPSC 470M)
  • http://people.umw.edu/~ernie/presentations/netCentricProjects.html

Some things that work for me

• create a Web page of links to all the materials
  
• have the tools to help you view the materials
  
• have students post materials to the Web
  
• use a good viewer for text materials
  
• prepare a form to use for evaluation & send it to the student
  
  • use it for each person's work
    
  • write a brief evaluation, copying material from the submitted work and annotating it when appropriate
    
• get comfortable at a computer with a good Web connection or download software that will let you capture the projects locally. I use getleft, http://personal1.iddeo.es/andresgarci/getleft/english/
  

for online projects

• make sure the requirements include mandatory elements or functionality that must be demonstrated
• have students evaluate other projects using a form you've developed
  • then have students present their projects in class for a critique;
    • require attendance and meaningful comments
• finally, get good and comfortable Web access and evaluate the projects using a predefined evaluation instrument similar to the form above

issues

• students (and instructors too) aren't aware of the possible things that can go wrong, or technical requirements that are not part of the scope of the assignment., e.g. including links to ephemeral information, not setting correct permissions, working from outside the firewall
  
• if the info is on the Web then it's viewable by all.
  
• students need to learn something about putting information on the Web

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