Using eMarking Assistant - detailed description to accompany the demonstration.

Show the video demonstration on the left of the screen or open this in a new window and print it for future reference.

0:00 Introduction

eMarking Assistant will save you time when you are grading papers or marking assignments using any version of Microsoft Word for Windows.

It allows you to:

• easily create, modify and insert reusable comments into the assignment, as a margin note or on a marking sheet
• insert and reuse audio comments
• highlight phrases in the assignment or do a Google web, book or scholar search
• create and use marking rubrics and marking sheets in which you can use function keys to highlight standards and record, add and rescale marks

You can download a 30 day trial from http://eMarkingAssistant.com

This screen movie will demonstrate many of the features of eMarking Assistant. You can go directly to sections using the section headings and this text window contains more detailed information and links.

0:49 Showing the toolbars

Once eMarking Assistant been installed, you can mark any Word document by showing the two eMarking Assistant toolbars by:

• Word 2007: using the Add-Ins tab > clicking the Show eMarking toolbars button.
• Word 2003: using the View menu > Toolbars item > Show eMarking Assistant > clicking the Show eMarking Assistant toolbars button.

1:07 The Preparation toolbar

The eMarking preparation toolbar helps you prepare your computer for marking assignments by proving the following buttons:

• show Grammar, Spelling and Invisible characters (such as TABS and paragraph marks)

• turn Track revisions on or off

• decide what you want to be shown. Generally you would select Final showing markup but sometimes you may want to show the Original

• Load and Save comment banks
• Harvest comments from a folder of previously marked assignments

• look at the support Forums

• click the About & Upgrade button to:

  • show your eMarking Assistant computer ID
  • show the time remaining in your trial
  • allow you to enter an activation code or
  • obtain an activation code to use on a second computer

1:41 The eMarking toolbar

The eMarking toolbar is the main toolbar you use when marking assignments. The first box lists the names of the reusable comments and the second show the text of the comment. You can highlight comments by scrolling, or using the arrow keys or by typing the first few characters of the name. To keep the comments separate from other autotext entries it is best to start the comment name with a "." and organise them in categories e.g. .APA.quote.block quote would be a comment related to the APA format related to quotations and specifically block quotations.

Once you have selected the comment you can insert it either as either:

• a Comment in the margin or

• in the Text of the assignment

2:12 Inserting reusable comments

We will now enter some comments by:

• clicking in the assignment where the comments should be shown
• using the list of comments to scroll to and select acad writ.need a reference
• clicking the Comment button to insert the comment as a margin comment
• after you insert the comment you can add to it if you want e.g. add the student's name or provide additional details

For example (using examples from the sample assignment):

• click the text where the student should have included a reference, then click the first field of the eMarking toolbar and scroll to the comment called acad writ.need a reference, look at the text of the comment, then click the Comment button to insert the comment into the margin
• the heading above the references should be "References" and not "Reference List" in APA format. To add the comment select the heading then, click in the comment field, then type the first few characters of the comment name (.APA.ref.ref in this case), then check that the right comment is highlighted, then click Comment
• the second and subsequent lines of the reference should be indented and the .APA.ref.indent 2nd line  comment will address this issue

One advantage of reusable comments is that the comments can be carefully crafted and very detailed because they will be reused many times. In addition to saying what the issue is, you can also explain how to fix it and include links to support sites. For example, the comment on .APA.ref.indent 2nd line describes what needs to be done with a link to an APA guide then provides an image of Word's Show paragraph icon, an image of the ruler showing tab marks. and a link to Microsoft's support site.

You may also want to click the Student Help button to insert some information about emarking at the end of the assignment. This information ensures that students are aware that they can click on the speaker icon to play audio comments and that if margin comments or track changes are not shown they may need to use Word options to display them i.e.

·         Word 2007: Review tab > Tracking group > Show Balloons, show Final Showing Markup, and select options under Show Markup

·         Word 2003: View menu > Reviewing toolbar > show Final Showing Markup and select options under Show Markup

More information on this is shown at:
  http://www.baker-evans.com/knowledgegarden/tiki-index.php?page_id=271

3:17 Creating a new comment

You can also enter a completely new comment by:

• highlighting a section of the document

• scrolling up in the comment list and selecting Enter new comment

• clicking Comment

• typing the comment in the comment bubble including text, links, or images

Once you have entered the comment, you could save it for future reuse by:

• using the mouse to highlight the comment or text
• clicking the Reuse button
• entering a comment name starting with dot and including categories in the name e.g. .acadwrit.use of 1st person

If you have inserted a reusable comment and then added to it or improved it you can highlight it and click the Reuse button to save your additions.

All comments which you save in this way will be available when you mark the next assignment.

4:22 Inserting an audio comment

You can also record and embed an audio comments into the assignment by:

1. clicking the text where you want to insert the audio comment

2. scrolling up to A new Audio comment

3. clicking Comment

4. waiting for the Sound Recorder to open then clicking the round record button

5. saying your comment and then clicking the square stop button

6. replaying your comment and if you want use the Edit menu to delete it and re-record it

7. if you want, you can use the File menu > Properties > Convert now to compress the audio to reduce the file size e.g.

   • a 1 minute comment stored in PCM format (the default in most versions of Word) will increase the file size by 10,000 KBytes but
   • a 1 minute comment stored as a MPEG3 file at 24 bit mono will increase it by only 200KBytes but the quality will be quite acceptable for a spoken comment

8. clicking the Close box several times to close the sound recorder

9. the audio comment will now be embedded into the assignment and you can click the speaker icon to hear it

You could also enter some text alongside the speaker icon or highlight it and click the Reuse button to save it for future use.

5:34 Showing & hiding things

You can use options on the eMarking Assistant preparation toolbar to show or hide paragraph marks, spelling or grammar errors. You can also use options to show the final version of the assignment or the original with or without tracked changes.

5:50 Google or highlight selected text

You might want search the web for a piece of text in the assignment. You can do this by:

1. highlighting the text in the assignment
2. using the Google it drop down menu and select either Google web, or Google book or Google scholar search

You could then copy text from the resulting pages and paste it as a comment into the assignment, or reuse it, or perhaps even insert the URL of the found page if you suspect that the text has been plagiarised. The .acad.writ.plagiarism comment may be useful here.

You may want to highlight a Word or phrase throughout the assignment if the student has overused it or used it incorrectly. You can do this by:

1. highlighting the text in the assignment
2. clicking the Highlight button

6:26 Marking rubric

eMarking Assistant also provides tools to automate marking rubrics or marking sheets. The .eMarking.marking rubric comment contains a sample marking rubric which you can insert it at the end of the assignment by:

1. using the eMarking Preparation toolbar to turn off Track revisions (this way it is inserted in black and now as a change)
2. selecting the .eMarking.marking rubric comment
3. clicking the Text button to insert it into the text

The marking rubric or marking sheet is created in a Word table containing columns for the criteria and standards, the maximum mark, and  the graded mark. The eMarking_Assistant.doc document contains templates and  instructions for preparing your own marking rubrics or marking sheets and you can include as many criteria or standards as you want or include other columns for self assessment or student peer assessment. The marking rubric or sheet can be as simple or as complex as you want with each criteria including a specific mark or a range of marks and if you want it can also include one or more performance criteria with their own mark range.

7:16 Selecting a standard

Once you have inserted the supplied marking rubric you can use it and the eMarking toolbar to further speed the marking process by:

• clicking in the row for the standard that corresponds to your assessment of the paper
• clicking the tick or F6 buttons to highlight the row and automatically enter the mean mark for that standard into the final mark column
• if you want to unselect the standard you can click the tick or F6 buttons again the standard will be unselected and the mark returned to 0
• if the criteria or standard has a range of marks you can click either the down or F5 buttons to decrease the mark or the up or  F7 buttons to increase the mark
• then select other standards under other criteria and adjust them if necessary
• press the plus or F8 buttons to add the totals and rescale the mark

You may decide that you want to insert the selected standard and mark as a margin comment into specific part of the assignment where is applies and you can do this by selecting the relevant part of the assignment and then pressing the tick or F6 buttons again. This is especially useful as students sometimes need assistance seeing the connection between their work, the comments, and the awarded marks.

9:01 Saving the marked assignment

Once you have finished marking the assignment and adding the totals, you can easily return the assignment by email by clicking the email button.

You could also use the File menu and Save as and save the marked assignment with mark or grade in the filename. The advantage of doing this is that you will have both the original and the marked assignment and if you upload the marked assignment into a Learning Management System or assignment system, you can also easily enter the mark into the online gradebook.

9:25 Saving comments for another computer

All reusable comments that you have saved will be available when you mark assignments on your computer but you may want to save the comments for use on another computer or to send them to other markers by clicking Save on the eMarking Assistant preparation toolbar. This will generate a new Word document containing a table with one row for each comment with name in the first column and the contents of the comment in the second column. You can now sort or edit the comments, send them to contract markers or save them for the next time you mark this assignment.

9:49 30 day trial is available

In summary, eMarking Assistant integrates into Microsoft Word for Window to provide tools that will save you time while providing more detailed and useful feedback to students. A 30 day trial is available from http://eMarkingAssistant.com