Please use the following to guide your UTA grading decisions.
What UTAs May Grade: The UTA Program Policy
UTAs may grade anything EXCEPT for major assignments. If you’re not sure which of your assignments are considered “major,” please consult with Jess Enoch (AWP), Scott Wible (PWP), or Kellie Robertson (MEO).
Specifically, UTAs may grade all of the following:
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- Discussion board posts and responses
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- VoiceThread posts and responses
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- Participation
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- Quizzes
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- Homework tasks
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- Peer review tasks
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- Other small writing assignments
What UTAs “Should” Grade: UTA Program Guidelines
As with everything else, the decision about what, if anything, UTAs should grade is up to each UTA-Instructor pair. For this conversation in particular, however, I believe that some additional insights may be helpful as you consider what is right for you.
- Everyone does it differently. Some instructors have UTAs begin grading small assignments within the first week. Some UTAs don’t grade anything at all.
- I do not have strong opinions on the subject of UTA grading. The “right” decision is the one that is right for you, your students, and your UTA.
- UTAs rarely feel as prepared as they want to be when they start grading. Walk them through how to grade each type of assignment before you ask them to do it on their own.
- I am always here to help you figure this out. Always.
What UTAs Can Grade: Moderated Grading in Canvas
Moderated Grading allows UTAs to assign provisional grades to assignments that the instructor must review before entering the final grade. Enabling moderated grading gives UTAs valuable experience in responding to final papers, experience that they can leverage when they work with students on drafts for the next assignment. Certain situations and assignments may lend themselves better to moderated grading than others. For example, instructors may decide to reserve moderated grading for returning, instead of first-semester, UTAs. Or instructors and UTAs may find the criteria for some assignments, like a resume for PWP or an annotated bibliography in AWP, are straightforward enough to warrant UTA moderated grading regardless of UTA experience. Or instructors and UTAs may also decide that by the middle of the semester, the UTA is ready to moderate a handful of submissions for each of the remaining assignments.
For more information about Moderated Grading, please consult the Canvas Guides:
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