When I first started teaching many a moon ago (something like 84-90 moons), I taught at two colleges, both of the community variety. Only one used an LMS, and I had virtually no information on how to use it–although, to be fair, before I left, I had started taking professional development classes offered to help us; the other, at which I still teach, did not even have an LMS available to brick-and-mortar instructors (even today, the version of Moodle available to us is somewhat limited–e.g., discussion forums are disabled because they’re afraid we won’t show up for class otherwise). My professors in undergrad and graduate school generally collected papers by hand; even when they didn’t, I don’t ever recall getting feedback electronically–although I’m sure it happened and I’m just forgetting it. As a result, my instinct was simply to do the same: collect all papers as hard copies and mark them by hand.
Though I viewed it as just an occupational hazard, this was painful for several reasons, some less obvious than others. The biggest for me was the cramping and pains: I have a funky manner of handwriting, one that is decidedly not ergonomic, a fact of which I was not aware until it was pointed out to me when it was far too late to change it. (I handwrite poetry and prefer to take notes by hand, but generally avoid writing anything by hand outside of that.) But even beyond that, more universally, I taught six classes my second semester, totaling something like 150-180 students, and adjuncts generally don’t have office space in which they can leave papers and books, making my commutes rather cumbersome. Then there are organizational issues–after all, I wasn’t assigning and collecting only formal papers, and students are not always keen on clearly identifying assignments. The list could go on, really; all in all, hard-copy paper assignment and collection was something I loathed.
It was revelatory realizing that could not only collect papers electronically but even grade them electronically, as well. I still have no fucking clue how to use “track changes”, but inserting comments is easy enough, and beginning with my third institution, I had an LMS through which I could collect them. I don’t think I started right away, but as I grew more familiar with them, I began to require that all papers be submitted through that college’s LMS, and all of my grading was done either in the LMS itself or in Word. It felt fantastic to be free of all of those loads: I no longer had to carry papers around with me, since everything was in the cloud and accessible wherever I was; my wrist and middle finger were no longer in fearsome pain (I know typing is associated with wrist problems, as well, ones I certainly have, but typing has always been easier for me); and there was no risk of losing or misplacing anything, and therefore no more wondering Did s/he really not submit the assignment, or did I misplace it? I thought it was better.
Now that I’m approaching my ninetieth moon, however, I’m beginning to think I had it right in the beginning–perhaps I could have used better organizational skills, but that grading by hand is better as a whole. My wrist still hurts, and I’m not looking forward to carrying around tons of papers, but grading by hand is far, far faster. It feels counterintuitive to me–I type faster than I write, so why shouldn’t electronic grading be faster? Well, therein lies the first two problems: when I’m grading electronically, my comments are far longer than they would be, but simultaneously take up far less room on the page, which makes me feel like I need to comment even more. (As I tell my students: trust me, I can always find something else to criticize.) Beyond that, though, when I handwrite comments, I also tend to focus my thoughts, which likely leads to clearer commenting; further, when I’m marking grammar and mechanics, I can quickly underline and use shorthand to identify problems rather than highlighting and explaining (which, again, both for aesthetic and other reasons, I feel the need to do when typing). Then, of course, there’s the fact that we tend to retain information better off the page, which means I’m reading more quickly, as well.
There’s another thing about which I’m curious, though, something I’ve only thought about recently. My standards as an instructor have not gotten appreciably tougher since I started teaching–and, in fact, I think they’ve gotten much clearer as I’ve honed my understanding of the field. Nor have my attitude and mannerisms changed at all (if anything, I’ve mellowed with age, I think). Yet, compared to my first few years as an instructor, I’ve noticed in feedback that my students–at least the ones who take issue with me–tend to increasingly view me as sarcastic, condescending, and/or arrogant. I have a theory that this is, at least, in part because of the switch to electronic, long-form commenting. It’s notoriously difficult to convey emotion via text–hence our social use of emojis and the like. (Emoji? How is that pluralized?) While one might expect a writing instructor to be able to convey emotion better as a whole, one would be wrong because writing is hard, but also, I believe commenting to be closer to text-messaging than writing a longer essay–i.e., it’s easier to come off poorly. Therefore, I believe, critical comments are more likely to come off as overly harsh or condescending, purely due to detail and length. Focused, shorthand comments handwritten in the margins, however, are more likely to feel like notes and suggestions than lengthy diatribes against the student’s intellect, constitution, and general agreeableness as a human being: more Hey, consider this! than Hey, let me explain this concept that you may already know in immense detail and outline the many reasons why this section of text is weak and needs to be fixed! Even just aesthetically, what I see is a satisfactorily filled margin of feedback possibly comes off to the student as a wall of critical text. The speed thing is counterintuitive, therefore, but the result is counterproductive.
I don’t think I have any real way of testing this, as any change could be a result of any number of factors, including me simply enjoying a class more or subconsciously adjusting other facets of my approach. It could also be that I’m simply more of a grumpy dick these days, or that I have become a much harsher grader, or that these darned youths are just so entitled these days. (I don’t really think it’s the last one, but it is certainly possible that expectations have slowly shifted for one reason or another, including, but not limited to, a constant refrain against the humanities from the highest echelons of our society.) Nevertheless, I do believe that I am going move to a two-tiered system of assignment collection and feedback this semester: collect all submissions via the institution’s LMS, but also require a hard copy for any assignment I intend to mark up. Maybe it won’t help with perception. On the other hand, maybe getting through a stack of papers in a more reasonable amount of time will make me happier as a whole, which will lead to a change in perception, as well. (Or not, but do still value my happiness to whatever minuscule level upon which the adjunct unions and administrators have agreed.)
Coffee, with Whiskey 