I made a few short videos showing how to use various aspects of the tool. Please note these were made with an older version, so the interface may be slightly different, however the functionality being demonstrated has not changed significantly.
Introductory videos
As an experiment I have made a couple of short videos to give a quick idea of
what the tool does and how to use it.
| Topic Please note that these videos were made using version 0.914. Version 0.915 has quite a few impovements in both functionality and appearance. |
MP4 - very good quality (if browser support/plugin/helper application for mp4 available) |
YouTube (now in HD. Select 480p or 720p and expand at bottom right of playback window to view legible text) |
| Setting
up a simple marking scheme (8 Minutes). Shows how to set up a simple marking scheme using the 'module' and 'assignments' tabs of the tool and how to attach a student cohort list. The tool can (if desired) generate a spreadsheet supporting the grade based marking scheme. Feedback and marks appear on separate sheets in the workbook based on the grade selection from cell drop down menus and can then be used e.g. in a mail merge.(The tool now supports marking directly, with much less effort and with more flexability of feedback - see next video) |
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MSG: Intro |
| Using
the Marking/Feedback GUI (5 minutes) Marking on spreadsheets is limiting ! The real benefit of the system is gained by using the GUI when marking. Shows how feedback options can be created and selected during marking. Also shows how the 'results' tab of the tool can be used to capture grades (as an alternative to using the generated spreadsheet) and provide bespoke assignment and task feedback as marking progresses. Finally shows how the 'feedback' tab is used to preview complete feedback for students. Version 0.915 of the system now has a number of improvements over the version in this video. |
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MSG: Optional feedback |
| Emailing Feedback (4.5 minutes) Shows how to review the generated feedback and have the emails sent. (I have fixed the duplicate warning messages noted in the video - two were being generated, one for the plain text and one for the html parts of the email message. Can't be bothered to redo the visuals though...) Version 0.915 now provides tabular email feedback which is easier to read and more aesthetically pleasing. I will remake the video sometime. |
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MSG: Emailing generated
feedback |
| Exams
and Lab Pracs (13 minutes) Including a numerical marks based exam style assessment. Also demonstrates a larger example and using a modification of a previous cohort marking scheme as a template for a new cohort. Provides a closer look at a more substantial generated spreadsheet and highlights a number of common issues. |
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MSG: Exams and practicals |
| Setting
up just an exam (7 minutes) The tool can provide a quick way to create exam marking and module summary spreadsheets. Here I create a set of exam spreadsheets from scratch in 3 minutes. The remaining time looks at some details of the produced marking workbook created. |
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MSG: Simply exams |
| Obtaining Student Cohort information(1.5
minutes) The cohort information can be obtained from AStRA. This clip shows how to do this for new dept members or those who have not run a report in AStRA. |
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MSG: Obtaining Cohort Data |
| Additional features: anonymous marking, auto
backups, non submission, multiple grades per mark, properties file (5
minutes) Several additional facilities that are available in the MSG - and how to enable or disable them. |
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MSG: Anonymous marking etc |
| Uploading marks to Blackboard (10
minutes, 5 mins, MFA 5 mins setting up BB) This video shows how to enable component marks transfer in BB and how to export marks from MFA into BB. In addition it shows how to import marks from BB to the MFA (to generate complete spreadsheets) and how to use BB to create the class lists (instead of using Astra). |
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MSG: Blackboard integration etc |
| Downloading marks from Blackboard (5
minutes) This video shows how to It shows how to import marks from BB to the MFA as individual Tasks of an assignment. This is to allow a complete spreadsheet of marks to be created including components marked in the MFA and using Tii or Blackboard Quiz. Also shown is the new additional spreadsheet page showing the component marks as percentages. |
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MFA: Gradecenter Download |
This project has been supported mostly by dark evenings and rainy weekends, and more recently by the Learning & Teaching Enhancement Fund (LTEF).