Batch Grading Of Excel Homework Assignments

This is a report of a design project to incorporate automated grading of Excel homework assignments in an engineering economy course. The instructional faculty wished to (1) reduce the amount of time spent on grading and at the same time (2) improve the quality of grading and (3) reduce the lag time in providing feedback of results to students. A grading system, somewhat unimaginatively named Grader4, has been used for several semesters [1]. Student reaction to the system was generally positive. Since then, additional development work has been done from the standpoint of the instructor’s use of the system. This paper is a report on the design project to develop a grading system to be used for batch grading of assignments. Objectives The major objectives of the design project were to maximize the instructor homework grading productivity and accuracy. Much of the work has involved improving the usability of the system: ∑ Optimizing the amount of relevant information provided to the instructor.