I know scantrons aren't the rage of education these days, but I found a way to make them less of a hassle for when you do use them. Download the app: Zip Grade. It acts as a scantron machine on your smart phone device. Need answer sheets? No more begging colleagues to help a sista out and give you a stack of scantrons OR no more hoarding scantrons for when you "really need them" and they're no where to be found. Go to zipgrade.com to print answer keys directly from their site. For the first 100 graded papers, it's free. If you want to grade more than that, it's only $1.99. I think yes.
How I used it today: I hate assigning reading for homework (even though I teach English) because assessing who read the next day is always messy. Not this time. I made a multiple choice quiz for the rest of the reading selection and handed students a scantron as they walked in. When they settled down and were quiet, I handed out the questions. When they were done with the quiz they were to read their AR books. While they read I "graded" their quizzes just by using the camera on my class iPad over their answer keys. The app graded all the quizzes in less than a minute. I also had immediate results on how students answered the questions... meaning, the app provides data as to how many students chose letter A, B, C, D, or E for each question. For example, if 9 students guessed the correct answer was A, but the real answer was really B and only 3 students got that question right, it's worth looking at why this happened. This really helps with knowing what you might have missed while teaching. I will, for sure, be purchasing this app.
Pros:
- Easy Access - on my phone or iPad
- Less Time - I don't have to go anywhere to do my grading and I don't put off the grading because of a dreadful walk (Funny story - ONE time I had to throw out a stack of student response scantrons because I waited too long to grade them because I never felt like getting out of my flow and going to the room that had the grading machine... awful!!!)
- Immediate Data- It was easy to review today after the quiz because I knew exactly which questions students struggled on
- Easy to use - not that a scantron is hard to use... but it's a dying breed. Some veterans don't even know how to use the machine - let alone newbies.
Cons:
- Money out-of-pocket - Not a large price to pay though
- Negative Rep - Scantrons don't get much respect these days in the teaching field, but can be used for quick feedback
Have you tried the Quick Key app. There is no purchase required for it. This one has the advantage of having more quiz formats (number of questions), but I think the other people are working on that. I found your post when I was searching for reviews for Zip Grade. It is $9.99 in the App Store now, so I was wondering if it was worth looking into over the free Quick Key app.
ReplyDeleteHello. Thanks for your question. I am not familiar with Quick Keys. I just went to download it, but my devices aren't allowing me to find it on the app store. I did a Google search and found a video of it. It does appear to be very similar to ZipGrade, but I think they're still in their early stages of developing it. It would definitely be worth downloading for free though if you are able to. As teachers, free is better than $6.99 or $9.99 any day! I just uploaded a new post on Zip Grade which shares more pictures and is a more in-depth review: http://igobymiss.blogspot.com/2014/05/10-easy-steps-to-use-zipgrade-app.html Take a look at my newest post to see if it is worth the investment for you. Good luck to you. I will continue to keep my eye on Quick Keys
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