The Electric Educator: Grading and Feedback tools for Google Docs

Lots of resources are available on using Google Docs to assign student work, but there isn’t much regarding grading student work electronically.

Here are three strategies for providing feedback to students.

Suggest an Edit

To identify mechanical changes (grammar, spelling, punctuation) use the “suggestion” feature available for Google Docs.

As you mark corrections to the student’s work, they will be automatically represented by green correction marks. The student will see your correction and will need to “approve” the revisions before they are made permanent in the document.

Tracked changes can be accepted or rejected by document owner and collaborator.

Note: this feature is only available for Google Docs. This is also a great tool for peer editing.

For remarks related to style and content, use the commenting feature. Comments are like little “sticky notes” that you can attach to an part of a document, presentation, or spreadsheet.
Highlight a word, sentence, paragraph or image and add a comment by “right clicking” and selecting “comment"

Tag someone in a comment by typing @ and their email address. Tagged individuals will receive an email notification prompting them to open the file and reply.

Use the Checkmark Chrome Extension

Use the free Checkmark Chrome extension to add common corrections (spelling error, run on sentence, missing punctuation, etc) as a comment.

Watch this video for instructions on how to setup and use Checkmark.

Other Grading Tools

There are several Drive Add-ons that can help with the grading and feedback cycle:

Orange Slice Teacher Rubric Add-On for Docs
Orange Slice makes it easy to create grading rubrics for projects. They also have a student edition which allows students to see their rubric score.

Grade Proof Add-On for Docs
Grade Proof can identify spelling, grammar, and phrasing errors and will also suggest improvements to your sentence structure. Grade proof is a freemium tool, but the free version is still helpful.

Sentiment Analysis Add-On for Docs
Words have an impact. Sentiment Analysis will help you determine if your writing is overall positive or negative.

Docutus Add-on for Sheets
Doctopus is a complex add-on for Google sheets that provides a variety of assessment tools for any Google Drive assignment. Doctopus works well with Google Classroom.