Marking

In academic libraries we talk all the time about measuring learning. What are the outcomes that we are looking for with each instruction session? Most of the time we are too rushed to seriously contemplate assessing our instruction session. This semester, more than most, has been a series of flurried actions. Planning three graduate classes in different subject areas that last an hour and a half in the space of a week had me gasping particularly hard.

So, it is a luxury when I have the opportunity to teach my semester length course on Academic Libraries. I enjoy working with graduate students when the possibility of extended discussions that are not a faint fantasy. However, my empathy for faculty always spikes when it comes to assessing my very own graduate students. I understand my faculty's frustration about poorly written answers on exams and papers that seem to meander widely without addressing the stated topic.

I need to practice my empathy skills when I first look at a pile of papers to mark. It wasn't long ago that I was on the other side of the rubric. Measuring learning is not as simple as applying a rubric to blog post or presentation. Personal writing needs to be evaluated on how far the writer has come from their first stumbling attempts as well. Did the technology cause the student to not explore ideas as fully? How will I know? It is moments like this that I realize that teaching needs to address the affective as well as the intellectual. Have I seen growth in the student's work and how does that balance with essays that don't quite meet the given grading criteria?

These are questions that I hope I will wrestle with for the rest of my career for the day I believe I know what the perfect essay looks like will be a day when I have my lost my willingness to explore the possibilities of personal development and exploration.