When turning in an assignment, one would imagine that the professor teaching the class would grade it.
In the College of Computing and Digital Media, however, this isn’t always the case, as assignments are often passed to student graders who remain anonymous to the classes whose work they grade.
“I feel that having this mystery student and not being able to contact them with questions about a certain grade is not right,” Marci Ponto, a junior who is taking a class with a student grader, said. “Not knowing who the student is frustrates me because it makes me wonder what were the qualifications they had to grade my work.”
CDM has used student graders since the schools start in 1981, bringing the practice over from the math department. The only classes that are eligible for student graders are those with large enrollments, and even then, their use is at the discretion of the teacher of the class.
“Some faculty prefer not to have graders; others welcome the help,” Lucia Dettori, the Associate Dean of CDM, said. “I should point out that all graders can only be used for grading homework assignments. Midterms and Finals must be graded by the instructor.”
According to Dettori, most student graders are graduate students who apply to be a grader. Applying students must show their transcripts and have two or three letters of recommendation from faculty members. While the majority of graders are hired through this application process and then matched with a teacher and class, the pool of graders sometime is unable to fill the demand for graders within in the school.
“Occasionally we have a specific need for a class that can’t be covered by the pool of graders available that quarter,” Dettori said. “In those cases we identify students that meet certain criteria (high GPA, specific grade in the class, informally recommended by previous instructors, etc.) and solicit applications.”
This was the case earlier this quarter when students who had taken an Ethics In Technology course received an email asking them to apply to be a student grader. The email stated the first person to reply would be hired.
“I would not feel comfortable grading for the class,” Marisa Mordini, a junior who had taken the course and received the offer to become a student grader, said. Mordini, while feeling that she did well in the class, had never met the teacher whose class’ work she would be grading.
“Since we only contact students who are qualified to grade the class, the first come first serve approach is reasonable,” Dettori said.
CDM Associate Professor Evelyn Lulis who utilizes student graders for some of her courses declined to comment.
“(Student graders) sometimes seem to pick out arbitrary things and take off points,” Jay Powell, a CDM senior, said. “It’s sometime hard to understand what you lost points for. I would like to be able to talk to them.”
Dettori said that, when she uses graders, her students know that they can approach her with any concerns or issues with homework grades. She also provides graders with several examples of the assignment that she has graded to provide examples.
“I teach on the computing side of the house, so the grading is usually pretty straightforward,” Dettori said. “Either the program runs and does what it is supposed to do or not. So the grading is not very subjective.”
Powell however feels that this isn’t always the case.
“With some programing you are able to accomplish the same thing in different ways,” Powell said, continuing to say that he has had points taken off by graders for writing a program in a different way, even if it still runs.
“I really don’t like the idea of a student grader because they are just a fellow student who is grading my assignments, not a professor with qualifications,” Ponto said.
“I take a lot of time doing these assignments and pay a lot of money to go to DePaul,” Powell said. “I think professors should be able to take time to grade the assignments.”