The Chronicle of Higher Education
Some Papers Are Uploaded to Bangalore to Be Graded
By Audrey Williams, June April 4, 2010
Can they do math homework is my question. Technology has provided a means to outsource grading on writing assignments, so maybe someone will look at math homework. It could be scanned, shipped off, marked up by overseas workers and sent back for sending out to the students. What is taken out of the loop is the instructors understanding of the needs of the students and feedback that comes from evaluating students’ work that is critical in modifying and developing instructional strategies.
The article looks at an instructor who is sending papers overseas for grading and providing students critical feedback comments. Teaching Assistants that the instructor is using are not making critical comments on the students’ work that allow them to improve. The premise is that out sourcing grading will allow instructors and Teaching Assistants more time to engage in instructional activities and direct contact with the students. It also provides for a quicker turn around on papers being given back to the students. While the quicker turn around is positive the instructor sacrifices the student interaction that comes from evaluating a student’s work. While I would like some help grading papers, it is part of my job and creates an opportunity for me to understand how students are viewing the material I present. Losing this, I feel, would make me a less effective instructor.
Comments made by readers were mostly against outsourcing. If grading was going to be outsourced, why not use American workers, was a common theme. At $12 per paper, there are qualified people here that could use the money. There was also some concern over the qualifications of the overseas graders. These qualifications could not be verified against the company’s statements. Some of the other comments revolved around deception of students, do the students know that the feedback is coming from outside the school? While the number of papers being graded in the classes was large, around a 1000, and constructive feedback and timely return is important, a student is paying to learn at a particular school and from a particular instructor.
While having undergraduate students write a lot is important for developing their writing skills, the students expect to learn from the instructor and TA’s that are assigned to the class. Grading I feel is an instructor’s responsibility and while other avenues may be available, the students are there to learn from that instructional team, instructor and TA’s. Though, with the growing use of online instruction, do you really know who is on the instructional end of the course?
This comment contains an interesting perspective on out sourcing and made me smile.
Why not set up a bank of Virtual Deans, Provosts, and Presidents who could make objective decisions - untrammeled by personal ambition, petty politics, and revenge needs - for a fraction of the cost of our current ones? I'm sure there are now highly educated individuals in other countries where the cost of living is a fraction of ours whose transferable skills would allow them to take on these jobs.
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I saw this story and want to thank you for writing about it. The key was that a business school is ding this. To them it must make logic. They can have more students attend class if they less home work to grade. why be bothered by details of weather they have laerned anything or not. The college will not complain, as long as more money cane be made. Wait, is this why our world is in troble now, the people we trusted to do the right things have stopped doing the right things.
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