Manual Scoring: Make Correction Comments a Useful Feature

1 Initial Problem

The current user interface for the manual scoring of the solutions given by a test participants offers the opportunity to grant points and give feedback by writing correction comments for the solutions given to each question. All this is almost perfectly integrated - following any ilias guideline dealing with user interaction and ilias forms. The form shows the question and the solution followed by a field for the points and a field for the comments.

When we imagine to score a typical single choice question, all this seems to look like a useful userinterface. And yet the user experience is from hell, when we consider long essays as this is the mostly used szenario wich depends on the functionality of the manual scoring.

Because of the depency to the manual scoring for processing essay exams, this feature is of course used in any kind, but the people are claiming about the fact of having to use paper for electronic corrections, especially because of the significant effort required to get the correction information back to ilias when the corrections are once finished on paper.

The most simple problem is, that the field for typing in the comments for a given solution is just shown when the screen is scrolled to the end of this solution. This leads to the fact, that the corrector cannot write comments while reading the first part of a longer solution without scrolling up and down all the time he needs to move focus from solution to the comments and vice versa.

Of course dealing with printed exam papers that get commented there are quite a lot more advantages, so solving this simple issue wont lead to the perfect manual scoring solution in the last, but we can achieve a first level of acceptance. Further weakness has to be clearly identified by analyzing the behaviour of a corrector using paper prints. We will do this in a long run - a fast kick off would just bring yet another improvement nobody really needs.

We should strongly integrate a first approach to make this functionality accetable instead of a must use because of the depency of essay questions.

There is another feature request dealing with the same aspects, but the concept for a general concept that introduces the real look and feel for essay assessment corrections that tutors let finaly accept to it the online way. This request is also claiming about one aspect heavily - The problem of scrolling between the user solution and the comment field: Improving Essay Question - Comments in Manual Scoring

2 Conceptual Summary

For the other view that handles one question for all participants we had an Overlay in use for the presentation of the user solutions in the past. This got migrated to Modal nowadays.

As the Overlay is not supported any longer, making use of the newly requested KS-Entry: Instructional Overlay user interface element seems to be the right way, because it brings exactly the character we need to give the opportunity to write comments while having the relevant position in the user solution scrolled to the viewport.

With this small milestone the benefit will be significantly as this aspect probably introduces the first level of acceptance that tutors will bring up. 

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

3.2 User Interface Details

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

The newly requested user interface element KS-Entry: Instructional Overlay seems to be a good solution.

4 Technical Information

The mockup shows a trigger link to open the off-canvas for the input of feedback. At the time beeing the concept for the user interface element that is planed to be used is still in discussion state. There seems to be a plan to get the off-canvas automatically closed on triggering the current context's main action.

In the naive thinking of the test maintainer there could be a chance to get the input the corrector typed in posted to the server on submitting the form. This event could be considered as the main action in this context. The corrector's input could be either synced to an hidden form input within the forn, or it gets transfered with the moment of autoclosing the off-canvas passively by submitting the form.

This point keeps under conception for the depency to the newly introduced user interface element: KS-Entry: Instructional Overlay 

5 Contact

• Author of the Request: Heyser, Björn [bheyser]
• Maintainer: Heyser, Björn [bheyser]
• Implementation of the feature is done by: Heyser, Björn [bheyser]

6 Funding

If you are interest in funding this feature, please add your name and institution to this list.

• Universität Münster

7 Discussion

8 Implementation

{The maintainer has to give a description of the final implementation and add screenshots if possible.}

Test Cases

Test cases completed at {date} by {user}

• {Test case number linked to Testrail} : {test case title}

Approval

Approved at {date} by {user}.