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EssayTagger is a web-based tool to help teachers grade essays faster.
But it is not an auto-grader.

This blog will cover EssayTagger's latest feature updates as well as musings on
education, policy, innovation, and preserving teachers' sanity.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Latest Update: Rubric sharing and rubric import!

Instructions for using our new rubric sharing and rubric import features!


You can -- and should -- share your EssayTagger rubrics with your colleagues and/or the whole world wide web!


Sharing a rubric
After you log in you'll notice the new top nav menu bar:

Here's a bigger view so you can read the options:

Click on "my rubrics" and you'll see the new My Rubrics page:

This page will list all of your rubrics. Pick a rubric you'd like to share and click on the "view / share" link. That will take you to the Sharing Info page for that rubric:


Share via web or social media
The first thing to notice here is the public link. Anyone who has this link will be able to view your rubric. They do not need an EssayTagger account. Just click and view! So you can just copy-and-paste that link into an email, post it to your blog, tweet it, etc.

Here's a screenshot of the rubric linked above:

You can explore this rubric at your leisure. But what I'd like to point out is the social media sharing buttons. You can post to a link to this rubric to Twitter, Linked In, Facebook, Blogger, WordPress, Google+, and more (the white plus icon opens up to an insane list of sites).

Here's what'll pop up if you hit the Twitter icon:
Twitter links are automatically garbled so they take up fewer characters

Pretty cool, eh?

There's also the "print this!" button I mentioned earlier. Click it and it'll reformat the rubric into a printer-friendly version and open up the print dialog. Macs make it easy to "Print to PDF" from the print dialog. You can use "Print to PDF" to save the rubric as a PDF file on your computer.


A note on security
Anyone can view your shared rubric, but only if they have the link. Each link has its own "code" parameter that is sufficiently complex to make it highly unlikely that someone could simply type in random characters and discover your rubric. This is similar to how YouTube protects "unlisted" videos.




Share via email
Let's go back to the Sharing Info page for your rubric:

We've built a convenience feature to make it easier to share your rubric via email. Click on the aptly-named "share rubric via email" tab:

Enter your colleague's contact info and add a personal message in the space provided. Scroll down and hit "Submit" and we'll send the message out for you (note: we won't save your colleague's email address; we're not using this to build a spam list).


Importing a shared rubric
The second half of the equation is to leverage other users' efforts and import one of their shared rubric into your EssayTagger account. You can then customize it and use it in your own assignments. It's super-easy.

Each shared rubric has its own rubric code. The rubric code for the example above is: 3M-FSPA

The code is clearly displayed at the top right when viewing the rubric via its public link. The code is also integrated into the public link itself.

Find the code of the shared rubric you'd like to import into your account. Go ahead and try it with my rubric here for starters.

Go to the "My Rubrics" page by clicking on the link in the new top nav menu bar.

Then click on the "add a rubric from a colleague" tab and enter the rubric code:

The site will locate the rubric you specified and will add it to your rubric list:

Now that it appears in your list, you can use it in your next assignment! Try it out by creating a new assignment (Instructor Home - "create new assignment" tab). Choose to "copy an existing rubric":

On the next screen you select the rubric you'd like to use:

And then you're good to go!




How to edit an imported rubric
Follow the steps above to associate the rubric with a new assignment. Then go to the Detailed Assignment View page (go to Instructor Home then click on the assignment name). Click on the rubric name listed under the assignment name. That'll take you to the View Rubric page where you can then click "edit" to make your changes to the structure of the rubric.

Note: You can't add or edit comments on the Edit Rubric screen; adding, editing, or deleting comments all happens within the grading app (see the Quick Tips bar on the far right of the grading app if you need help).



If you have any questions, contact support@essaytagger.com