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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.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Latest Update: Rubrics can now be downloaded as Excel files!

We're doing everything we can to encourage more teacher collaboration within teams and across the entire web. One of the main ways we do this is through rubric sharing.

Instructors can already create their own rubrics; share them via email, Twitter, facebook, or hyperlink; print them (Macs can save the printable version to PDF); import any EssayTagger rubric into their own accounts; and edit those rubrics however they please.

Now you can also download any EssayTagger rubric as an Excel CSV file.

The CSV file format is very common and is supported by most spreadsheet programs (Excel, Google Drive spreadsheet, etc.).


Driven by feedback
This came about as a request from a teacher who needed to distribute her rubric to her students as a handout but wasn't satisfied with the existing sharing or print options. Now she can open her rubric in Excel and adjust the cell sizing and fonts as needed. Thanks for the feedback, Jen! I'm excited about this new feature!


Misc details
The CSV file generator is aware of the "Show descriptors" and "Show feedback comments" options on the rubric page. Your CSV output will be adjusted according to what is or is not checked.

If your rubric is a Common Core-aligned rubric, the associated CCSS identifiers (e.g. W.9-10.1a) will be included with each rubric element.


Nothing fancy
The CSV file format is super-simple and does not allow for any text formatting; don't expect a beautiful document. This is a utilitarian option and it'll be up to you to adjust the formatting to your liking in your spreadsheet program.


Why CSV?
It's the CSV format's simplicity that made this option possible. And a rubric is inherently a two-dimensional grid which lends itself well to the spreadsheet format.