Championing Gradescope across the university
As digital assessment champions, Dr. Pugh and Dr. Borman knew that it was critical that staff and students could quickly adopt Gradescope, submitting and assessing with confidence.
Colleagues within Engineering and Physical Sciences began using Gradescope almost immediately. Instructors were vocal about the benefits of the tool such as digital annotation, flexible rubrics and submission of handwritten work. Feedback from both staff and students was highly positive. Word spread across the University, and soon academics from other faculties were using Gradescope for their assessments with usage growing in the Business School and in English, utilising Gradescope’s ability to incorporate various assignment types.
With a single login through their familiar Blackboard LMS, instructors were able to easily link Gradescope assignments to their courses. This helped Gradescope become fully integrated across numerous faculties at the University of Leeds and within the University’s existing infrastructure.
With a return to campus in 2021, the University continued to use Gradescope for delivering both remote and in-person homework and exams. Gradescope’s flexibility and the variety of assignment types meant that they could streamline grading of both paper-based and online assessments. This variety and flexibility also meant that instructors could keep using a tool they were now comfortable with, even as the landscape continued to change.
Digital assessment is now at the heart of the University’s strategy. Now that staff and students are confident using Gradescope, the University has moved to a “Digital by Default” strategy for their assessment.