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28-sheet workbook using Google Sheets to collate student grades, instructor feedback, and peer feedback for automated mail merge grade reports
I teach interactive and discussion-based courses with the aim of connecting course material to students’ everyday lives. To this end, I have non-standard assignments, such as peer-graded reading reflections, and non-standard grading policies, such as bundle grading (students earn a grade in the course by choosing and completing a specified bundle of requirements).
These non-standard assignments and grading policies mean that typical learning management systems (e.g. Instructure Canvas) don’t have a gradebook flexible enough to accommodate my courses. Instead, I have to create my own dynamic gradebook that can interface with students.
My dynamic gradebooks are Google Sheets workbooks integrated with Google Forms and various plugins. Each course has its own gradebook; the most complex gradebook has 28 sheets within the workbook. Integrating with Google Forms makes the gradebook interactive, allowing students to perform actions like entering feedback and scores for peer-reviewed assignments, choosing group members and grade bundles, and checking in after group meetings.
On the other side of the coin, students need to be able to access their grades and track their progress. Each week I use the gradebook to send automated mail merge grade reports to students’ email addresses. I also use the mail merge function for more elaborate feedback on major assignments like the peer-reviewed research project in my research methods course, providing students with a 26-item checklist and written feedback automatically collated from up to four peer reviewers.
I use Google Sheets, integrated with Google Forms and various plugins, to overcome the limitations of traditional gradebooks. A little bit of spreadsheet wizardry allows me to facilitate a more creative, open-ended, and personal learning experience for students.