TA Spotcheck

TAs are supposed to have completed marking at least 5 submissions by a set date a few days before the marking deadline so ISAs can give them feedback. In Fall 2021, this deadline was Friday at 10 AM, three days before the Monday 10 AM full marking deadline.

If your TA has not completed 5 submissions, please remind them to do so as soon as possible (ideally before the weekend).

Once your TA has marked 5 submissions, you can perform spot checking.

How to Spotcheck

Step 1: Logon to your TA's account on MarkUs by performing a role switch. This button is found to the left of the Log Out button. Enter your TA's userid, and you should be on their account. If the TA was a former UW student or ISA, you may need to include -grader at the end of their userid similar to the name of an ISA grading account.

Step 2: Go to the current assignment, and pick 5 submissions to spot check. These will usually be the first 5 submissions.

Step 3: Note down any mistakes that the TA made in marking (including the Lines at which these mistakes were made), or anything they forgot to mark. Do not correct these errors! We want TAs to go back and fix them. Pay particular attention to the relevance and placement of the annotations selected as well as the corresponding rubric levels. You may also note down certain things that the TA did a good job of.

Step 4: Send an email to the TA with a detailed feedback of their marking for the 5 submissions. Make sure to include the lines, and the userid of the students that you checked.

Note that if a particular TA consistently has high mistake count across submissions, you might want to check to ensure that their final gradings are up to par – this could be done by re-reviewing those 5 submissions to make sure that they implemented feedback.

Writing the Email

Email example:

Hi {TA's name},

I have checked your marking for the first 5 submissions. Here is some feedback for these and future AXX marking. Please include any missing annotations indicated and deduct rubric levels where necessary:

For student {student1 userid}:

Line 392: You have missed an annotation here: Missing -> (Contract Format)
Line 392: Incorrect types (missing (listof Grocery)) as the output.
Line 451: Same as above errors
Line 455: You have selected the wrong annotation here. The actual annotation is ...

For student {student2 userid}:

No mistakes found! Good job.

...

...

For student {student5 userid}:

Line 132: You have annotated the Code Complexity errors but have not deducted. Please give a Level 1 under Code Complexity.
Line 203: Good catch! A lot of TAs missed that one.
Line 320: The purpose statement is incorrect. Please annotate and deduct.
...

Good job! Please correct these errors and finish all submissions before [insert marking deadline (e.g. Monday at 10 AM)]. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

{Your signature}

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