Having marked over 70 assignments over the Christmas break, with one set of classmarking covering two assessment outcomes, I was able to make good use of my smilies stamp , rewarding students working at or beyond their target grades. This reminded me of my NCSL online facilitators course experience, where adult learner pass grades were also awarded with smilies, only these were electronic online smilies, displayed in open access gradebook. As more learners completed the coursework, they requested demanded their smilies stamp of approval. These simple electronic smilies held value to professional adult learners, I was surprised. 🙂
I was reviewing the grading and feedback process I had undetaken and wondered if these smilies should be transfered from the assignemnt frontsheet inside their folder to the front of their manilla folder label where they could be envied? We would need to redesign our rather dry folder labels to include a space for these smilies but would it make a difference. Are stars, smilies and credit points under used or over-rated? What do you use to encourage academic performance?