When I was a middle school ELA teacher, I used to dread the time every six weeks that we had to assign brief writing projects to the students. I loved teaching them the research process, but I HATED having to grade all their essays, make useful comments that would help them improve their writing, and then meet with each student about their work. It consumed my life for days as I poured over papers every evening until late. But now, with AI, there is a faster and more efficient way to review student writing, provide meaningful feedback, and keep your nights available for resting and recharging. Enter, CoGrader!
What Is CoGrader?
CoGrader is “the AI Essay Grader that helps teachers provide quality feedback on essays in 80% less time.” The process is simple:
- Define your grading criteria. You can use CoGrader’s rubrics aligned to your state standards or upload your own. View the different rubrics here, including the Texas STAAR writing rubrics in English and Spanish.
- Import assignments. CoGrader works with Google Classroom, Canvas, and Schoology so you can easily upload submitted student work to be graded.
- Get grades, feedback, and reports. “CoGrader generates detailed feedback and justification reports for each student, highlighting areas of improvement together with the grade.”
- Review and adjust. As the teacher, you have the final say in what grade a student’s work receives, as well as the feedback given.
In addition, it’s important to provide clear assignment instructions when you begin the process with your students. And CoGrader currently works best with a “one prompt, one answer” approach. If you are trying to have your students address several different questions in their writing, CoGrader may not be as successful in evaluating and providing feedback at this time. Detailed instructions can be found here.
Bonus Features of CoGrader
CoGrader, because it was developed by teachers for teachers and is backed by the University of California Berkeley, has some extra features that make it truly useful.
- It checks to see if ChatGPT or another chatbot was used for student writing. While this process is not perfect, it can be helpful in determining if you need to look further at possible plagiarism.
- It is FERPA compliant and protects student privacy.
- It can ensure consistency and accuracy in grading and reduce biases.
- CoGrader provides three free certifications for educators using the platform.
Pricing for CoGrader
The platform offers a free version for educators that includes 100 student submissions per month. The Standard plan is $15/month for up to 300 student submissions per month, the acceptance of hand-written assignments, grammar checking, and a customizable overview dashboard. They also offer department and school pricing.
Final Thoughts
When teachers around the country are asked what they need, one of their top answers is always “more time.” This AI tool can provide that so that you can spend more time working with students instead of working with papers.
