The following information was previously included in a September 2025 teaching resource created by the Teaching and Learning Center.
Assessing student learning with a large number of students can be daunting. However, combining different feedback approaches allows you to be attentive to student needs while also protecting your time. This resource provides strategies and tools for integrating efficient feedback processes, including reserving comprehensive instructor feedback for assignments that have the most impact on student learning; identifying what to grade for completion or using a computer; providing whole-class feedback when you can; and leveraging formative assessments, such as in-class polling, peer review, and self-assessment.
Identify What Can Be Graded by Completion or by a Computer
One strategy for efficient grading, especially in large classes, is to create some assignments and activities that can be automatically graded. Some examples are weekly reading or lecture quizzes, or uploading a source document or image that explains a theory to a discussion board. Automatic grading acknowledges students’ work and keeps track of student progress without the need for detailed feedback. Using a grading system that credits students for completion has been shown to increase motivation in students (Swinton, 2010; Schinske and Tanner, 2014).
Quizzes in Bruin Learn offer the option of automatic grading. Setting up automatically graded quizzes can help students assess their progress throughout a course, especially when they are allowed to retake the quiz after reviewing any concepts or processes they missed on their first attempt. Automatically graded quizzes can also be set up to show students the correct answers once they are finished with the quiz, and can provide explanations for both right and wrong answers to reinforce learning. For more information and help setting up automatic grading, see the Creating Quizzes in Bruin Learn page in Bruin Learn Resources.
Discussion posts can also be graded by completion, as can a reading or lecture summary paragraph that students submit online. In this case, students get credit for their post or paragraph while you read through some of the submissions to identify key themes or misunderstandings. This, coupled with a general synchronous or asynchronous response to the whole class, would provide students with feedback.
Provide Globalized Feedback in a One-to-Many Format
Another way to approach efficient grading is to provide global, whole-class feedback. This is sometimes called a one-to-many approach. To create this type of global response, first read through all student submissions, posts, labs, or presentations. Consider any themes or patterns you see, areas where they need further resources or practice, as well as where students are performing well. Next, craft a general response that highlights progress and offers support for next steps or review. The format of your global response matters less than the message, so feel free to use whatever means you are most comfortable with or which feel most appropriate for your course: written, video, audio, or other. This is most appropriate for formative assessment assignments, but the technique can be used to provide overall feedback on a midterm or other exams. In these cases, the global feedback serves as an addition to the students’ individual grades. You can also use a one-to-many response as a way to provide resources if many students made the same mistake (e.g., everybody misapplied a theorem). The goal is to provide generalized feedback about an assessment or in-class activity while offering some suggestions and support for the students’ next steps.
For example, if you are reading through assignment submissions and you notice that many students missed a particular connection between concepts xyz and abc, you might write something like, “I enjoyed reading your submissions on climate change. Many of you had great ideas about solving y, and some of you mentioned the need for more in-depth information about x. However, your answers would have been more complete if you connected the two ideas by stating xyz. Here are some resources that may help [provide list]. If you need additional help, please see me during drop-in hours. See you in class on Thursday!” [You could post this as a video or as an announcement in Bruin Learn or on a discussion board if you have one set up.]
To learn more about using announcements in Bruin Learn to distribute feedback, please see UCLA HumTech’s resource on Using Announcements in Bruin Learn. For general guidance on posting videos in Bruin Learn or using discussion boards, both of which are means by which you can deliver one-to-many feedback, see the Discussions page on the Bruin Learn Resources Canvas site, or view HumTech’s guide on embedding media in Bruin Learn.
Use In-Class Polling for Formative Assessments
For real-time assessments, you can use in-class polling as a tool to check student understanding. Polling is a versatile classroom tool allowing instructors to engage students in peer-to-peer instruction and to assess students’ understanding in real-time. Using polling tools, instructors may gain insight into students’ prior knowledge, opinions, and understanding of course concepts. (If you are interested in using polling as a summative tool, iClicker Cloud also allows you to connect polling to the Bruin Learn gradebook.)
There are two polling tools that have received UCLA’s Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) approval: iClicker Cloud and PollEverywhere. iClicker Cloud is available campus-wide to instructors and students at no cost. PollEverywhere is available only to departments that have purchased a license. To decide which tool works best for your class, peruse the TLC’s guide to in-class polling, which describes the pedagogical value of polling and compares a variety of popular tools (some of which have not received TPRM approval).
Leverage Peer and Self-Assessment
Peer review and self-assessment are both strategies that take the onus of assessment off the instructor (though that does not mean that you have to abide by the grades/feedback that students give themselves or each other if you disagree). Peer review or peer assessment refers to the process of students assessing each other’s work, while self-assessment refers to an individual student assessing their own work.
These two strategies can be leveraged in various ways. For example, you might incorporate peer review as an ungraded activity that students complete before turning in a graded assignment. In a more involved approach, you might work with students throughout the quarter to refine their skills as peer reviewers and might assign grades, in part or in whole, based on the feedback given and used during the peer review process. Either way, to help students build their assessment skills, we encourage you to provide guidance and structure for peer review, perhaps by first establishing community agreements or providing students with a rubric. For guidance on what rubrics are and how to use them, see the TLC’s guide to rubrics and refer to the section below.
To set students up to peer review effectively, you might spend time talking about how to use the scoring rubric you’ve provided, as well as how to provide constructive feedback. You can also have students practice assessing an anonymized sample paper and ask them to justify and discuss their scores using the rubric. Like peer-review, self-assessment can also be structured with rubrics, which students fill out to score themselves, or by providing specific prompts for reflection. Peer review or self-assessment can be completed in or out of class. As students build their assessment skills, their evaluation of their work or that of their peers can serve as scaffolding for your evaluation, making your process more efficient.
Resources
UCLA Teaching and Learning Center (TLC)
- Preparing to Teach: Student Learning Objectives
- In-Class Polling Guide
- Bruin Learn Resource Guide
- Rubrics: What They Are and How to Use Them
- Using Gradescope for Efficient Grading
UCLA Bruin Learn Center of Excellence (CoE)
- Using the Speedgrader (YouTube Video)
- Gradescope Overview
- Bruin Learn Resources (course site introducing faculty, TAs, and support staff to Bruin Learn features and functionalities)
UCLA Humanities Technology (HumTech)
UC Davis Center for Educational Effectiveness