For many students and instructors, paper-and-pencil testing was starting to seem like a thing of the past. Then OpenAI released ChatGPT into the wild, and suddenly students using their computers to complete assessments felt a whole lot riskier. While closed-computer in-class testing lessens cheating risk, it also eliminates so many of the quality-of-life improvements that come with online testing: not having to carry stacks of paper around for marking, not having to manually grade multiple choice questions, and the ability to use easy rubrics and annotation tools for feedback.

Enter Gradescope. This tool has been a longtime favorite of disciplines where a lot of paper-and-pencil work is required of students (think math, chemistry, economics), but did you know it offers options for instructors of all disciplines for giving exams on paper while maintaining the benefits of online testing? Here’s how:

Self-Managed Bubble Sheets

While Scantron bubble sheets have long been a staple of larger enrollment classes, they also require a lot of legwork from the instructor, as well as specialized paper stock and equipment available only at the University Testing Center. Gradescope’s Bubble Sheet feature brings the automated grading capability of Scantron into your own hands. Create your exam packet however you’d like—you can even create multiple versions of the exam to prevent cheating—and then use Gradescope to enter the answer key and print out blank bubble sheets on your own. After students complete their exams, take the whole stack of completed bubble sheets back to your department, scan them all together into a single PDF, and upload to Gradescope. Gradescope will use handwriting recognition to read the names of students and match them to the students on your roster, and will then autograde the bubble sheets, transferring the grades to Canvas when complete. Learn more at this Gradescope bubble sheet how-to article.

Mixed Question Exams

If you have an exam that combines both objective and short answer/essay questions, Gradescope can do that too. Create your exam packet however you’d like and upload this as a template to Gradescope, indicating each area of the packet where you expect students to place their answers (circling a multiple choice selection, writing a short answer, or even drawing a picture). Once students take your exam and you collect them again, take this stack of papers to the nearest scanner and scan the whole lot of them as a single PDF. Once uploaded, handwriting recognition and the template you already uploaded will be used by Gradescope to sort each individual exam packet and match them with the students on your roster. Now you can go through these exams in multiple different ways (see all responses to a single question in sequence, or grade one single student’s exam at a time, even group similar answers together and grade them all at once) and use a dynamic rubric to assess and leave feedback with simple clicks. Learn more about using Gradescope to grade paper-and-pencil exams.

In-Class Essays

Gradescope is even useful for in-class essay tests. While it can’t make student handwriting any more legible, it can eliminate the need to carry around stacks of papers or blue books to mark, and let’s you create a dynamic rubric (dynamic meaning you can add criteria on the fly, as you discover new and different ways that students can be correct and incorrect) and leave comments and feedback. Once scored, grades are automatically transferred to Canvas and students can see both their final mark and their rubric results and feedback.

Resources to Learn More

• Gradescope Getting Started Videos
• Using Gradescope with Canvas at Pitt
• Register for an upcoming webinar or view a recording
• Contact Educational Software Consulting for a one-on-one consultation and training