As graders go on grading, their comments become more frustrated and their good-will becomes much sloppier. At least that’s the hypothesis to explain this. Researchers found the reverse effect on graders who sorted in reverse-alphabetical order.

  • @liv
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    2 months ago

    I can’t imagine how, unless you only had 20 of them or something?

    Back when I was a TA, I had an average of 120 students per semester and we didn’t necessarily grade our own students’ work (it was usually divided by topic).

    So if I’m grading 120 assignments - or worse, 480 pieces of exam assessment- and only 25% of them are from students I regularly interact with, I don’t think my subconscious has any idea 99% of the time.

    Even with smaller classes… you’re just seeing too many people with similar thoughts and styles over the course of a year for any of it to imprint on your mind that deeply. Occasionally it’s going to be obvious, but I still think removing a level of bias through anonymizing is best practice.