Site Map

1. The Interface

2. Storing frequently-used comments

3. Returning work to students

4. Obtaining and Learning Markin

Introduction

Created by makers of the well-known Hot Potatoes, Markin is special piece of software that allows a teacher to annotate students' written work and return it as a dynamic webpage or a text document.  In this example, Review of online quizzes, you can see that the student receives a webpage version of their work in which the comments are clickable. There are statistics below the text, plus closing comments. The text can also be printed with errors and stats indicated similarly.

Unlike MS Word's Track Changes, the Markin marking model is to provide students with pointers to where errors are, without necessarily providing  them with the “answer”.

Some of its important features include:

• a frame into which the student's text is pasted

• a set of buttons that you click on to annotate the students’ texts

• separate space for specific comments

• a database in which teachers can store frequent comments. Given that teachers often write the same comment on students work, student after student, year after year, this comes in very handy.

• a database in which links to the web can be stored. This is useful if the teacher wants to direct the students to an online dictionary or some grammar help, for example.

The interface

Storing frequently-used comments

Here are some examples of comments that can be stored.

• We don't "hide" phrases, sentences etc between parentheses in English any more. If the point is worth making, build it into the structure of the sentence or paragraph, If not, don't mention it.
• Thanks for your text. Please rewrite it according to the suggestions and bring it to class.
• Your name and contact details

Here are a few links to grammar information that could go in your database.

• http://www2.actden.com/writ_den/tips/paragrap/topic.htm
• http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/CommonErrors_CommaSplice.html#
• http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa051602a.htm

You can provide your students with links to remedial exercises on the web. For example,

• http://a4esl.org/q/h/vm/conj02.html
• http://www.englishpage.com/minitutorials/subjunctiveexerciseprintable.html
• http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/sif/Tutorials/Grammar/Preamble_Articles/Articles_menu/articles.html

Returning work to students

My current preference for returning work to students is to upload it into a folder within Moodle which the students can access. You will notice here that the folder has the name of the task, Before and After, and each file has the student's name. The number 2 indicates the second version that some students made after  the first feedback.

Obtaining and Learning Markin

The program is neither free nor expensive. Prices are here. Obtaining it involves downloading the demo version which allows you to work with very short texts. Then you need to pay for it. Once payment is cleared, you receive a password which allows you to use the program fully. For a list of the program’s features, click here. Versions in various also exist – details here.

To learn to use the program, there is an excellent tutorial that is available under the Help menu.