This post is in partnership with Bakpax, all opinions are my own.
What do grading and feedback look like in your face-to-face or virtual classroom? As a classroom teacher, reviewing student work took up a big chunk of my time. Having a clear understanding of where students were at and what they were struggling with was essential. However, I knew that my time would be better spent designing lessons and activities in response to the data. This summer, I had a chance to see a new grading app in action. It uses artificial intelligence, and in this blog post, I’ll tell you all about it.
Grading App for Teachers
Bakpax is a tool for teachers that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to read students’ handwriting and automate grading. With Bakpax, you create a virtual classroom for your students and add assignments. Then you can assign the work to students, and they can either work online or offline. When students submit their assignments, students who worked offline on paper and pencil can snap a picture of their work.
Bakpax automates the grading, recognizing student handwriting, and keeping track of student performance in a teacher dashboard. As you can see in the video below, it takes just a few steps to start using Bakpax. This page also breaks down the steps to show you exactly how Bakpax works.
I had the chance to see this grading app in action, and the AI it uses for handwriting recognition is very impressive. It recognizes math functions, allows you to make quick edits, and transfers the information into digital format.
Get started with Bakpax for free >>
Benefits for Teachers (and Students)
The key benefit of Bakpax is the ability to save you time grading. The ease and efficiency of using Bakpax for grading are very impressive. It gives students the flexibility to work online and offline and enables teachers to reallocate grading time to supporting students directly.
When teachers review student submissions, they can see where students need help in an instant. This information gives them the ability to help students right away with timely and targeted intervention. The idea of saving time connects directly to providing students quicker, actionable feedback.
A grading app for students working offline
In a classroom setting, saving time this way is essential, and the same is true when students are learning at home or a distance. One of the pieces to this software that stuck out to me was the ability for students to work primarily offline and then upload their work when they have connectivity. So many students and families struggle with limited or interrupted access to the Internet over the school day, and this is a stand out feature.
The upload feature in Bakpax can help address the digital divide we know that many students face. This issue has been present in the past, but now with hybrid and distance learning initiatives, it is front and center. Bakpax lets students complete their work on paper and easily upload by taking a picture on a mobile phone. Students don’t need to have a special notebook or type of paper. Instead, Bakpax can read answers written on any sheet of paper.
Students don’t need to have a particular app, but Bakpax is mobile-friendly. Families or their students can bookmark Bakpax for easy access on any device that can access the Internet.
Ready-to-use activities
You may have your own activities for students that are ready to transfer to digital assignments in Bakpax, and Bakpax provides a library of free, standards-aligned, autogradable assignments to support lesson planning, too. You can use the assignments right within Bakpax to get started or jump in with your own.
How to use AI for grading
Bakpax makes it easy to use AI for grading. The artificial intelligence technology that powers this tool to grade student work allows for faster feedback. That time saved on grading allows more time for teachers to engage in personalized instruction. The artificial intelligence within this tool adapts to students as they use it, learning their handwriting to increase accuracy with each scan.
What is contactless grading?
Since Bakpax is all about uploading student work to a digital space, it also supports contactless grading. The term contactless grading is a new one for me, but it makes a lot of sense. Contactless grading, particularly once schools begin to reopen, will provide an added safety measure to limit the number of risk factors. Essentially, teachers don’t have to touch student papers and can avoid that extra contact by using a tool like Bakpax to scan and save results.
There are currently integrations with Google Classroom and MS Teams. Bakpax is set to integrate with other learning management systems in the future, including Schoology and Canvas.
Ready to get started? Bakpax offers free access for 2020 to support teachers as they navigate the challenges of remote instruction and hybrid school reopenings. Head to this landing page to sign up!
