I would love to see Populi improve its assignment grading interface by allowing faculty to view and grade a student's paper using a rubric alongside the document, while also providing more robust PDF annotation tools.
Currently, grading a paper in Populi feels unnecessarily cumbersome. While faculty can view the submitted document and enter grades and feedback, the interface lacks the integrated grading experience available in other LMS platforms.
Two improvements would make a significant difference:
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Side-by-side rubric grading: Allow faculty to keep the student's submitted paper open on one side of the screen while viewing and completing the grading rubric on the other. Ideally, the rubric would remain visible as we scroll through the paper, allowing us to select performance levels, enter scores, and add criterion-specific comments without leaving the document.
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Improved PDF annotation tools: Expand the document viewer to allow faculty to highlight text, underline passages, add margin comments, and insert comments directly at specific locations in the student's paper. These annotations should be saved within Populi and visible to students when their graded work is returned.
I regularly grade research and exegetical papers in which students are evaluated on formatting, scholarship, interpretation, and application. I need to reference specific portions of their papers while scoring rubric criteria and providing feedback. Having the rubric beside the paper and the ability to annotate specific passages would make grading more efficient and the feedback significantly more useful to students.
I've attached a screenshot from another LMS to illustrate the difference between a more integrated grading interface and the one currently available in Populi.
I believe these improvements would benefit faculty across many disciplines, particularly those grading essays, research papers, and other written assignments.