WebAssign’s “Show My Work” tool will help you better understand the progress of your students.

Author: Michael Lafreniere is an Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering Technology and Mathematics at Ohio University-Chillicothe.

It is more difficult to evaluate students’ progress in virtual classes to ensure they are fully understanding the course material. Students need to communicate their thoughts and get feedback to ensure they are able to solve problems correctly.
These strategies can be used to assess student comprehension in your virtual course. Watch the video to see them in action.

Virtual Tools to Assess Student Progress
As a professor, the Show My Work feature within WebAssign gives me insight into students’ thinking. I can see their fundamental understanding of the concepts that I want them learn.
I then confirm their work and provide feedback via the Show My Work feature. This includes any missing steps or information. This allows me to confirm that students are trying to understand the material and not just guessing at the answer.
WebAssign allows me to enable Show My Work for a variety assignments (e.g. homework, quiz lab, exam, exam, or questions). These strategies can be applied to various types of assignments and include tips for grading students’ work.
Assignments
I prefer to reserve the last assignment from a chapter or learning module for Show My Work. To confirm conceptual understanding, the goal is to collect and synthesize student’s learning.
Based on the learning outcome I am trying to validate and how much time I have for each course, I decide how many Show My Work questions I want to include. Show My Work is not available in all questions, so it must be enabled.
If my assignment is about a core concept, I won’t use Show My Work for every question. I can gauge student understanding by reviewing only one or two questions. I also take into account the time it takes for me to review each Show My Work submission, and give valuable feedback.
Exams
Show My Work is also a great tool to collect student work while taking home exams.
Students submit their work in a problem-solving presentation. Students record and submit their own version of the randomized exam question that I have given them. They then solve the problem by recording themselves with narration. Show My Work allows me to manually enter the score based upon their video response.
WebAssign Tip – Refer your students to Show My Work’s student help page to show them how to use it.
Grading
My assignments always use the Show My Work option. This allows me to assign points based on students’ video responses. This allows me control the point allocation for every question that I enable Show My Work.
My students are told in the assignment instructions that they must submit their work, even though it is optional. They can choose to receive points or not.
To save time and give valuable feedback to students who make common mistakes, I create a feedback checklist for my assignments. You can also give feedback before the assignment due date.
WebAssign Tip – You can ask students to show their work and give them points for uploading it. You can edit or remove points from student submissions if you find that their answer is not complete.
Show Your Work!
Each module or lesson requires a student submission. This allows me to see their work. Students are expected to communicate their thinking beyond simply providing an answer, regardless of how many problems they are working on. Some students may hesitate or resist asking for a zero.
I present the Show My Work submission process by giving students a problem that is within their ability to solve and “talk” through. Once they are confident in their ability to submit their work, I offer more problems for students to help them expand their thinking and learn.
WebAssign Tip – Refer your students to Show My Work’s student help page to show them how to use it.
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