Somewhere towards the end of my last blog entry I found myself wishing that an introduction to a technology product had been more tutorial in format; today I got my wish. I went into Cliffe Waldie’s introduction to Freshgrade expecting an infomercial, but was pleasantly surprised by the actuality of the experience.

I’m glad we were given a chance to actually experiment with using the program, from both the student and teacher perspectives. On the whole, Freshgrade reminds me chalk.com, another free online planning and grading resource which I have used while teaching in the past. Having now used both, I can say that Freshgrade appears to be more user friendly as regards ease of use, and the in-built collaboration between learner and instructor was absent from my previous grading tool entirely.

The ability for student, teacher, and guardian to all keep up to date using the same portal is Freshgrade’s real selling point for me, though the ease of use is certainly welcome. Having the curricular competencies built into the planning framework is downright exciting. The online nature of Freshgrade makes it a good fit for multi-access modality courses, should I ever attempt such a thing. The idea to use online reflective journaling as a tool not just for student metacognition but as a means of  making them more accountable to their parents is also intriguing, though I suspect that the students whose parents mot regularly check their progress will be least in need of this particular stick.

I question the presenter on a couple of points, especially on his repeated claim that Freshgrade “enhances” assessment. This is a meaningless buzzword, and I don’t see how Freshgrade would change my grading experience. In fact, I’ve always preferred marking physical work to digital, finding it to be both easier and more pleasant, which means that I tend to mark digital work last. For me personally, then, the use of Freshgrade for assignments promises to make marking a less pleasant experience, though this is a rather minor gripe given the success I’ve had with digital assignments in the past and the ease Freshgrade seems to bring to these.

I have a bigger issue with the question of assessment as a whole, I think. I’ve we’re moving towards gradeless assessment, how does the Freshgrade platform fit with this goal? A point for further investigation.