Danika Wright, an associate professor of finance, takes a data-driven approach to running her 500-person class on investments and portfolio management. But SRES allows her analytical method to feel friendly to students.
Wright has a team of TAs grade student work factory-style, putting codes for very specific feedback into a spreadsheet. Through SRES, this analysis of student work can be paired with data from the learning-management system to show, for instance, if a student did the practice problems related to an assessment. “But they’re seeing this nice, warm, fuzzy, their-first-name-being-used email, sent directly from me to them. So they don’t know that it’s actually a robot system; they’re getting a connection to myself.”
Since the system was initiated, students’ pass rates have gone up between the first and second assignments. The improvement has been especially strong among less-advantaged and underrepresented students.
Wright shared an example of one such email, which breaks down a student’s performance on an assignment, providing scores for each piece and reasons for them, like “Your response in this section has potential but there are still ways for you to improve it, particularly thinking about how you link your arguments from the preceding sections together to build a compelling case.” The message closes with “Thank you for your hard work so far in FINC6017, and best wishes for the rest of semester!” and is signed “Danika.”
Okay, students may know on some level that this feedback is automated, Wright acknowledges — but it feels personal. They still write heartfelt notes back. They’re not used to getting this level of response from a professor. The student who received the email Wright shared above wrote back thanking her for the “detailed feedback” and added “I personally really enjoyed the class so far, and looking forward for new knowledges and skills I could learn in this subject.” Some students, Wright adds, click a link at the bottom of the message that allows them to comment through the system, leaving notes like “Thank u Danika. This feedback on the report is fantastic.”
Since Wright initiated this system, she says, students’ pass rates have gone up between the first and second assignments in the course. The improvement has been especially strong among less-advantaged and underrepresented students.