Anonymizing Student Assignments

[Between Fields]

Next semester, I'm going to attempt a peer grading scheme that will involve trading papers between my two sections of English 101. This has been approved by the director of the writing program, as long as the work remains anonymous. The easiest way to do this would to be to take paper copies, use a black marker on the names, and then make photocopies for the group members, but this would be 50 assignment packets times 4 copies per unit, or almost 2000 pages per unit, which doesn't seem sustainable.

 

If I have them give me files, I could distribute them on Dropbox, but they could still find the name in the metadata of the file.

 

If I get files and then copy the text to Google Docs, it means probably a few hours of work to get things copied over and checked for formatting. This is probably the route I'll go, because the work at this stage counter-balances the limited actual grading I'll have to do, but it still sounds like a pain.

 

If I let them make their own Google Docs, the username will be visible.

 

Do any of you have a possible technological solution for anonymizing files/stripping their metadata, or publishing a Google Doc anonymously?

Edited November 16, 2014 by Between Fields

[Vene]

How much work would it be for you to export the files as a pdf? I believe that should remove most, if not all, identifying metadata.

[TakeruK]

The class I TA for does this regularly. What we do is ask each student to send us a PDF of their written work. Then we post them to an online website (that only the class can access) and they download their peers' work and review them. To save you some time, you can assign each class member a unique number or ID and ask them to send you their file as paperXX.pdf where XX is their ID (or you can do it yourself). 

 

To save paper, we actually never print anything out -- we ask that all students provide feedback electronically. This works well because we do not ask peers to closely edit each others' papers. Instead, we just ask them to read the paper carefully and provide 3 strong points and 3 weak points, with a suggestion to improve for each weak point. Then, we compile the notes for each paper, remove anything inappropriate and forward it to original author.

 

As for the meta-data, it's something we have not considered before. I just checked the pdf of a file that a student sent last year--no meta-data remained. My class' policy was not to be concerned about that issue but I understand that other people might have different opinions. 

 

Edit: You can also have students create a new account specifically for this class to upload files and then they will be responsible for their own removal of meta-data. You can assign usernames to each student (or ask them to tell you) so that you know which account belongs to which student!

 

Edit #2: If you still want to go the paper route--just ask that the student use a codename instead of their real name, so you don't need black marker.

Edited November 16, 2014 by TakeruK

[Vene]

Edit #2: If you still want to go the paper route--just ask that the student use a codename instead of their real name, so you don't need black marker.

I did a peer review this semester and we went the paper route. I asked each student to bring in a copy of their report without their name on it and I wrote a alphanumerical code on each paper. It seemed to work out pretty well and I think it's better than a black marker as sometimes with a black marker if you hold the paper in the light just right you can still read the underlying text.

[Between Fields]

I appreciate the feedback! I did figure out how to strip a Word file of its metadata, but the PDF route could be the way to go. One of my colleagues suggested having them make throwaway Google accounts for this class, so they can use that platform without risking identifying themselves. 

 

I'm thinking, though, that paper might be the best solution, but I teach in classrooms with computers and so it seems silly for me to have them print things.

[Crucial BBQ]

This is interesting.  We did something similar in my English 101 course, but we had read the actual papers, name and all.  The papers where from our own class and were critiqued two or three times during a class session with the critiques themselves being anonymous.  My particular section, as with them all, was rather small-roughly 20 students; we all knew each other.  

Edited November 17, 2014 by Crucial BBQ

[TakeruK]

In my English 101 class, we also did non-anonymous peer review (and in fact, we met with our reviewers the following class to discuss the comments).

[Between Fields]

I'm going to do it in two rounds, non-anonymous peer consultations (if I call it editing, all they do is edit) and then the final drafts will be swapped between my two sections for actual peer evaluation, which is why it needs to be anonymous (institutional regulations and FERPA). The grades their peers assign will stand, unless someone decides to appeal. I'm really excited about trying it out.