Time to Rewire How Feedback and Grading Is Done

“He provides excellent feedback and comments.”

“Very clear explanations regarding how I can improve my work.”

“He gives excellent ideas and advise on ways I need to improve.”

I still believe in the value of teaching classes which are clear, organized, useful, practical, and have clear goals in satisfying learning outcomes. Like many, I also have put in significant amount of hours with marking, feedback, and grading. Providing clear and useful feedback is appreciated by students and promotes learning. However, that is not always the case as there are instances where all of the time and effort put into marking and grading, along with advice on how to correct errors and improve goes unread or unheeded by students. Some will simply look and be fixated at the final grade, then discard the returned work. Other students will not bother to find out the reasons for a poor grade.

The Math Does Not Add Up

However, one day the absurdity of spending my weekends and off hours marking and grading finally came to me after many years of doing this. As an adjunct whose teaching load can vary each semester, the goal is to take on as many courses as possible for income purposes. In spite of this goal, adjunct instructors salary and benefits still lags behind full-timers even if you are fortunate to have a 4-4 teaching load. In fact, many will say that an adjunct with a 4-4 teaching load is unsustainable given the labor intensive nature of the position, amount of papers that must be marked and graded, lessons prepared, emails with students, not to mention administrative duties. Basically, adjunct instructors have the same teaching, preparation, grading, and administrative duties and responsibilities as full-time tenure or tenure-track faculty, however the salary and benefits do not compensate.

The Unstable Days of Summer

Summer months are filled with uncertainty and instability when teaching opportunities are limited and with goes health benefits, for adjuncts fortunate to have, which come to an end at the conclusion of spring semester. Adjuncts need to scramble to find health coverage for themselves and family members during those three uncertain summer months. Even if an adjunct is able to secure a summer course, it is usually not enough to qualify for health benefits. What is available are costly COBRA plan or Medicare if one can qualify. Of course, one could take a chance and try not to get sick of get into an accident. It is common to skip on necessary medical or dental treatment which can lead to more serious health problems. Not the type of lifestyle many of our students would expect from their professor, but that is another article.

Academic Rigor Is Misguided

Like many, I took pride is planning and teaching “challenging” classes and lessons which forced my student to apply themselves in learning the specific skills or concepts. Over the years, I began to question this approach when I came to the realization that overloading students had a more detrimental effect that caused many to simply memorize as opposed to actually learning and applying a specific skill in achieving student learning outcomes. Of course, there are many instructors who take pride in being hard and demanding with their students, and this is a personal decision. By simply slowing down and focusing and ensuring that students understand specific course concepts has been more productive in terms of positive learner outcomes and proficiency.

Breaking Old Habits

We like to think of ourselves as dedicated with the learning of our students and will do what is necessary to make a difference and help them reach their academic goals. Most of us view ourselves as “dedicated professionals.” However, there comes a time when dedication needs to take a back seat for one’s own self wellness and quality of life. For me, that moment came after I spent another countless weekend grading and providing feedback to an electronic stack of some 80 essays from my four composition and writing intensive classes. This time for some reason, I found myself becoming more agitated with each new essay to grade as the hours pasted by. This continued over two days, took up my weekend, and forced me to cancel out on some family activities which left me even more irritated.

Upon completing the last of 80 essays, instead of feeling happy and relieved, I felt even more angry due to the spending two days working for free marking student essay and sacrificing my entire weekend in the process. In reflection, some of my students will likely read and note my feedback and advice provided, while many others will likely not even read it and reflect. I took a deep breath, went outside for a quick walk, and said to myself “This does not make any sense and cannot go on anymore!” All of this “unpaid labor” had to stop if I wanted to avoid mental and physical burnout which would lead to poor health. What kind of life would that be?

Streamline Your Classes

I am now more selective with assigning homework and put more emphasis on self-directed learning and making my students accountable and responsible for the required weekly lessons, material, tasks, and preparation which ultimately leads to a major research and writing assignment.

• Assign less homework and assignments that must be graded.

• Developed an easy to refer to grading rubric which provides clear and concise feedback.

• Be clear about what students did well, what needs to improve, and what does not meets acceptable standards and proficiency.

• Make self-correction is the responsibility of students by referring and reviewing the learning material in the course LMS.

• Audio feedback of roughly a minute saves a significant amount of time and effort, not to mention forces students to listen carefully and pay attention.

• Providing ONE list of common errors on the LMS, instead of writing or pointing them out for each student.

• Make students accountable for their learning.

• Establishment of strict email and contact policies of Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 5:00 P.M. Whenever students complain, I simply tell them “I have a life and you should too!”

That Adjunct Guy
September 28, 2026