Story

Alchemist started out with a simple goal: cut down on the time I spent grading. I spent more time grading than I did in front of the students, and that’s true for most teachers.

Now, this was not the altruistic goal it might appear to be. As I said, I'm a writer, and I wanted to find more time for writing instead of grading. Grading takes a lot of time. DOCZ has broken down some numbers in this blog post. Fortunately, my research and experimentation with a computerized solution can be of help to others.

Inserting comments with a click was the first step, but not enough. I pushed myself and wrote complex scripts to search and automatically markup the text. This intelligent scanning dramatically accelerated my grading. A 5 page essay used to take 20-45 minutes to grade, but with Alchemist I cut it down to less than 20 minutes with no loss of feedback.

"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com

 I shared the program with colleagues and added more features, then I had a brilliant idea.

Give it to the students.

The intelligent scans markup and give instant feedback, acting like another pair of eyes—expert eyes—to point out areas of concern before students turn in their work. I’m not only a teacher, but a writer, and I know first-hand how tough it is to edit and revise, why all writers—no matter what they write—need tools to make the job easier.