Business Law Prof Outsources Grading to Private Company
A business law and ethics professor at the University of Houston has 1,000 undergraduate students each year who do a lot of writing to complete assignments—about 5,000 words per student, to be specific.
The professor, Lori Whisenant, needed more help than her teaching assistants could provide, so she outsourced the grading on assignments, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports.
The papers are sent to a company called Virtual-TA, whose employees are mostly based in India, Singapore and Malaysia. All have at least master’s degrees and all must pass a writing test. Many are women with children who work from their homes part-time.
The graders embed their comments in the documents, and the professors can change them if they want.
After first Whisenant thought the graders’ comments were too formal, so she sent along examples of more conversational and direct comments. The graders have now changed their style, and Whisenant is happy.
“This is what they do for a living,” she told the Chronicle of Higher Education. “We’re working with professionals.”
Hat tip to the Washington Post blog The Answer Sheet.
