Ben Edwards

St. Michael’s College offers a device to every student as part of an effort to enhance learning and improve engagement. The kids love the digital environment and eLearning Coordinator, Ben is working with staff to help them make the transition to a more modern framework for learning. The College has adopted Turnitin to improve student writing through better feedback, both teacher-to-student and student-to-student. Time is a critical issue for staff, says Ben, especially for him:

“I’ve got three or four different roles and there are only so many hours in a day. So, when I mark student work, I want to ensure the feedback is meaningful and done in the most efficient manner possible. Turnitin Feedback Studio has streamlined my workflow for collection of assessments, marking, providing detailed feedback and now returning this information to students is just so easy.”

He says Turnitin’s automation features and marking shortcuts have saved him a lot of time and helped him be more effective and efficient.To support the implementation of Turnitin at the College, Ben runs a variety of professional development sessions in different formats for teachers at his school to help them make better use of the tools available. As a result, they’ve streamlined the process of marking papers and improved the feedback they give students. “Feedback is a major key to students learning,” Ben says. “We’ve got a big push at the moment for students knowing what they are learning, what their next step is in their learning and how they can improve. Therefore, being able to give instant feedback which helps students identify where improvements can be made is really important.” He says he no longer has to carry papers home with him to mark. He just drags-and-drops comments to papers online, and completes his marking more efficiently and effectively, which means quicker turnaround time for students and comments that are always readily available to review:

“Turnitin has streamlined my workflow for collection of assessment, marking and providing detailed feedback. Returning this information to students is just so easy.”

Ben was a Turnitin Global Award Winner in 2016