Fine-Tuning Launches This Wednesday

Get excited for even more precise grading and feedback suggestions with TimelyGrader’s new fine-tuning feature, launching this Wednesday, March 26th, at 5pm PST!

Note to our API users: Assignments imported via the API integration will not have fine-tuning in this first launch. Fine-tuning compatibility with API assignments will come on April 9th. You can duplicate an API assignment to use fine-tuning.

If you missed our last email, here’s a quick summary: Fine-tuning acts as an enhanced preview, allowing you to review grading and feedback suggestions, make adjustments, and iterate on your assignment setup all before real submissions are uploaded. This ensures that when you upload your students’ submissions for grading, you’ll know exactly what to expect from TimelyGrader. 

Let’s walk through a step-by-step example to get you ready to fine-tune your assignments. 

1. Upload sample submissions

When you’ve finished creating your assignment, you will now see the “Preview and Fine-Tune” section on the right when you open it. Fine-tuning is optional, but highly recommended. Here you can upload up to three sample submissions which will be graded based on your current assignment setup. 

TG Tip: If possible, we recommend uploading a low, medium, and high-scoring sample submission so you can get the most accurate picture of what TimelyGrader’s grade/feedback suggestions will look like across different performance levels.

2. Wait for the preview to generate

Once you click “Start Processing” from the submission upload window, a preview will be generated for the sample files you’ve uploaded. This may take a couple of minutes, but you can feel free to navigate away from the page and come back - a great time to grab a cup of coffee!

TG Tip: These files will be saved so you can use them to generate a preview any time you update your assignment details. While there’s a maximum of three sample submissions, you can always delete one and replace it with an updated file.

3. Open fine-tuning and review submission grades and feedback

When files have finished processing, you’re ready to review the preview and start fine-tuning your assignment setup. When you click “Fine-Tune” the preview will open, and you’ll see a screen that looks almost exactly like the one you’ll see when you grade final submissions. Review TimelyGrader’s grade and feedback suggestions here to see if they align with your expectations. 

Note: While you can interact with the grading window in this view, it is just a preview, so grades and feedback won’t be saved when you exit.

4. Fine-tune your assignment

It can be tough to perfect your assignment setup for AI grading and feedback on the first try, but if everything looks good you can exit the preview and continue to final submission grading! Most likely, you’ll want to do a little bit of fine-tuning to make sure grade/feedback suggestions are spot on. When you click the “Fine-Tune” button, a window will open where you can edit the assignment rubric, grading instructions, and feedback instructions. 

TG Tip: When you’re fine-tuning the assignment rubric, we’ve added the ability to enhance your rubric with AI. Simply write instructions about the changes you’d like to make, and click “Enhance with AI” to generate an updated rubric. 

When you’re happy with the edits you’ve made, you can click “Regenerate Grades/Feedback” to regenerate the preview based on the updated assignment details you’ve provided. 

5. Apply or discard changes

You can repeat this process until you’re satisfied with the results. When everything is looking good, and you’re ready to move on to grading actual student submissions, click “Apply Changes,” and confirm that you want to update your assignment details permanently to reflect the changes you made during fine-tuning. 

If you don’t want to implement the changes you made during fine-tuning, simply click “Exit” and confirm that you’d like to discard changes, which will leave your assignment unchanged. 

That’s it! Once you’re happy with the results of fine-tuning, you can move on to grading student work as you usually would on TimelyGrader. 

Hopefully, this guide is enough to get you started, but if any questions arise along the way you can always reach out to our support team at [email protected]. Happy fine-tuning! 

A reminder that this feature will be available March 26th at 5pm PST.