grading student reports-need comment tool

[murphey]

I require my students to submit either word or pdf documents. I don't want to print them out, then make comments in pen, then return a hardcopy to the students. Anyone know of some way to handwrite/circle wrong stuff/whatever on a word or pdf doc? I really miss the original Mac applications such as MacDraw and MacPaint. Of course I also miss Radio Shack, too.

 

[flyingron]

Yep. Both Word and Acrobat have the ability to place sticky notes on the top of documents. In Acrobat it's called "Comment" in the right hand tool box. In Word, go to the Review tab on the ribbon bar and click New comment.

 

[wsuffa]

What Ron said. With Word, use the markup tool. In PDF, use the comment tool.

There is at least one online file repository system (box dot com) that will let you do it directly in the files that the students submit & store there. Used that system/tool for the last entrepreneur class I worked with and it worked great.

 

[Rushie]

We use the pdf comment tool, I guess IT got some pro version of Adobe. The basic reader doesn’t have it. I hate the thing (get off my lawn!) but you get used to it. It was so much easier to hand mark stuff. But then you have to print a hard copy, mark up, rescan in and that was worse, especially remotely when I had to email my document to my home machine then email back to myself on the office machine, before we got the integrated VPN that can print directly from the office machine to my desk at home.

You have to figure out how to draw the circle or arrows, how to change their color and thickness and so on, it’s a learning curve, still a PITA compared to manually hand marking but I guess that’s what we have to do now. Technology making our lives “easier”.

 

[RussR]

I use the Comment tools in Acrobat all the time at work. It works great for exactly the purpose you have in mind. I do think it takes the full (pay) version of Acrobat, though, not just the free Reader.

 

[kgruber]

You can open a .docx file in LibreOffice (free) and make comments and save. Might not be as advanced as you need.

 

[Rushie]

I use the Comment tools in Acrobat all the time at work. It works great for exactly the purpose you have in mind. I do think it takes the full (pay) version of Acrobat, though, not just the free Reader.

Yes but what I do love about it is you can merge documents. And you can rearrange pages. You can’t do any of that with the free version either.

 

[dmspilot]

Mac Preview?

 

[455 Bravo Uniform]

If you have an iPad you could use mark-up on images.