Drexel is the first university to license a new software tool that helps instructors grade student writing and tracks students’ writing progress during their college careers.

The College of Arts and Sciences, in partnership with the Richard C. Goodwin College of Professional Studies, has licensed SubMet’s waypoint Assessment and Evaluation software. waypoint, which was developed by Drexel English and philosophy faculty members Andrew McCann and Scott Warnock, helps instructors streamline their assessment process-a process that can be time-consuming, especially for instructors who must look at hundreds of papers each semester while providing students with detailed, personalized comments.

waypoint was tested extensively in both the University Writing Program and the Drexel Engineering Curriculum’s (tDec) humanities curriculum during the 2003-04 academic year. After evaluating student work using waypoint, the tDec humanities team was able to quantitatively assess the progress of first-year engineers against Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria.

According to Dr. Valarie Arms, director of freshman writing, “waypoint brings a consistency to our response to student writing that is not possible using any other method.” Ken Bingham, who teaches in the tDec humanities program, added, “My grading time has been cut down by more than half and my students are actually thanking me for the in-depth commentary.”

For more information, visit www.gowaypoint.com. Drexel faculty interested in using waypoint should contact McCann at mccann@ drexel.edu.