Articulate Rise: Grading Mastery Workshop for College TA

Online training for Teaching Assistants (TAs) for a college level course on how to grade written assignments.

Developed for: Braven

Audience: Teaching Assistants supporting Braven’s college-level courses, primarily upper-level undergraduates.

Time in Development: 4 days

Tool: Articulate Rise and Canva

Background

Braven is a nonprofit that equips underrepresented college students with career-accelerating skills through a for-credit course offered at partner universities. Since the Accelerator course carries academic credit, Teaching Assistants (TAs) must grade assignments with accuracy, empathy, and consistency. Many assignments ask Fellows (students) to articulate career goals, making the quality of TA feedback especially important.

Project Goals

• Graders correctly grade Fellows' projects according to the rubric.

• Graders describe policies related to project submission.

My Role

I designed and developed Braven’s Grader Norming Workshop, an e-learning experience that prepares TAs to evaluate student work fairly and provide supportive feedback. To balance efficiency and depth, I created a flipped learning model:

• 80% asynchronous: Interactive practice-heavy modules in Articulate Rise, designed to push learners toward Bloom’s evaluation level through real grading scenarios.

• 20% live session: Facilitated by Braven managers, reinforcing mastery with applied discussions.

The biggest challenge was building evaluation skills, which is Bloom’s highest cognitive level, primarily through online training. I addressed this by designing hands-on exercises where TAs practiced grading real examples, compared results to rubric standards, and received guided feedback.

This approach resulted in one of my most interactive and applied e-learning designs, balancing academic rigor with the empathy required for student success.

To start, I introduced the projects that the graders have to grade so that they can familiarize themselves with:

Then, I introduced TAs to their main tool—the rubric. Right after the rubric overview, they reviewed sample Fellow submissions. Using interactive pop-up boxes, I explained why each submission earned its score across the criteria.

Example 1 (strong submission) mapped onto the rubric

Example 2 (weak submission) mapped onto the rubric.

From there, TAs immediately practiced grading on their own. This activity prepared them for the live norming session with a Braven manager, where they confirmed alignment on rubric use and feedback standards. By the end of the full workshop, TAs were expected to demonstrate mastery in both grading accuracy and constructive feedback.

I closed the e-learning with a mastery quiz focused on correct rubric application, reinforcing consistency across graders.

This project was particularly challenging due to the short four-day development timeline and the complexity of training evaluative judgment through e-learning. Despite these constraints, I delivered an engaging, practice-driven workshop that balanced rigor with empathy.

Takeaway: This project shows how I translate complex academic requirements into a scalable, interactive training under tight timelines, while supporting learners in building confidence and consistency in their roles.