EdTechTeam has ended development and support for Checkmark, and it has been removed from the Chrome Web Store. The extension remains functional for existing users on an ‘as is’ basis for a limited time.
Like many English teachers, I’ve spent hours grading essays. CheckMark
It started on paper, with writing in any available space. Days and sometimes weeks later came the aftermath: “Hey Ms. Pero, what’s this say?” or the sound of paper crinkling as it’s shoved into a backpack without a second glance.
I needed to speed up, so I made a list of shortcuts to make the grading faster. Letters stood for different things so that my students could interpret my shorthand. Grading got faster, and papers were returned more quickly. A win, win.
But now students needed a key to sift through the jumble of letters. And it returned. “Hey, Ms. Pero, what does this mean?” or the sound of a laptop closing on the document without a second glance.
The thought of being back to square one was frustrating, and I went in search of a way to give fast, solid, easily accessible, usable feedback. I found a few plugins and add-ons that allowed me to save my comments in full text and attach them to digital papers, but there were a lot of steps and drop-down boxes. Then a colleague of mine Tweeted about the CheckMark extension by EdTechTeam, and I decided to check it out.
It was love at first sight. Once the plug-in is loaded, a keyboard pops up on screen with a set of pre-loaded comments. Click the letter “F” and the words “Check for fragment” comes up in a comment on the document. This was my system without the need for a key! Upon closer inspection, I saw a little pencil in the menu. Low and behold, the keyboard is customizable. I immediately personalized all of the comments. The end result: I see the shortcuts but the full comments appear for the students. I can even still add my individual comments when I need to. And to top it all off, the CheckMark extension synced to all of my devices logged into Chrome so I only had to customize it once!
With the CheckMark extension, I’m evaluating papers much faster than I ever have before. My students are now getting usable feedback they don’t have to interpret. I am getting back revisions that help me evaluate student progress and gives my students much more input to become that much more successful.
Melissa-Ann Pero is a high school English teacher and yearbook advisor currently working on her Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction. She has been a presenter at various district, area, and state conferences in Pennsylvania. She is a Google Level 1 Educator, an Apple Certified Teacher, a Keystone Technology Innovator, and a bit of an EdTech junkie. She’s always looking grow her PLC so please follow her on Twitter @bshsmspero.
CheckMark by EdTechTeam
Quick and easy feedback on student writing in Google Docs.
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Chris says
Thanks for the imformative article. Do you know of a way to import a comment list into Checkmark? I already have a huge list of pre-made comments that I use a C1, C2, C3, etc., for on my students’ essays. It would be great to have that in CheckMark. I just don’t relish typing in 44 comments.
Marcie Hanson says
My beloved Check Mark has disappeared! Do you know of a free alternative?
kevin says
it seems edtech has deactivated downloads for checkmark. do you know any waY I could get this app? thanks
Meg says
Why is CheckMark no longer supported? Is there another app that operates the same way?
Jenna says
I’m so upset that Check Mark is no longer in existence. I used it ALL the time last year and it made my life of being an English teacher with over 100 writing assignments to grade at once so much easier. There is nothing out there like it. Will it be brought back any time? I am an existing user, and it is not working for me like your note says.
Mark Pennington says
CheckMark was a great improvement over other comment insert programs; however, the e-Comments Chrome Extension is easier to use and far more functional. Add audio and video comments, saved in separate folders so as not to clutter up Google Drive. Get hundreds of canned comments, all customizable, and switch among four comment levels.
The e-Comments app:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/e-comments/dccccbckfnndplihkaeiekggmeicbhgj/
Morgan McKinnon says
I miss this extension so much, it was amazing – so functional and helpful! I tried e-Comments, and for high school it was completely overwhelming, there was way too much! The comments were also so huge, no student would read all that. Please bring the checkmark extension back!