As a teacher I realize that it is important to grade submitted assignments and return them quickly. My goal is process all assignments within three working days.

The bar graphs represent the number of assignment sets distributed by the days they were processed. Students have submitted one up to eighteen assignments together in one set, although more typically the maximum submitted at one time are all the assignments for a chapter or section and are generally seven or less. Each vertical interval in the bar graphs represent ten assignment sets and the actual bars represent the "rounded" numbers.

The data was extracted from logs of communications with students in ADP mathematics courses I teach. "Corrections" were made for weekends but not for the occasional few days I was off-campus for a conference or break. The data does not include the months of June when I am in Wyoming for the Dinosaur Excavation Project. These times are announced and communicated to the active ADP students, and generally alternative grading using a math student is arranged so that there are no great delays even though processing assignments takes longer than normal.

The number in the 0 days interval are those that are graded and in the out-going mail the same day they are received.

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		0 days		1 day		2 days		3 days		4 days		5 days
		32.5%		39.8%		18.1%		6.0%		2.4%		1.2%

Out of a total 816 assignment sets submitted representing 2784 individual assignments (through March 2006) the average number of days was 1.06, and all but 20 were processed within the three working-day target.

Smaller assignment sets, with fewer individual assignments submitted together, generally take a shorter time to grade. The graph below gives the distribution of process time for assignment sets with three or fewer assignments submitted together.

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		0 days		1 day		2 days		3 days		4 days		5 days
		40.8%		38.8%		14.3%		4.1%		2.0%		0.0%

Out of a total 484 of these "smaller" assignment sets submitted representing 905 individual assignments (through March 2006) the average number of days was 0.87, and all but 9 were processed within the three working-day target.

There are some other factors that come into play. I will use some judgement as to which assignments to grade first to reduce delays in a student's progress. If a student is waiting on a graded and returned assignment to sit a test, I attempt to grade it immediately. If an assignment is submitted just after a test is taken and the student is not waiting on it to make more progress, then I may place it lower in the immediacy list.