Consider this a follow up to my previous post: Piloting Google Docs for essay grading. 

In my upper level creative nonfiction course, each peer review group has the option of exchanging drafts via Google Docs or traditional hard copies.  I created a quick guide for those reviewing online:  Commenting on a shared item in Google Docs.  Feel free to use or change. 

First, some background:

I've been collecting and commenting on student essays using Microsoft Word for a few years now.  I like several things about this process:

1. Paperless-
I don't have to keep track of as many papers.  I don't have to worry about unstapled essays handed in with bizarre folds and tears to keep them together.  It's environmentally friendly.  It eliminates the "my printer ran out of ink" excuse.  

2. Introduces students to new tech features-
though commenting in Word is by no means cutting edge, neither is it very familiar to most students.  To the extent it enhances my pedagogical goals, I believe that I should be nudging students forward in their comfort and familiarity with tech tools. 

The most significant reason I have found not to collect and comment on papers in Word is that the whole process takes longer than the old fashioned way.  There are many steps in the process (I'm working without a course management system):

1. Students email me their files.  (Inevitably, there are a few students who send file types other than .rtf, .doc, or .docx.)
2. I download each file into a folder on my computer.
3. To grade, I open a file and immediately save it as "student'sfilename w comments.docx".
4. I read, insert comments by highlighting text and selecting the Comment feature, then type an endnote. 
5. I then save the file as .pdf.  This is the file I email back to the student.  (I might be a little paranoid to do this, but this way I know that the student cannot fiddle with my comments or notes and print off an altered document.) 
6. I send an email back to each student with the .pdf as an attachment. 

Using Google Docs instead

Google Docs has a word processing application that is a stripped-down version of Word.  It includes all the features that a college essay writer needs.  (ProfHacker explains it better than I ever could.)  After gaining hope that Google Docs might streamline the commenting and sharing process, I adopted it this term for all my classes.  So far, so good.  The commenting feature is very similar to Word.  The advantage is that the document sharing is live-- once I comment on a paper, the student can see those comments.  There's no need for me to email each file back to each student.  I still take one step to guard against potential dishonest students-- I take a screenshot of my end comment (including the grade) for each essay.  I save those in one Word document on my computer.  This is just in case a student attempts to alter my comment then argue with my about the grade.  (I've never actually run into this problem, but I'm a little paranoid, so this step puts me at ease). 

I created a document to guide students through the file sharing process.  Feel free to use it if it's helpful for you:  sharing files using google docs (shared as a Google Document, of course).