This comes from a high school teacher so the situation is a little
different than college. I did spend one year at college and I think
this approach would work in a college setting also.
When I first started teaching I'd spend 20 to 30 hours correcting a set
of homework and almost burned myself out. Now I still assign the same
amount of homework. I provide the answers (not the solution, not the
"work" but only the answers) for each of the problems. On the appointed
due day (about twice a week) I give a "homework quiz" where I select 2
or 3 of the questions, the students provide the solutions on a clean
paper, the students may use their notes or their book but not each other
on these quizzes and they only have about 15 minutes (depending on the
problem difficulty) to complete the quiz. They must show their "work"
for credit, the correct answer counts zero.
Doing things this way provides a number of benefits.
• Students can tell immediately if they are solving problems
correctly because they have the answers to check.
• Students who do their work should score 100% on the homework
quizzes because they can copy their solved problems.
• I only have to grade 2 or 3 problems instead of 20 or 30 so I can
provide more meaningful feedback.
• Students get to keep all of their problems together to use as a
study guide for the test.
• Students who are good at the problem solving and "get it" after
only a couple don't have to do all the problems and can still get full
credit.
• The students have to "do" the problem again, good review.
• When parents ask about the poor grades I can can show them poor
homework scores (it has never failed me) and tell them that the only
reason the homework score could be so low is that the student is not
doing the homework because I provide all the answers. The problems of
me being too tough immediately change to why didn't Johnny get his
homework done.