Grading assessment is the fourth step of the assessment cycle, and relies on the answer key or assessment form/rubric you already made while constructing your assessment.  

Answer keys for closed- and open-ended questions

For open-ended questions, the answer key is more elaborate and serves in part to limit differences between scorers. It’s also useful for when students come in to view their exam, to explain how their grade was calculated. An answer key includes sample answers, but also explains how the points are allotted for each question. Scorers must be informed how to deal with answers that are partially correct, or answers that are not in the key. The answer key can be updated during the grading process if it turns out that other answers are also possible. In this case, work that has already been graded must be checked again using the updated answer key. For students, the answer key should help them understand how their grade was reached. 

To grade oral or writing skills (report, presentation) or projects, use an assessment form or rubric rather than an answer key. It’s helpful to share assessment criteria with students beforehand. There are several different types of assessment forms. The minimum level of detail includes the criteria and grading scale. You can also specify the weighting of the criteria in the final grade. 

Grading skills

Rubrics for essays, papers, and longer open-ended questions

To grade longer open-ended questions, essays and papers, you can also use a rubric. A rubric is a table you can use to keep your grading objective, consistent and transparent. There are several different kinds of rubrics. A holistic rubric includes one descriptor for each performance level (for instance: good, sufficient and insufficient). An analytic rubric goes further and splits the assessment into several criteria (such as content, structure and language), with a descriptor for each performance level. In addition, you can include how many points can be earned per level.  A single-point rubric only describes the pass mark for each criteria, leaving room to the left and right of the middle column to give students feedback on how they performed below or above expectations.

Go through your rubric with all markers beforehand, to limit scoring differences. You can also organize a so-called calibration session, where you use the rubric to score the first few assignments together, to make sure you are all filling it in consistently. Visit this page for more information, examples and instructions on how to write a rubric.

Plagiarism and fraud  

Plagiarism and fraud are a serious breach of academic integrity. Students can be penalized for this in various ways, ranging from suspension from the course to – in extreme cases – suspension from the programme. It’s good to keep in mind that plagiarism and fraud are not always intentional. Students should be clearly informed of the rules concerning plagiarism and fraud for the course, assignment or exam in question, and why it’s so important to follow these. 

If you suspect a student of plagiarism or cheating, please report it to your faculty’s Examinations Board. Don’t come up with your own solution or penalty: students are entitled to equal treatment. The Examinations Board is tasked with ensuring that cases of plagiarism and fraud are dealt with fairly and consistently. For more information, please see the Regulations Governing Fraud and Plagiarism for UvA students. 

Tips for grading and feedback

Tips for effective, efficient and reliable grading

Use a rubric or assessment form and discuss how you will use it beforehand with the rest of the grading team. 
Grade anonymously (no name; only student number). 
Grade per question rather than by exam. If you’re grading in a team, you can divide the questions between you to ensure consistency. 
Shuffle the order of exam papers from time to time while grading.

Don’t leave (extensive) feedback on a final exam, as student’s won’t be able to use it to improve their performance anymore. Grades are also feedback! 
Determine how much time you will spend grading each question or exam beforehand, and use a timer. 
Don’t put off grading and leave yourself enough time, but don’t grade for too long in one sitting. Grading is intensive, high-concentration work. Take regular breaks.

Tips for providing efficient feedback

Decide how much time you can spend grading each assignment and use a timer.  
Use a rubric or checklist to give students general feedback. 
Give in-class feedback on common issues to the whole group. 
Give oral rather than written feedback. You can audio-record your feedback using Speedgrader in Canvas. 
Make a sheet with error codes and use these in your feedback. You can also copy frequent comments to reuse. 
Focus on max. three main issues in a longer comment at the end of the assignment for each student. If you give lots of detailed feedback in the text itself, students will not take it all in. 
Read the whole assignment before you leave feedback: this way you can avoid getting lost in the details and focus on the quality of the assignment as a whole instead.

To learn more about how to give effective and efficient feedback, you can follow our e-learning module.

Frequently Asked Questions

I have to grade exams with open-ended questions. Should I grade per exam or per question?

One advantage of grading per question is that you can easily compare different answers. This also helps you see if there is anything missing or confusing in the answer key. While grading, you will likely come across things that you will score more strictly or leniently as you go along. In these cases it’s good to go back over the first answers you looked at and adjust your scoring if necessary. 

If you are working with several scorers, it can help to divide up the grading per question, so that students aren’t disadvantaged by grading differences. If each question is scored by only one person, the overall grades are more consistent. 

A student who did very well during the course performed poorly on the exam. Or: a student who did very little during the course performed very well on the exam. What could be behind this?

There could be several reasons for this. Some students are stronger in written assignments than in exams, or students might suffer from exam stress. Other students are better at exams, or they might have put in a lot of effort for the exam despite not having worked hard during the course. It’s important not to let this sort of thing influence your assessment. That’s why it you might consider grading anonymously to avoid this kind of problem. If you think a student has plagiarized or cheated, contact your faculty’s Examinations Board.

I suspect some students of cheating. What should I do?

If you suspect a case of fraud or plagiarism, please immediately inform the student and, at the same time, notify the Examinations Board in writing, submitting any texts and findings.

One of my students gave an answer that is not in the answer key, but it is actually a correct answer. What should I do?

In that case, the student did answer the question correctly, so you should mark it as correct. Update the answer key accordingly, and if there are other scorers, make sure you inform them. It might be the case that the answer given was not mentioned in the course material. But if the question doesn’t explicitly ask for information from the course material, you must mark the answer as correct. If you’re still uncertain, you can ask the student to explain their answer (how did you reach this answer? Can you explain what you wrote here?).

Some students make a lot of language errors (in Dutch or English). Can I factor this into the final grade?

You can only do this if language is an explicit part of the rubric or assessment form. In other words: you can’t deduct points for language errors unless language is part of the course learning outcomes and assessment criteria. In that case, you can mark the answer as (partially) incorrect. It’s important to discuss this kind of concern in your team to ensure grade consistency.

Designing		How do I choose a form of assessment that accurately measures my learning outcomes?
Constructing		How do I construct effective questions and assignments?
*The previous step: Administering*		What should I keep in mind while administering an exam?
Grading		How can make sure my grading is efficient and reliable?
The next step: Analyzing		How do I evaluate and improve assessment quality after the fact?
Reporting		What should I keep in mind when returning grades and feedback?
Evaluating		How do I improve my assessment next year?