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