Grade Moderation – Basic experience

Hiding Assessment marks

To hide marks and feedback from students before moderation has taken place, we would normally advise markers to use Save Draft when marking in the Assignments, Quizzes, or Discussions tools.

This is because once a marker Publishes a mark and feedback, these will normally be visible to students in the Assignments, Quizzes, or Discussions tool and in other places like Class Progress unless the assignment, quiz, or discussion is also hidden.

This applies even if the associated grade item and any grade item category to which it is attached is hidden in the grade book (My Grades).

An assignment mark can be published to My Grades without releasing the mark and feedback to students. See Hide marks on publication under Finalise assignments. Using this method, markers can publish marks and feedback to My Grades after the assignment has been marked. Marks can be released to students later after moderation is complete.

Restricting the publication of marks

Alternatively, you can restrict who can publish marks and feedback to students in an assignment. This allows you to make sure that markers do not publish marks and feedback and make them visible to students before moderation is complete. See Add markers and publishers under Finalise assignments.

Quizzes and discussion forums

It is not currently possible to publish marks to My Grades from a quiz or discussion without releasing the marks and feedback to students, unless the quiz or discussion is also hidden.  In a quiz or discussion, you cannot change who can publish marks or feedback.

Accordingly, markers must be instructed to use Save Draft if a quiz or discussion will remain visible to students, and you do not wish marks and feedback to be released to students prior to moderation.

A disclaimer stating that marks are not final until approved by Faculty Assessment Committee appears to students in My Grades.

If you wish to, you can create a text field in My Grades to record comments during the moderation process.

Follow these steps:

1. In the site homepage, click the My Subject expanding menu in the subject navigation bar.

   

2. Click My Grades. When you first open My Grades, the Enter Grades tab will be open.
3. Open the Manage Grades tab and click New. In the drop-down menu that appears, click Item.

   

4. In the Choose Grade Item Type screen, select Text.
5. Give the new item a name (e.g. “Moderation Comments”). If you like, you can also add a short name (e.g. “Mod”).
6. Under Category, ensure None is selected.
7. Click on the Restrictions tab and click Hide from users. Apply a release condition for a cohort/section enrolment if required.
8. Click Save and Close.

A text field will now appear in My Grades and will be hidden from students.

When viewing draft marks and feedback in the Assignments, Quizzes, or Discussions tools, you can have My Grades open in a different tab and add any comments as you carry out moderation.

To view grade statistics for a grade item (assessment) in Brightspace, go to the subject, select My Subject>My Grades and select Manage Grades.

Click on the drop-down box next to the grade item you want to see grade statistics and select View Statistics.

On this page you can access grade statistics at a class level (Class Statistics) and at the individual level (User Statistics). The grade distribution page provides statistical insights into grades, including minimum, maximum, and average scores.

You can analyse grade distribution at both a class level (Class Statistics) and at the individual level (User Statistics), and this can be filtered by section or group.

You can also use filters to focus on specific grade ranges in student marks. Click on User Statistics and select Show Search Options.

Click the Score check box and select the assessment grade item you wish to analyse from the Drop-down menu.

Once you have selected the Assessment Grade item, score conditions become available. The options include: >=, <=, <, >, or = of a particular score. Enter the score conditions, click into the Search For… field and hit Enter. The list will be filtered to display the score range you specified.

Amending draft assignment marks

1. Navigate to the Assignments tool by clicking on the Assessment menu in the subject navigation bar and click Assignments.
2. Click on the name of the assessment you wish to amend the grades for.
   

   

3. Student submissions will be located underneath their name. Click on the submission file and it will open in the Assignments evaluation screen.

   

4. Make the desired changes to the mark or feedback on the right-hand side of the evaluation screen.

   

5. Click Save Draft. The mark or feedback will be updated.

For more information about marking assignments, visit Mark Assignments.

Amending Quiz marks

1. Navigate to the Quizzes tool by clicking on the Assessment menu in the subject navigation bar and click Quizzes & Exams
2. Click on the drop-down menu next to the name of the quiz you want to mark and select the Grade option.

   

3. Make the desired amendments to the quiz marks.

For more information about marking quizzes, access Mark Quizzes.

Amending marks for discussions

1. To amend student submission marks for discussions, select Communication>Discussions from the subject navigation bar.
2. Click the drop-down arrow next to the topic title and select Assess Topic.

Amending the Overall Grade

1. On the site homepage, click the My Subject expanding menu in the subject navigation bar.
2. Click My Grades.
3. Click Switch to Spreadsheet View.
4. Find the student whose grade you wish to amend.  Enter the amended grade in the Final Adjusted Grade column.
5. Click Save.

The amended grade will be recorded.

Amended grades can be entered in bulk. See Manually enter marks directly into My Grades under Set up My Grades.