e-Marking Essentials - Blackboard Help for Staff



If you have any queries in relation to this information, please submit your query via the IT Self-Service Portal to ensure it is dealt with promptly.

Are you marking coursework and returning feedback to your students online?

This information will be helpful to academic and administrative staff who are involved in e-marking (e-grading and e-feedback).

It covers essential advice on what to do and be aware of.

Topics covered

Preparing to mark online
Marking assignments
Moderation
Releasing feedback and marks to students

It includes advice on both the Blackboard Assignment and Turnitin tools.

1. Preparing to mark online

Advice

Support and resources

Make sure you know how the assignment is going to be marked and how the feedback should be returned.

Make sure you know how moderation is going to take place, as some workflows may require first markers to record specific information on the papers they mark.

Contact the Module Convenor well in advance of the assessment deadline if you are unsure.

Internal Moderation of a Blackboard Assignment

Internal Moderation of a Turnitin Assignment

Check that your Internet browser is up-to-date.

Recommended browsers: Chrome or Firefox
Internet Explorer should not be used

Blackboard browser advice

Turnitin system requirements

Familiarise yourself with the online support guides for e-marking, using either:

Turnitin – GradeMark
Blackboard Assignment – Inline Grading

Guides are available under EMA Help guides

Assignments with multiple markers:

Blackboard Assignment:
Check how work is being assigned to each marker.
N.B. We advise against use of the Delegated marking feature, as this often has unfortunate unintended consequences.
Turnitin Assignment:
Check if the ‘Turnitin Assignment by Group’ option is being used to allocate assignments to markers. You will need to access assignments using this feature if it is.

Contact the person who is overseeing the marking if you are unsure.

Using Turnitin Assignments by Group

Put the coffee on!

Or tea if you prefer 🙂

2. Marking assignments

Blackboard Assignment tool

Advice	Support and resources
If you are attaching a rubric to help assess submissions, be aware that the rubric applies to all students. As such, once a rubric is attached and has been used to mark a paper, do not detach the rubric as this will result in a loss of data for all marked papers.	Create a Rubric Attach a rubric Mark using a Rubric
If you are using a ‘No Points’ Rubric (non-scoring), make sure you complete the rubric before entering a mark to grade the assignment.	Known Issue: Saving the ‘No Points’ rubric resets the grade to ‘0’ and means you will need to re-enter the mark. Workaround: Complete the rubric first before entering your mark and make a note of the mark if you need to subsequently edit the rubric.
Use the ‘Save Draft’ button when marking an assignment, if you want to keep the assignment listed in ‘Needs Marking’. This will let you easily find it again to continue editing the mark or comments. Remember to click ‘Submit’ once marking has been completed on that paper.	When should I use ‘Save Draft’ when marking?
The Blackboard marking session for an assignment expires after one hour, so remember to save your feedback and comments before the session times-out.	Marking a Blackboard assignment online using Blackboard’s in-built tool (Inline Grading)
Do not use the Grade Centre’s Quick Comments feature. Any feedback should be left on the submission itself and not entered in the Quick Comments field in the Grade Centre.
Anonymous marking in Blackboard
Anonymous marking in Blackboard is not currently recommended, due to the complexity of workarounds required.	Internal Moderation of a Blackboard Assignment
Make sure you only grade the last attempt a student has made. If the assignment submission has been set-up to allow multiple attempts, always access the work via Needs Marking. This ensures that you are only presented with the final submission for each student. When you have an assignment open, you can see if there are other attempts by the same student in the right-hand Grading panel.	How to mark anonymously using Blackboard assignments
If staff want to see the marks given for the assignment in the Grade Centre column after marking is completed but before the 15 day turnaround has been reached, then it is possible to lift anonymity without affecting the release of marks to students.	See how to disable anonymous marking in the Blackboard Assignment How to mark anonymously guide.
If you need to mark anonymously and this has not been set up on your assignment (and students have already submitted their assignments), you can mark work using the ‘Grade with Usernames Hidden’ option in the Grade Centre as a workaround.	Marking with Usernames Hidden
If you want to download anonymous assignments to mark offline, you will need to: Record the attempt ID on the downloaded printed file, Record the attempt ID in the Grading Notes for the online assignment. Complete the marking process before anonymity is lifted if you intend to provide feedback online. These actions are required as the attempt ID is removed when anonymity is lifted.
If marking and the return of feedback is paper-based, you can choose to remove the ‘mark anonymously’ setting for the assignment.	Check with the Module Convener or SDTL before changing anonymous marking settings.

Turnitin Assignment

Advice	Support and resources
Always edit the mark for an assignment in the Turnitin document viewer (Feedback Studio). Marks are sent from Turnitin to the Blackboard Grade Centre, but cannot be sent in the opposite direction. If a mark for an assignment is changed in the Grade Centre this will not change the mark shown on the paper in Turnitin.
We recommend accessing assignments from the Turnitin Inbox. Go to your module Control Panel > Course Tools > Turnitin Assignments > click on the title of the assignment. Click the ‘Roster Sync’ link if you don’t see all of your students listed in the Turnitin Inbox.	Access and view Turnitin Assignments Use Roster Sync to show all of the students in a Turnitin assignment
Do not have the same student’s assignment open in different browsers or computers (or iPad app) at the same time. This can result in Turnitin behaving unexpectedly and the loss of any feedback entered.
The Feedback Studio will time-out after 3 hours of inactivity. ‘Inactivity’ means not pressing on any buttons within the document viewer. Note: Scrolling up and down to read an assignment is not detected as ‘activity’. More details on Turnitin session expiry	Unless the session has timed out, feedback, comments and marks are automatically saved as they are entered. This includes: Rubrics & Grading Forms Comments and Quick Marks placed directly on to the paper Feedback entered in the Feedback Summary box
If you are attaching a rubric to help assess submissions, be aware that the rubric applies to all students. As such, once a rubric is attached and has been used to mark a paper, do not detach the rubric as this will result in a loss of data for all marked papers.	Turnitin rubrics
If you cannot see the marks for a Turnitin assignment in the Grade Centre: Anonymous assignments: Marks are not sent to the Grade Centre until the Post Date is reached. Use the ‘Sync Grades’ link to push marks into the Grade Centre if they have not yet been synchronised.	Use ‘Sync Grades’ to push marks into the Grade Centre
Anonymous marking in Turnitin Check the requirements and limitations when marking anonymously in Turnitin.	Anonymous marking in Turnitin

3. Internal Moderation

There are no in-built facilities to moderate online within the Blackboard Assignment and Turnitin tools. Aspects of the moderation process will need to take place outside of these systems.

Blackboard Assignment tool

Advice

Support and resources

Internal moderation processes will be different depending on if you moderate inside or outside of the 15 day turnaround time and if the assignment is marked anonymously.

You can see the options and guidance available for the different scenarios at:

Internal moderation for Blackboard Assignments

Turnitin Assignment

Advice

Support and resources

Internal moderation processes will be different depending on if you moderate inside or outside of the 15 day turnaround time and if the assignment is marked anonymously.

You can see the options and guidance available for the different scenarios at:

Internal moderation for Turnitin Assignments

Do not have the same individual student’s assignment open in different browsers or computers (or iPad app) at the same time. This can result in Turnitin behaving unexpectedly and the loss of any feedback entered.

4. Releasing feedback and marks to students

This is normally managed by the Programme Administration team.

Blackboard Assignment tool

Advice

Support and resources

You will need to manually un-hide the column in the Grade Centre to make the feedback available to students. Make sure the ‘My Grades’ link is listed in the left-hand menu of your module to allow students to access their feedback.

Hiding and revealing a Grade Centre column to students

How to add ‘My Grades’ to your course menu

How students can access their marks and feedback

Turnitin Assignment

Advice

Support and resources

Feedback and marks will automatically become available to students when the Post Date is reached.

Students can return to the Turnitin submission point and click the ‘View/Complete’ link to access their feedback.

The column for the assignment in the Grade Centre is also automatically un-hidden if ‘Yes’ was selected for ‘Reveal Grades to students only on post date’ during set up. This makes the feedback available for students from ‘My Grades’.