Item-based marking is an advanced marking workflow available within FLOWmulti, where assessors can be assigned to mark individual items of a paper instead of the full submission for each student. This opens up the possibility of more flexible marking strategies, such as:
- Allowing assessors to mark across submissions (e.g. all of question 1, then all of question 2) rather than the traditional linear approach where complete papers are marked in turn.
- Appointing assessors with different specialisms to assess different parts of the paper.
- Using a mixture of auto-scored and manually-assessed questions in a test, such as a mixture of multiple-choice and short answer questions.
There is more information for managers about how to set up item-based marking here.
Upon opening the marking tool in a flow with item-based marking enabled, the main difference to observe is that you might not see the entire submission, rather just the items of the paper to which you have been allocated (and those may vary by student depending on the configuration of the flow). Scoring and feedback can be added for each item using the green plus symbol at the top of each item (further detail on working with annotations is available here)
It is also possible to move backwards and forwards to the same item for the next submission using the arrows at the bottom of the item:
Registering and Submitting Scores
Once the marking has been completed it is necessary to submit and register the marks and feedback you have provided. This process differs slightly from that detailed in the reaching a final grading outcome article because, rather than arriving at a final grade for the submission, in the case of item-based marking the assessor is submitting marks that will be separately aggregated in order to reach a final grade.
To submit marks, navigate to the right-hand student menu in the marking tool. It is possible to submit one by one and also in bulk. For the former approach, select the burger menu and then Submit score for this participant, as shown below:
Alternatively, to submit scores in bulk, click the Go to submission of grades button to reach the marking overview page.
Working with Co-Assessors Using Item-based Marking
As with the standard marking workflows, it is also possible to configure assessor groups for collaboration or double-marking of individual items using item-based marking. If marker agreement is enabled, assessors will be required to converge on an agreed mark for the item before it can be submitted. For further information on assessor collaboration please see the article on marker agreement vs. reviewer approval.
Where a conflict is identified, assessors will be made aware of this on the marking overview.
When the mark is not equal to the mark submitted by the co-assessor(s), assessors will see the message below and will need to confer with their co-assessor to reach an agreed mark and submit it again.
