Annotations are an important part of the marking and feedback process in WISEFlow, allowing assessors to provide focused feedback linked to specific locations in a piece of submitted work.
The new marking tool supports annotations on multiple file formats including PDF, JPG, PNG, PPT and can therefore be used for FLOWassign (including appendices) and, FLOWhandin. It works in a very similar way for FLOWlock and FLOWmulti meaning there is a variety of annotation options available for these types of flow.
Inline annotations can be added be added to submissions in FLOWassign, FLOWhandin, FLOWlock and FLOWmulti. In these flows you are presented with the selected submission and can add annotations using the tools listed below.
In FLOWmulti, there are two views: View and Annotate. In the View tab, you are presented with each item of the assignment in turn to which you have been allocated (item-based marking). Remember: you may not have been allocated to a whole assignment but only individual items(s). If you have been allocated to the whole assignment, you can add inline annotations to any of these items, even if they have been auto-scored. To add an annotation, select Annotate (a PDF version of the assignment); you can then use any of the tools listed below.
To access any interactive elements of the submission, such as an MP4 video or hyperlink, this must be done via the View tab. It is not possible to do this using the Annotate tab as this is essentially a non-interactive PDF.
The new marking tool offers three different inline annotation options: an annotate tool, a shape tool and an insert tool.
Click Annotate, and choose from the tools available: highlight, underline, strikeout, squiggly underline, note or a text box. Select the area of text you wish to draw attention to and the desired colour. Once the tool and the text has been selected, an annotation box will appear in the right-hand window where you can add your comment. By using the icon to select text first, you can also choose to copy the text or link to a URL. Additional functions include undo, redo and erase.
Click Shapes and choose from the shapes available (see screenshot below) including a free hand tool. Once the chosen shape has been inserted, (and a preferred colour chosen, if applicable), an annotation box will appear in the right-hand window where you can add your comment. By using the icon to select text first, you can also choose to copy the text or link to a URL. Additional functions include undo, redo and erase.
Click Insert and choose to insert a signature, a rubber stamp or today's date. Once the chosen tool has been inserted, (and a preferred colour chosen, if applicable), an annotation box will appear in the right-hand window where you can add your comment. By using the icon to select text first, you can also choose to copy the text or link to a URL. Additional functions include undo, redo and erase.
The Annotation Editor Window
Within each new annotation window, comments can be added via the text box. Click on the coloured box in the top right corner to change with whom the comment is to be shared: participant, co-assessor, private or all. Then click Save.
Once saved, the icon can be used to edit or delete the annotation.
At the top of the annotations window there is a search box that allows you to search the annotations for text. It is also possible to sort the annotations by position, created date, modified date, sharing state, author, type or colour.
The icon can be used to filter the annotations using any of the annotations' attributes, such as author, sharing state, annotation type or colour.
The icon can be used select multiple annotations in order to perform bulk actions: (1) update the sharing status, (2) update the format or (3) delete the selected annotations.
Sharing Individual Annotations
There are four possible options for sharing annotations:
- Private: Comments and annotations are visible only to the assessor (This is unless a reviewer has been given the privilege to access all assessment information which includes all comments made by an assessor, even if they are set to private).
- Share with participant: Comments and annotations are visible to the assessor and the participant (upon the release of grades and feedback) only.
- Share with co-assessor: Comments and annotations are visible to the assessor and any co-assessors that are also assigned to the same participant.
- Share with all: Comments and annotations are available to the assessor, and co-assessors that are also assigned to the same participant and the participant (upon the release of grades and feedback).
These options can be configured per annotation in order to offer maximum flexibility to assessors. To change the setting on a single annotation, click on the coloured box in the top right corner to change with whom the comment is to be shared: participant, co-assessor, private or all.
The default WISEflow behaviour is that comments are private unless the assessor decides to share them. However, it is possible to configure this at an individual licence level or at the flow level to make the default behaviour be any of the four listed options. For example, if the default behaviour is that annotations are shared with all, assessors would need to deselect the groups with whom they did not want to share the annotation. Please see the article on Licence Settings (licence level) or Managing Assessors, Reviewers and Marking Settings (flow level) for more information.