Marking - Double & Blind
Detailed instructions on setting up and managing the double and blind marking process for exams on Synap
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Detailed instructions on setting up and managing the double and blind marking process for exams on Synap
Last updated
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With Synap's Double and Blind Marking features you can deliver exams that adhere to required marking processes, and streamline marking to one place. This feature is available on Pro or higher plans, allows exam creators to establish detailed marking rules and processes at the exam level, fully supporting both double and configurable double-blind marking approaches. When double marking is enabled, each attempt must be evaluated by provisional markers at least the minimum number of times specified. This ensures that multiple perspectives are considered before final marks are assigned.
To enable go to any exam and find the marking page.
👯♀️ Double marking = refers to the process where an exam attempt is evaluated multiple times by different markers before finalisation. This process ensures that multiple perspectives are considered, enhancing the accuracy and fairness of the assessment. On Synap enabling double marking introduces the role of the provisional marker to an exam
🕶 Blind marking = is designed to preserve the anonymity and integrity of the marking process, ensuring unbiased evaluations. On Synap there are two configurable options for blind marking:
🥷 Candidate Concealment: This feature hides the identity of the candidate from the marker. It can be enabled for both provisional and moderating markers, ensuring that marks are assigned based purely on the content of the responses, without any influence from the candidate’s identity.
🧍♂️Marker Isolation: This feature prevents provisional markers from seeing each other’s marks and comments. This ensures that each provisional marker’s assessment is independent, which is crucial for maintaining objectivity in the double marking process. Marker isolation cannot be enabled for moderating markers as they need to review all provisional marks to finalize the attempt.
On exams with double marking enabled, marking is split into 3 distinct roles, generally these roles will be performed by different users however depending on your process you may have the same person taking on multiple roles (eg an admin or manager could be a provisional or a moderating marker).
Provisional marker
Provisional markers are assigned to an attempt when double marking is enabled. They input their own set of marks, feedback, and comments on responses. Importantly, the marks and comments from each provisional marker are not visible to other provisional markers to maintain independent assessments. An attempt can have one or more provisional markers, and their contributions are reviewed by the moderating marker.
Moderating marker
This individual oversees the entire marking process, reviews the inputs from provisional markers, and has the authority to override and finalise the marks for each question. The moderating marker ensures the consistency and accuracy of the final marks. Regardless of the number of provisional markers, each attempt will have only one moderating marker.
Finalising marker
The finalising marker is responsible for finalising the marks on an attempt, making it ready for release. This role can be assigned to an admin, educator, or manager and is configurable via global or specific permissions for an exam. The finalising marker ensures that all marks are thoroughly reviewed and validated before release.
Before you configure marking on an exam it's important to think about the marking process and features you need
Should attempts be marked more than once? - if yes then enable double marking to allow provisional markers to play a role in marking attempts before they get to a moderating marker, and set the minimum markers per attempt accordingly. If no then all markers assigned to the attempt will act as a moderating marker.
Should provisional markers see the inputs of other markers? - if no then enable marker isolation to ensure the provisional markers are marking blind. Moderating markers will always be able to see the inputs of provisional markers who marked before them.
Should markers know who's attempt they are marking? - if no then make sure candidate concealment is enabled for both provisional and moderating markers, else they'll be able to see candidate information about who's attempt they are marking
How should markers be assigned attempts to mark? - if you want to control exactly who is assigned which attempts you'll want to use manual assignment to allocate attempts, else if you're happy for this to be done at semi random by the system to allocate based on capacity then allow round robin to be used. Once attempts are assigned markers you can modify the assignment from the exam users table.
How should people be marking attempts? - if you have markers who only have the role of marker on platform then they'll only be able to access attempts via the markers inbox. However if you have educators, admins or managers marking attempts then you may need to configure the markers inbox page to show for them.
Candidate concealment configurations may not always work for admins, educators or managers who can access attempts outside of the markers inbox
Create lists of each marking role for your exam, add users in one by one or entire user groups. Users can assume two roles if they are in both lists. Marker lists stay editable even after an exam is scheduled so if one of your markers is away or you need to remove them from the exam, then just remove them from the list and save.
The markers inbox page is where provisional or moderating markers will go to mark attempts assigned to them. The inbox is easy to use and navigate, there is a tab for all the open attempts and a tab for all the completed attempts. Markers can search for attempts by id or exam name, and by default the inbox is ordered by attempt submission, showing the longest waiting first.
Once on the marking inbox page, markers can mark attempts via the pencil icon to open the marking page
From the marking page, all responses that require marking will show as blue with an unmarked status which will update to marking once inputs have been started then marked once completed. Once all of the blue status's are gone all the required questions for marking are completed.
To help with marking on exams with auto marked and manual marking questions, markers can use the quick navigation bar to go straight to unmarked responses.
Provisional and moderating markers can save throughout their marking process and exit the marking page at any time to return to later. Once they've finished marking they then need to submit their marks using the button at the top of the page. After submission they will not be able to go back and change any of their inputs. The attempt will then progress onto the next step which may be for more provisional marking, the moderating markers or the finalising marker.
📍Markers who are only of the user type Marker will only have the markers inbox page enabled. No other pages are available to add for users of this type.
If you have educators or other user types who will also be markers then you should enable the markers inbox page from pages from user access settings.
For more details about marking attempts, feedback and internal comments see our docs on how to mark an attempt below.
When double marking is enabled, the marker assignment method can be selected.
Round Robin: Implement round robin assignment to distribute attempts randomly and evenly among markers, ensuring balanced workloads. Marker assignment can be overridden by an admin, manager or educator (with the right permissions).
Provisional markers: are assigned when an attempt has been submitted
Moderating markers: are assigned when all provisional marking has been completed
Manual Assignment: Use manual assignment for greater control, allowing exam creators or managers to handpick markers for specific attempts. When enabled no markers will be assigned to attempts automatically.
To assign or reassign markers to an attempt go to the exam users table, select one or more attempt, and use the assign marker button to select and assign specific markers for an attempt.
From the assign marker modal, select the provisional or moderating markers required for the attempt/s, you can also remove already assigned markers.
From the assign markers modal, you'll have the option to self assign attempts to yourself if you're an admin. When self assigning an attempt you'll be given the roll of moderating marker, if provisional marking is required this will still need to be completed before you are able to mark.
All attempts must now be assigned before they can be marked. Previously on the system if you were an admin, manager or educator (with the correct permissions) then you could mark any attempt, however now you will need to self assign them individually or in bulk in order to mark.
Once an attempt has had it's marking completed, finalised or released, all markers who were assigned the attempt, or admins/managers/educators who can view the attempt will be able to view the marking page.
From the exam users table select the attempt to view and use the view marks button
From the view only marking page, inputs from all markers can be viewed. Provisional marker comments and marks will show in a response history, and moderating marker final marks are shown as the final inputs.
When viewing attempts, inputs can no longer be changed or updated by any users. If you need to update marks or grades at this point this is done from the results override options, more below
