Anonymous Grading
This instruction covers the following:
Anonymous assignments
An anonymous assignment means that you as a teacher cannot see the student's name when you are grading. As long as anonymity is turned on the results for each individual student is hidden in SpeedGrader, Grades and the plagiarism report from Ouriginal.
Read all of these instructions before you start marking anonymous assignments in Studium!
Create an assignment with anonymous grading
Create an assignment as usual. (You can follow our guide here.) In the assignment settings you should have the option to enable anonymous grading: "Graders cannot view student names". If you do not have this option, you will need to enable this function for your course*.
IMPORTANT! If the assignment will be plagiarized checked by Ouriginal - then you must make sure that the Ouriginal report is anonymous. This cannot be changed after assignments have been handed in. If the Ouriginal report is not anonymous then the students email address (and name) will be visible in the Ouriginal report.
Grade the Students via SpeedGrader
When you are ready to mark assignments and grade the students, open SpeedGrader as you would normally. All Student names are now disguised and hidden behind "Student 1, Student 2, etc". (This is not an anonymous ID! Read about this below.)
Grade the students as you would normally. When a student has received a grade, SpeedGrader will let you know the grade is hidden. All student grades are hidden until you manually post the grades to the students. Posting the grades will disable anonymous grading, therefore make sure all students receive marks before you post grades.
Post Grades Manually
Once you have finished grading the anonymous assignments, you must then manually post the grades. Once the grades are posted the results will be visible to students and anonymity will be disabled.
- Go to the Grades. Click the three dots at the top of the assignments column.
- Click Post grades.
- A window will pop up on the right, here you can only select "Everyone" to post grades to. Click Post.
The students can view their grades as they would normally, the only difference is that this will say it's been graded anonymously.
Anonymous ID code
Although Studium does not make the Anonymous ID code obvious, we can find it in two places:
- Open an assignment in SpeedGrader. In the URL you can find the anonymous ID code (as pictured.)
- You can find the same anonymous ID code when you download assignments within the file name.
If you wish to see which anonymous ID code belonged to which student in the future, you can leave a comment on the students assignment in SpeedGrader with their anonymous code. When the assignment is no longer anonymous, you can look at the assignment feedback to see what their anonymous ID was.
NOTICE: The number at the end of "Student ..." is NOT the anonymous ID code. This number should never be communicated to the student and should not be used as a reference if you rename downloaded assignments.
These digits can and will change. If "Student 2" corresponds with a specific student when you are grading the assignments, this is subject to change next time you enter SpeedGrader.
If you have used the Student Portal
Anonymous assignments in the Student Portal
In the Student Portal, every student is assigned an anonymous code (anonymous ID). This is what the teacher sees instead of the student's name. Students are instructed to give their anonymous code when submitting their assignment. However, Department Administrators can see which students belong to which anonymous code. In summary, whether or not a students name was visible or not depends on which role and permissions you have in the Student Portal.
Anonymous assignments in Studium
In Studium, the students will be anonymous in both the Gradebook and in SpeedGrader for both teachers and administrators. Students cannot see their anonymous ID. Instead, teachers grade the students directly in SpeedGrader. Once the assignments are graded and the grades are posted, then the student's anonymity will disappear and student's grades will become visible.
Risks while grading anonymously in Studium
Anonymous grading in Studium is very convenient, but there are certain risks that you have to be aware of and try to avoid. Here is a summary of the identified risks that exist, and a way to avoid them.
Anonymity is not turned on everywhere
Risk: If anonymity is not turned on also in Ouriginal then the reports from Ouriginal will reveal the students' identity. This cannot be changed after the students have started submitting their assignments.
Tip: Make sure that anonymity is turned on for both Studium and Ouriginal before the assignment is published and the students can submit.
Making notes and comments outside of SpeedGrader
Risk: If you take notes and make comments outside of SpeedGrader, e.g. in Excel, you cannot use the references Student 1, Student 2 etc. These references are not unique and can change.
Tip: Make a comment in SpeedGrader of the student's anonymous ID code, and then make your notes based on these codes. Afterwards you can then compare the published grades with your own notes, without having to turn the anonymity on and off.
Complements to submissions and changes in grades
Risk: When you have published the grades the anonymity of the students in the Gradebook is removed. If students are tasked with submitting complementary tasks or make late submissions these will not be made anonymously. It is very inconvenient for both teachers and students if the grades are published and unpublished for every occasion.
Tip: Finish all of your grading before you publish. Grades can be adjusted after they have been published and identifiable. This is the easiest way to work. Do not switch between anonymity and publishing for making changes. You should only have anonymity turned on during the initial grading of the assignments.