Creating a marking guide in Assignment

Assignment icon A marking guide is an advanced grading method allowing comments per criterion and a mark up to a maximum score. At ACU, assessment marking and grading is criterion-referenced and uses standard-based grading (see Assessment Policy, 5.1).

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Criterion referenced assessments allow you to identify that a student has achieved the learning outcomes for an assessment task and how well. The level or standard of how well students achieve the learning outcomes is pre-set according to defined criteria.

The criteria can be set out in a marking guide which not only communicates standards but provides vital feedback to students regarding their performance if adequate comments are provided.

This LEO guide focuses on the technical aspects of setting up a marking guide in LEO Assignment, and does not cover how to create a pedagogically valuable marking guide.

Rubric vs marking guide

Depending your preference, another option is to use a rubric.

	Rubric	Marking guide
Format	Matrix	List
Standards based grading	Yes	Yes
Scale - standards of different levels of achievement within a criteria are specified	Yes	No
Marks	Can give preset marks according to level	Can give a mark up to a specified maximum
Ability to provide advice for markers per criterion	No	Yes
Ability to create bank of ‘Frequently used comments’	No	Yes

Enabling a marking guide

There are two ways to add your marking guide to Assignment, which are explained in the sections below:

Method 1 – add a Marking Guide in the Assignment settings
Method 2 – add a Marking Guide using the Advanced Grading option

Method 1 - add a Marking Guide in the Assignment settings

Edit the settings of your assignment, or create a new Assignment.
On the settings page, expand the Grade section, and under the Grading method dropdown select Marking guide:

Note: It is worth noting that under Grade: Maximum grade, whatever number you have in your marking guide, that the total the student receives will be recalculated to be a proportion of that maximum grade.

Click the Save and Display button to save your changes and open the Assignment.
On the Assignment screen, click the Cog icon to open the Tool Menu, and choose the Define marking guide option:

You can now define your marking guide settings. See the Creating a Marking Guide section below for more information.

Method 2 – add a Marking Guide using the Advanced Grading option

In your unit, click on the link to the assignment.
On the Assignment screen, click the Cog icon to open the Tool Menu, and choose the Advanced grading option:
On the Advanced grading screen, choose the Marking guide option:
Choose the Define a new grading form from scratch option (Note: you can use the template option to have pre-filled content, if you have been directed to by your LIC or supervisor to do so).

You can now define your marking guide settings. See the Creating a Marking Guide section below for more information.