Assignment – marking workflow and marking allocation

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The marking workflow can be used by:

  • Markers to keep track and specify the stage they are at in the grading of their assignments
  • Topic Coordinators to monitor the progress of the markers and coordinate the release of grades to students.
  • Topic coordinators to use marking allocation to allocate markers to specific assignments (optional)

For marking workflow to work successfully, additional work is required from both the markers and the topic coordinator through the marking process. As such, the benefits of marking workflow are only realised in larger topics where there are multiple markers.

In small and medium-sized topics, or in topics with fewer markers, it is more efficient to use email or 1 on 1 communication between the teaching team, and to use a different method to release grades and feedback.


One advantage of using marking workflow is that the grades can be hidden from students until they are set to 'Released'. The actual list of steps are:
  • Not marked (the marker has not yet started)
  • In marking (the marker has started but not yet finished)
  • Marking completed (the marker has finished but might need to go back for checking/corrections)
  • In review (the marking is now with the teaching staff in charge for quality checking)
  • Ready for release (the teaching staff in charge is satisfied with the marking but wait before giving students access to the marking)
  • Released (the student can access the grades/feedback)

Enabling marking workflow and marking allocation

  1. When editing the assignment settings, under Grade, set Use marking workflow to Yes
  2. Once you have done this, Use marking allocation will be available underneath the setting for marking workflow. Marking allocation is an optional setting that allows you to formally allocate specific markers to specific students.

    If you are planning to use marking allocation, change it to yes.


  3. Click Save and display
  4. From the Grading summary page, select the View all submissions button.

  5. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. In the Options section, make sure the Quick grading box is ticked.



  6. Your page will refresh and you will now be able to see drop-down lists in the Status and Marker column.


Using marking allocation

Allocate a marker to individual students
  1. View the list of assignment submissions.

  2. In the Marker column, select the desired marker from the drop-down list.

  3. Repeat as desired with other students (if you want to do this with more than a few students, you may find it more efficient to use the instructions in the next section).

  4. To save your changes, click on the Save all quick grading changes button (located underneath the scroll bar)


Allocate a marker to a group of students
  1. View the list of assignment submissions and select your students

    Tips to selecting students quickly
    • Use the Visible groups menu (if enabled) to reduce the number of students shown


    • If selecting all or most of the students on the screen, tick the first box in the select column


    • Tick (or untick) students as needed


  2. Scroll down to the With selected... drop-down menu

  3. Select Set allocated marker and click Go

  4. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and select a marker from the Allocated Marker drop-down list.

  5. Click Save changes.

  6. The marker's name will be displayed in the Marker column.

Using marking workflow when grading assignments

The following steps are available when using marking workflow, to record progress in marking:

  • Not marked (the marker has not yet started)
  • In marking (the marker has started but not yet finished)
  • Marking completed (the marker has finished but might need to go back for checking/corrections)
  • In review (the marking is now with the teaching staff in charge for quality checking)
  • Ready for release (the teaching staff in charge is satisfied with the marking but wait before giving students access to the marking)
  • Released (the student can access the grades/feedback)

Progress a single submission through the workflow
  1. In the submissions screen, scroll down to the Options section and make sure Quick grading is on


  2. Scroll up to the student and select the workflow step from the dropdown menu for the student


  3. Click Save all quick grading changes

Progress multiple submissions through the workflow
  1. In the submissions screen, click the checkbox next to each submission you want to progress

    Tips to selecting students quickly
    1. Use the Visible groups menu (if enabled) to reduce the number of students shown


    2. If selecting all or most of the students on the screen, tick the first box in the select column


    3. Tick (or untick) students as needed


  2.  At the bottom of the table, use the With selected menu to choose Set marking workflow state, then click Go

  3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, choose the new workflow state from the menu and click Save changes

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