Getting into the electronic mindset is about looking at the different phases of the assignment process. In setting up the assignment activity, the main questions and considerations are around:
Answers to these questions/considerations will determine what settings you apply in FLO and the processes you use.
Good practice guides and tip sheets
Good practice guides and tip sheets have been developed to support quality in both curriculum design and teaching practice. Good practice guides provide a pedagogical overview and tip sheets provide you with practical strategies and ideas for implementation.
Links to assessment-related resources are provided below.
Is this a group assessment with the group submitting a single piece of work or do you want the group to collaborate before submitting an individual piece of work?
Creating a group collaboration space is different from creating a group assessment (where a single piece of work is submitted for all group members).
If you set up a group assessment, it cannot be changed once a submission has been made.
If no group has been applied, the whole cohort will be deemed a group and the first submission will be visible to all students.
Do you want one group member to be able to submit for everyone or would you like one member to upload the file and all other members to confirm they accept that file as the submission?
Will students be allowed to continue editing their submission?
If students need to submit a draft of their work, you may want them to continue working on their submission. In this instance, you can create an iterative assignment.
If you want to prevent students from making any further changes to their submission you can require them to click the submit button to finalise their assessment.
If students need to upload multiple files, they can leave their submission in draft mode until all required files are uploaded. They can then click the submit button to finalise their submission.
How do you intend to mark the work?
Do you want to mark established groups of students?
For established groups, you can use Student Two groups or user-created groups. Student Two groups will be updated as students move around. You will need to update User-created groups manually within the FLO site.
Turn on Marking workflow and Marking allocation in the assignment tool grade settings. This allows you to nominate markers for individual or groups of students.
Marking allocation cannot be used without Marking workflow.
Marking workflow shows students the marking status of their assessment. This status needs to be manually updated by the staff member marking the work, for each assessment they mark. It is not an automated process.
For group assessments, will you provide a shared mark and feedback to all members or individual marks and feedback to each group member?
Will you be marking known students or using anonymous submissions?
If using anonymous submissions, advise your students not to include their name in the file name or within their submission so as not to identify themselves.
Providing extensions can be tricky due to the hidden nature of the student’s identity.
Anonymous submissions must be activated before any submissions are made.
Will you and your team have an internet connection whilst marking?
How will you grade the assessment: points, letter grades, or with a scale?
There may be a course-wide decision regarding grades. It would be worth checking with your course or topic coordinator before setting up your assessment.
When entering the grade settings, consider what will make the most sense for students.
If marking in points, you do not need to mark out of the same points value as the weighting, for example, an essay can be marked out of 100 and weighted at 30% toward the final grade. Gradebook will perform all the required calculations.
Within quizzes, consider the number and style of questions. Twenty simple questions can be marked out of 20. Twenty complex questions, each with multiple parts, should be marked accordingly.
you could mark in increments of 5 rather than increments of 1
avoid giving half marks. If the total is 0.5 below the next grade bracket the incorrect grade is displayed, for example, 64.5 is displayed as P rather than CR as the value is not rounded up.
Will you deduct marks for lateness?
Check with your topic or course coordinator to see if you have a course-wide agreement on how this is processed before you proceed.
Will you be using an online rubric, an online marking guide, or feedback files?
Online rubrics and marking guides offer a very efficient way to return marks and feedback to students, especially if the assessment is completed outside of FLO.
Do you want to display letter grades rather than numerical marks?
There may be a course-wide decision regarding grades. It would be worth checking with your course or topic coordinator before releasing anything to students.
you could mark in increments of 5 rather than increments of 1
avoid giving half marks. If the total is 0.5 below the next grade bracket the incorrect grade is displayed, for example, 64.5 is displayed as P rather than CR as the value is not rounded up.
Do you intend to moderate marks within your team before returning them to students?
Make sure the grades are hidden from students before any of your team begin marking so as not to inadvertently release them before you intended.
How will you release marks/feedback to students?
In most instances, good practice is to release marks/feedback to all students at the same time. Make sure marks/feedback are hidden until you are ready to release them.
If students are completing the assessment at different times (eg placement) you may want to release marks/feedback as they become available. In this instance do not hide the grades from students and the marks/feedback will be accessible as soon as the marker enters them into FLO.
How will you provide support?
Do your students know how to use the FLO tool you have chosen for your assessment?
Clearly explain how the tool will function for each assessment (eg what type of file is expected, how many files are expected, what is the required word count, etc).
Try to provide students with an opportunity to practice using the tool before their assessment. This could be in an earlier topic.
Will you discuss the assessment task and rubric/marking guide with your team before the assessment begins?
It is a good idea to ensure all members of your teaching team understand both the task and how it will be marked before the assessment is released to students.
This will ensure everyone provides the same information to students to eliminate any confusion.
It is good practice to produce a short video explaining the assessment task and rubric for both students and staff, especially if you have a large teaching team. Everyone hears the same instructions.
Does your teaching team know how to use the FLO tool you have chosen for your assessment?
If you have new staff members, are using different features within a tool (eg marking workflow), or are using a less common tool (eg Self and peer assessment) make sure your team knows how to use the tool, both for marking and to answer students' questions.
If any of your team need assistance, you can refer them to relevant pages within these FLO Staff Support (FLOSS) pages or ask them to contact their local eLearning support team.
