Assessment situations that are not suitable to anonymise
It is not always appropriate to use anonymous assessment. For example, oral presentations and process-focused examinations are unsuitable for anonymisation, and you as a teacher need to ensure an equal and fair assessment in other ways.
In general, anonymous assessment is less appropriate when it is difficult to hide the student's identity from the examiner or when the student's learning process is to be assessed. With a focus on students' learning process, you should not separate the end product from the process.
Oral presentations or video submissions
Suppose the students are to present an assignment live, online, or in a pre-recorded video. In that case, anonymous assessment is often less suitable. It would be tricky to try to hide the identity of the students in these cases. A better way to ensure equal assessment would be to create clear assessment criteria and communicate these to the students well in advance of the presentation. One way to communicate clearly is to show examples of presentations at different grade levels, as well as explain what is missing for the higher grades.
The example of a continuously monitored course
An example from the example bank for examination concerns a course where the students solve tasks in an online training environment similar to a future workplace . The students' work is monitored continuously, and the assessment is based on an overall perspective. A lower grade is obtained if the teacher helps the student break the problem into smaller pieces. In this type of examination, anonymous assessment is less suitable because the teacher needs to have a holistic perspective and be able to follow the students continuously during the course. The same reasoning is also relevant for similar courses where a large part of the course deals with students' progression toward a goal.
Ensure an equal assessment of the students' performance by clarifying in advance which criteria the assessment is based on, both for yourself and for the students. As it is continuous work that is assessed, it is particularly important to communicate the criteria well in advance.
Projects where the student's process is assessed
Projects usually focus on the student's process, often containing interim report meetings, supervision talks, and peer reviews. Anonymising all these elements would be excessively complicated. In addition, it would reduce the students' opportunity to receive support in their learning process during the project. One of the strengths of projects is that assessment opportunities can also be learning opportunities.
Projects often include a final report. If the students submit the report as an Assignment in Canvas, it can be graded anonymously in SpeedGrader. However, it is not always appropriate to assess it anonymously. Suppose the final report includes a reflection on activities carried out during the course. In that case, there may be a pedagogical reason for not anonymising the assessment. It becomes easier to assess the reflection by knowing what the student's process has looked like. In addition, the students' reflections could be inhibited if they need to be anonymous.
Create clear assessment criteria to ensure equal assessment. Clear assessment criteria are a great asset for you as a teacher, especially if you have a lot of contact with the students you are then going to assess. It simplifies the assessment while increasing confidence in the process for you and your students.