Practical difficulties with anonymous assessment
Some things can be more difficult when implementing anonymous assessment. Certain functionality is limited in Canvas, and it is more complicated to get back to a previously graded student in SpeedGrader. It also becomes more challenging to keep complementary examinations anonymous, and you need to know how to handle de-anonymisation in case of disciplinary matters.
Several practical difficulties can arise with anonymous assessment, the most common being:
- Anonymous assessment can limit functionality in Canvas
- It is more complicated to return to a previous assessment in Canvas
- It is difficult to maintain anonymity for complementary examinations
- Dealing with attempts to mislead during anonymous assessment can be complicated
Below, these difficulties are described in more detail, and possible solutions to the problems are presented.
Limited functionality in Canvas with anonymous assessment
Some functionality in Canvas is impaired when anonymous assessment is activated on a task in Canvas. For example, as a teacher, you cannot see individual students' results in the Gradebook. This also concerns assignment details such as late or missing submissions. These difficulties are a natural consequence of anonymous assessment and can not be avoided. However, it can be good to know about it in advance.
More complicated to return to a previous assessment in Canvas
Finding your way back to the same student submission can be difficult if you don't remember the student's anonymous ID, which you can find in the browser's address field in SpeedGrader: "canvas.kth.se/[…]&anonymous_id=NNNNN".
When the function anonymous assessment is activated in Canvas, each student will be referred to as "Student X", where X is a number. However, this number X is not guaranteed to always refer to the same student. Problems can arise if, for example, you have not had time to fully assess a submission and happen to close the browser window, or if you want to return to a completed assessment afterwards.
Read more about how to return to previous assessments under the heading "Return to a previous assessment" on the page How to assess anonymously in Canvas .
Difficult to maintain anonymity for complementary examinations
After a course activity has been assessed anonymously, it must sooner or later be de-anonymised in order to be transferred to Ladok. Students who did not achieve a passing grade but have the right to a complementary examination will thus be known to the examiner. It may be difficult to carry out a complementary exam anonymously, depending on how you administer it. If it is not feasible to obtain an anonymous complementary exam, it is okay to conduct it non-anonymously.
Dealing with attempts to mislead during anonymous assessment can be complicated
Suppose an attempt to mislead is discovered during an examination. In that case, the student must be identified to start the disciplinary matter. Managing this can be more complicated when anonymous assessment is activated in Canvas. The most accessible approach is to fully assess all student submissions first, and then turn off the anonymisation for the assignment. It is then possible to connect the students with their submissions and act according to the usual routines for attempts to mislead .