Multiple graders in SpeedGrader

When there are several people grading or assessing an assignment in SpeedGrader, it is good to know that there is a risk of overwriting information entered by others during the same session. This issue occurs if a student's submission is edited by multiple people during the same session.

The following information is at risk of being overwritten: 

• Rubrics  

• Assignment grade

• Manual assessment of quizzes. 

If you still want to be able to use, for example, rubrics when there are several graders, it is important to reload SpeedGrader between each student. 

Annotations and assignment comments are not at risk of being overwritten, even if several graders are assessing the same student at the same time.

Divide the assessment work in Canvas 

To avoid information being overwritten, it is good to divide the assessment work in a structured way. We base our recommendations on two common ways of dividing the work between graders: 

• Division 1: Each grader assesses a subset of student submissions in their entirety. 

• Division 2: One grader per question. 

Both methods can be adapted for digital assessment in Canvas SpeedGrader, and work equally well for anonymous assessments. The methods described here work regardless of whether it is scanned exams or documents submitted directly into Canvas that are to be assessed. The methods are adapted to mimic common ways of dividing assessment and at the same time avoid the risk of information being overwritten. 

The methods are presented using a general example of an examination: 

Example: In a course, five teachers are dividing the assessment of 100 students. The students have completed an proctored anonymous written exam consisting of five questions.

Division 1: Each grader assesses a subset of student submissions in their entirety 

Group students by name or by student alias (for anonymous assessment). Each teacher assesses the entire submission for each student in their group. 

Example: 

• Teacher 1 assesses all five exam questions for group 1 (students 1-20). 

• Teacher 2 assesses all five exam questions for group 2 (students 21-40). 

• ... 

• Teacher 5 assesses all five exam questions for group 5 (students 81-100). 

Division 2: One grader per question 

Divide the assessment so that each grader assesses a specific question for all students. 

Example: 

• Teacher 1 assesses question 1 for all students. 

• Teacher 2 assesses question 2 for all students. 

• ... 

• Teacher 5 assesses question 5 for all students. 

Use timetables and groups if there is a risk of overwriting 

If the assessment is documented using annotations and/or assignment comments in SpeedGrader, no timetable is needed. For assessments that are documented in another way in Canvas, we recommend setting up a timetable, to avoid the risk of overwriting information. The students need to be grouped in the same way as in division 1, so that each student group is assessed by only one teacher per time slot. Reload SpeedGrader between each time slot to ensure that information is saved correctly. 

Example: In the example below, the examiner has divided the students into five groups (groups 1-5 with 20 students in each). The examiner has also created the timetable and distributed the time slots and groups to the teachers. Teacher 1 who assesses question 1 will in this example assess group 1 on Monday, group 2 on Tuesday, group 3 on Wednesday, group 4 on Thursday and group 5 on Friday. The teachers are responsible for assessing the correct group within the right time slot.

Advanced use – possibility to access a subset of students in SpeedGrader 

It is possible to filter the gradebook by section or group so that SpeedGrader opens with only one section or group at a time. This can facilitate the division of students between graders, so that each grader only sees the students they are to assess in SpeedGrader. For large courses, this can also reduce SpeedGrader’s loading time. 

The following guides can help you get started: 

• "How do I filter columns and rows in the Gradebook?" (community.canvaslms.com) 

• "How do I enable SpeedGrader to launch filtered by student group?" (community.canvaslms.com) 

As this approach can be a bit complicated, it is only recommended for more advanced users. Contact us by e-mail at e-learning@kth.se  if you would like support for this approach.