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Design a marking guide

Marking guides can be used when elements to be assessed are too small or don’t have enough distinct stages in the mastery scale to justify using a rubric. Marking guides written as a student resource can then be adapted to be entered into the Learning Management System (LMS). Grade using Moodle marking guides has step-by-step instructions to enable advanced grading in Moodle.

These elements can often be identified if you’ve tried to write a rubric and the descriptors:

are the same, or very similar across several levels
have subjective words like ‘mostly’ or ‘very’ as the only or main differences between levels (standards)
have descriptors that are not actually distinct from one another, e.g., ‘generally accurate’, versus, ‘some errors’

Once these non-discriminating criteria have been identified, you should ask:

Is this element important enough to be standing alone? Does this element actually stand alone? e.g., Should citing and referencing be included as a part of how well someone communicates the overall idea versus its own criteria?
Can this element be broken into different descriptors?

If you have answered no, then a marking guide might be the best option, as pushing ahead with a rubric may result in marks being skewed. It is possible for an assessment to have both a marking guide and a rubric to assist in assessing student performance. A rubric tends to look at production/performance/ability, etc. in a defined criteria that can be plotted on a mastery scale. Whereas a marking guide is better suited:

to elements of a more binary nature, e.g. done/not done, used/not used
to tasks that follow a procedure/a prescribed course of action, e.g a checklist
when there are many clear ‘sub elements’ of the task being assessed, i.e small (but important) elements are being assessed
when there are not many gradients of ‘mastery’, i.e. there are limited standards

Marking guides might incorporate elements of a checklist, i.e., if students demonstrate X, then award X marks. This is useful for assessing procedural tasks that have a prescribed flow.

Marking guides should never have instructions on how to deduct marks or award bonus marks. If an assessment is out of 25 marks, then the marking guide will show details for a marking range of zero to 25. How marks are distributed is a decision that needs to be carefully considered and justified in the marking guide.

How to write a marking guide

Open the accordions to see marking guide samples.

Binary elements

Below is a very simplified example of a marking guide regarding visual aids in a presentation. It has two gradients to the usage of visual aids, with zero marks for no usage.
Use of visual aids Marks
The visual aids used increased engagement, understanding and flow 3
Visual aids were used 2
No visual aids were used 0
The marks assigned need to make sense holistically. For example, if 0,1 and 2 were assigned to the above example, that equates to 0%, 50% and 100%. Scoring needs to be justified.
It may be that different elements require a different distribution of marks, and a marking guide allows for this.
There might be 5 marks assigned to calculating a mathematical equation, with 1 mark for using the correct equation, 2 marks for identifying two necessary numbers, 1 mark for getting the calculation correct until point A, and then 1 mark for the final correct answer.

In tandem with the marking guide, there would be a task specification document for students that would give them some understanding on how they are being assessed and graded. As in exams, assessments might include the assigned marks or weightings to different questions or sections. This inclusion can provide valuable information about how in depth responses need to be.

Transparency around assessments and their marking, whether using rubrics or marking guides, is needed so as to inform students of what success looks like.

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Back

	Using a backward design for the assessment, decide what students need to do or produce. This might begin as a checklist, or it might look like an answer key. Always go back to the unit’s Learning Outcomes, as well as potentially the weekly learning objectives to make sure you are including only core elements of the unit in your marking guide.
	Once you have a list, fine tune it. Is this how it was taught? Does anything overlap? Can anything be combined? Can anything be grouped together? After asking yourself the questions and trying to find any potential issues, your marking guide should be starting to take shape.
	Get outside input in order to refine, finetune and clarify. Ask a colleague, or several, for their opinion.
	Decide what in your list is binary, i.e. something is either right or wrong; it is either required or not necessary. You’ll also need to decide which elements might have a small range, e.g., omitted, partially addressed, or fully addressed. When making this decision, you should already have a clear sample of what fully or partially addressed means in context.
	Start to draft your document. It is normal to need several drafts before it once again goes to some of the teaching team, or colleagues for feedback.

Patient intake form	Marks
Reason for initial admission	/0.5
Referral to specialist team	/0.5
3 x main nursing needs identified	/3
Approaches and interventions suggested for the above (2 marks each)	/6
Outline of patient’s self-care ability (x2)	/2
Allergies (x2)	/1
TOTAL	/13

Learning and Teaching: Teach HQ

Learning and Teaching: Teach HQ

Design a marking guide

Your feedback matters

Use of visual aids	Marks
The visual aids used increased engagement, understanding and flow	3
Visual aids were used	2
No visual aids were used	0