Anonymous Marking of Assignment Submissions

What is Anonymous Marking?

This will give instructors (or TAs with grading access) the ability to read and assign grades to submissions without knowing which student submitted which item until after publishing the grades to the Grades tool. Some instructors use this feature to make their grading more objective and consistent by decreasing unconscious bias or favoritism when grading.

When anonymous marking has been enabled for a folder, Instructors will see an icon on the Assignments page next to the folder’s name designating the anonymous marking status Anonymous Mark Icon

Important notes and considerations

  • Information to tell students: Ask students to not include their names or identifying information in the following:
    • headings in the paper
    • header in the paper
    • the file name
    • any comments they may include in the Comments area when submitting
  • Student name visibility: Instructors will not see in the assignment submission list which paper belongs to which student before publishing feedback, nor will it show in the Grades area which students have submitted assignments; however, after clicking the Publish All Feedback button, student submissions will be tied to their submission in the Assignments folder and in the Grades area. Additionally, no profile card appears for anonymous users.
  • Groups: Group names are always visible even when using anonymous marking.
  • Publishing feedback information: Once an instructor clicks the Publish All Feedback button, and confirms if there are users without saved feedback, the assignment submission page will now show the students’ names, including those who have not been given grades or feedback and students who turn in assignments after the feedback to other peers have been published. Instructors should grade and give all feedback to all students or on-time submissions before publishing to avoid seeing student names of submissions not yet graded or submitted.
  • Corrections or updates: If after publishing feedback an instructor needs to add additional feedback or make a correction, after typing in the information the Update and Retract buttons may still appear greyed out or unable to be clicked. The instructor can use the Back to Submissions button at the top to be prompted to Save their feedback. When the instructor is taken to the submission page, the instructor can then use the Publish All Feedback button again at the top of the page to publish the updated feedback.

Enable Anonymous Marking of Assignment Submissions

New Assignments

Instructors can set up Anonymous Marking of assignment submissions when creating a new Assignment. Learn more on the Create an Assignment page.

Existing Assignments

This feature can still be turned on but only before students have submitted files. Once students have submitted files, this feature will not be available. If students have already submitted files, instructors will find the box cannot be checked and the following note shown below.

  1. On the nav bar, click the Activities menu, then select Assignments.
  2. On the Assignments page, from the context menu of the assignment in which you want to enable Anonymous Marking, click Edit Assignment.
  3. Select the title on the Evaluation and Feedback panel.
    Assignment Evaluation and Feedback
  4. Anonymous Marking: Choose whether you want to hide student names during assessment.
    Assignment Anonymous Marking
  5. Click Save and Close on the Edit Assignment page if you are finished editing the assignment.

How does it work when grading?

Students submit work the same as they would for any other assignment. There is no difference for them.

After students have submitted their work, instructors will see the assignments submitted under the title Anonymous User # where students’ names would normally appear in the submission page.

Anonymous Student List

When grading an individual student submission, this page is the same except it shows the title Anonymous User # where the student’s name would normally appear.
Blind individual student

The only grading change is that when grading, instructors only have the ability to select Save Draft. Publish is not available on an individual student’s page because the instructor would see the identity of each user. Instead, the instructor saves each user’s grade and feedback when grading. When the instructor is finished grading all student submissions ready at that time and returns to the submission page, the instructor can then use the blue Publish All Feedback button at the top to have all grades and feedback sent to the Grades tool.
Blind full list

Important notes and considerations

  • Information to tell students: Ask students to not include their names or identifying information in the following:
    • headings in the paper
    • header in the paper
    • the file name
    • any comments they may include in the Comments area when submitting
  • Student name visibility: Instructors will not see in the assignment submission list which paper belongs to which student before publishing feedback, nor will it show in the Grades area which students have submitted assignments; however, after clicking the Publish All Feedback button, student submissions will be tied to their submission in the Assignments folder and in the Grades area.
  • Publishing feedback information: Once an instructor clicks the Publish All Feedback button, and confirms if there are users without saved feedback, the assignment submission page will now show the students’ names, including those who have not been given grades or feedback and students who turn in assignments after the feedback to other peers have been published. Instructors should grade and give all feedback to all students or on-time submissions before publishing to avoid seeing student names of submissions not yet graded or submitted.
  • Corrections or updates: If after publishing feedback an instructor needs to add additional feedback or make a correction, after typing in the information the Update and Retract buttons may still appear greyed out or unable to be clicked. The instructor can use the Back to Submissions button at the top to be prompted to Save their feedback. When the instructor is taken to the submission page, the instructor can then use the Publish All Feedback button again at the top of the page to publish the updated feedback.