Marking Exams in Inspera

This area as an overview depicts the grading status of the exam. For example if marking has not yet been finished, you can click ‘complete your grading’ and be directed to the Marking view. You can click on student IDs and be directed to the Candidate in focus view. You can also search by typing student IDs into the search box.

The Grading Overview has a default filtering tabs of 'Flagged candidates' next to 'All Candidates'. This area will reflect if any student has been ‘flagged’. You can flag a student in the Grading Overview by clicking the 'flag' icon on the left.

You are able to navigate to any student by using the drop-down (to see a list of all students) or by using the ‘next’ arrow button on the right, which will move to the next student.

There is a status shown in Grade for each student. For example, 'Calculating - Incomplete marks'.

Each student’s candidate in focus area will show questions answered and marking completed.

You are able to navigate to students and questions. To move between students, use the drop-down (to see a list of all students) or by using the ‘next’ arrow button on the right, which will move to the next student.

Please note: if you are moving between students, the question currently viewed will automatically show for the next student. However if the next student has not answered the current question, the marking flow will divert to the next available question. This will occur for exams using Candidate Selected Questions.

To navigate to questions, use the drop-down (to see a list of all questions) or by using the next arrow button on the right, which will move to the next question.

This area provides an overview or data table of questions within the exam. You can view all questions, manually marked questions or you can click the question name to be directed to the marking view of that question. You can search for a question using the Search box - note the search will use the question title.

If you wish to you can order the questions in alphabetical order by clicking on Question Name.

Graders can override marks on automatically calculated questions while marking an exam by clicking the override option. The marks entry box will then become editable.

Type the new mark answer into the box and press 'apply'. For audit trail purposes, any overridden marks will be logged.

You can revert to the auto mark by selecting ‘use calculated’.

Important note: maximum marks are defined at the time of question authoring. It is not possible to override marks to be of a higher value than already outlined maximum marks.

Override is only applicable to the individual student and question you are grading at the time. There is no functionality to override in bulk.

For Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) you are able to edit the correct answer (otherwise known as the 'answer key') after the exam. For example if an error has been made when selecting the correct answer during the authoring of the question.

To change the correct answer of an MCQ, click on 'options' within Grade.

Under Settings, click ‘Edit answer keys (MCQ)’.

A settings screen will show, you will be able to select the MCQ you wish to edit from a drop-down, and be able to select one alternative. The current answer will be depicted as a selected radio button.

To choose a new correct answer, click the radio button next to the alternative option and press update.

Important note: editing answer keys for the MCQ will update the auto marking for all students who have answered this question in the exam. It will also update the correct answer in the Question Set itself, so the MCQ answer is correct for future use.

Should an exam question have an error within it, and this should be removed from the exam results, the question weight can be changed to zero. Note this is possible for both auto marked and manually marked questions.

To remove the weighting of a question, click on 'Options' within Grade.

Under Settings click ‘Question weights’.

A settings screen will show, and you will see all exams within the exam in a list. Automatically all questions will be weighted at 100%, meaning all correct answers receive their awarded marks. To remove the question weighting from the exam, overtype 100 with a zero in overridden weight and press 'update'.

This will ensure that all answers to that question are discarded and the results are not marked/factored into the total score. Further information can be found in Inspera’s guide on question weights.

Important note: editing question weights is only available for exams where the final total score matches across all students. If for example, an exam uses Candidate Selected Questions or Random Pulling, removing the weighting of a question could potentially impact marks for only a subset of students. Further information about features such as Candidate Selected Questions or Random Pulling, and implications of question weight edits can be found within our Content Creation guidance.

Most commonly used with manually marked essay questions, markers are able to add annotations onto submissions. These annotations, or comments, are associated with a specific text entry on the submission and can either be: 

• Written to be shared with students 
• Written to be shared with co graders or moderators 
• Noted only for your own view 

To create an Annotation, click the left mouse button, hold it down and move the mouse across the text you want highlighted, then click 'Annotate'.

An annotation box will pop out:

• To choose if students or co-markers should view this annotation, use the drop-down arrow next to candidate 
• To enter your comment, type into the text box 
• To save, press save 
• To make a note only for yourself, using the drop-down arrow next to save and select ‘only me’.

Important note: annotations are for the individual student’s submission to the specific text area selected.

Most commonly used with manually marked essay questions, markers are able to add 'Page Notes' onto submissions. Page Notes are comments which are not associated with a specific text entry on the submission but are to be a more generalised comment about the question submission overall. These can be:

• Written to be shared with students 
• Written to be shared with co graders or moderators 
• Noted only for your own view 

To add a page note, click the page icon to the right of the submission text. 

A page notes box will pop out:

• To choose if students or co-markers should view this annotation, use the drop down arrow next to candidate
• To enter your comment, type into the text box 
• To save, press save 
• To make a note only for yourself, using the drop down arrow next to save and select ‘only me’.

Important note: page notes are for the individual student’s submission to the question. 

To leave overarching feedback for the whole cohort for the full exam, please see the General Feedback Release section of our Feedback Release page. This explains how markers can release a ‘common feedback’ statement to all students once all submissions have been graded.