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Grading Guides (formerly called Marking Guides) are one of the two options for using Advanced Grading assessment forms to calculate the grade for students' work. Similar to a rubric, but with more flexibility, grading guides allow instructors to create criteria, add point values for each, and then assign grades based on those criteria. 

Step-by-step guide

To create a grading guide to use in an assignment, open the assignment and select Edit settings from the gear menu (top right). Click the Grade section to expand it, for the Grading method select Grading guide.

Once you complete the assignment settings and click Save and display, you'll be prompted to build the grading guide.

• Select Define new grading form from scratch to create a new grading guide.
• Enter a Name and optional Description for the guide.
• Click on the Click to edit criterion name text to edit it. It will open up a box for text entry.
• Click the Click to edit text to provide an explanation for students and for graders as to what is required. It will open up a text field for text entry.
• Click the Click to edit text to allocate a maximum score for this criterion. It will open up a box for text entry.
• To add more criteria, click the Add criterion button.

To edit the Grading Guide, open the assignment and select Advanced grading from the gear menu (top right).

• You can Edit the current form definition (including Frequently used comments) or Delete the currently defined form by clicking the corresponding button.

Frequently used comments

You can create a bank of Frequently used comments that can be inserted while grading assignments.

Click the Click to edit text under the Frequently used comments heading to add a comment.

Click the + Add frequently used comment button to add another and repeat as needed.

Grading guide options

Click the checkbox to enable Show guide definition to students and Show grades per criterion to students.

Click Save to save your grading guide, or Cancel to abandon any changes.

Grade with a grading guide

Each criterion is displayed with

• the explanations for students and graders (if set up); these are shown or hidden based on the options at the bottom of this section
• a field for entering a Remark
• the Insert frequently used comment button; click to display the list of comments; click the comment to insert it into the Remark field; repeat as needed
• a field for the criterion score
• options to Show or Hide the descriptions above

Download component grades

From the main course page, click the name of the assignment. From the gear menu (top right), click Export Marking Guide Grades to export grades and comments for all students (who have submitted assignment or not) to an Excel file. 

Use a Grading Guide for other assignments

If you have created a grading guide you want to use or modify for another assignment, add a new assignment or open an existing one and select Edit settings from the gear menu (top right).

In the Grade section, set the Grading method to Grading guide and click Save and display.

On the Advanced grading screen select Create new grading form from a template.

The Grading forms search will display No template found. Check the include my own forms option and click the Search button. Your saved rubrics will be displayed.

Click Use this form as a template below the grading guide you want to use as is or to modify. Click Continue to confirm you want to use the grading guide.

Click Edit the current form definition.

To use as is, click the Save button at the bottom of the screen; or edit the grading guide, then click Save.

See the Grading Guide applied to an assignment

Select the assignment. From the gear icon, select Advanced grading.

For assignments with a grading guide applied, the Active grading method will be set to Grading guide and the name and settings for the current grading guide are displayed.

You can Edit the current form definition or Delete the currently defined form to remove it from the assignment. 

Video on setting up a marking/grading guide:

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