Marking Assessments in the Dropbox

This guide shows how to mark assessments in the Dropbox. 

 

Watch this short video to learn how to mark student submissions in a dropbox.

 

This guide will show the following steps to mark assessments within VU Collaborate:

• Access Assessment Dropbox Folder
• Access the Evaluate Submission Page
• Methods of Providing Feedback
• Publishing or Saving Feedback
• Providing Feedback for On Paper Submission or Observed in Person Assessments
• Retracting Published Feedback in VU Collaborate
  

 Related guides

• Marking Rubrics in the Dropbox.

 

Step One: Access Assessment Dropbox Folder

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1. In your VU Collaborate space on the navigation bar, click Assessments then Dropbox

2. Assessment Dropbox Folders, lists assessment dropbox folders, with submission summaries.

• New Submissions (1) - numbers of new submissions not yet graded, follow the link to view these submissions.
• Submissions (2)
  • Completed - number submitted out of total expected (individual or groups)
  • Evaluated - number of graded submissions out of total expected
  • Feedback - number of graded submissions published/released to students out of the total expected

 

3. Click the Assessment Dropbox Title,  to select the Assessment you would like to grade. In this example, 'Assessment 1 - Report' is selected.

 

 

Step Two: Access the Evaluate Submission Page

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If you need to evaluate a Group Assessment, please refer to the Downloading and Grading Group Assessments Help guide, step 1.1 Refine the list to your workgroup to learn how to filter submission views into a group view.   

When accessing the assignment folder, you will see submissions below student names. When the assessment title is in bold font, this means that the file is unread.
You can also Download, Email, Mark as Read, Mark as Unread, Delete and Publish Feedback on this page. 

1. Click the Assessment Title below the student's name that you wish to grade and leave feedback.

Use the Search Options to find specific submissions based on the student name, date, or whether feedback has already been given.

2. After selecting an assignment name, the evaluation screen will open to one like the picture below.  

• Name of the current Assessment Dropbox and Delivery Space.
• Student name and their submission title.
• Annotation tool that allows teachers the ability to annotate a submission directly onto the assessment. Features include: draw, highlight, add notes, texts, shapes, print, search bar (keywords), download option and a full-screen view function. 
• Rubric to evaluate assessments based on criteria. 
• Overall Grade: If there is no rubric to complete, place the score here manually.
• Overall Feedback: Enter and provide further feedback for the student in texts, audio and video formats.
• If this is the first time you will provide the student with an evaluation, you will see the options: Save draft and Publish. Click Save draft to save all the information but to keep it hidden from students. Click Publish to save the information and show it to students.
• If you have already evaluated the submission and published it to students, the following options will appear: Update and Retract. Click Update to save any changes. Click Retract if you would like to retract the evaluation.  
  
  

3. To download the submission, from the Download Original icon select either (1) Down Original or (2) Download Annotations.

 

Step Three: Methods of Providing Feedback

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An assignment can be assessed in different ways. This can include rubrics, scores, feedback, audio and video.

3.1 Rubrics

1. When evaluating a students submission, click on the associated rubric in the Evaluation Panel to activate a dropdown version of the rubric and evaluate according to the rubric.

2. To mark the rubric, select the allocated bar for the marked criteria, giving the max points for the associated grade chosen. In this example, the first selected box on the bar indicates an HD mark, giving the student 100/100 points for the criterion.

If you need to deduct a few points from a grade, but you still wish to keep the overall grade mark in a particular grade range. Please select the box on the allocated bar and then select the current grade score; in this case, it is 100/100 points. You can then type in the needed score to stay within the correct overall grade range. For example, you could make it 80/100 points to remain within an HD mark.

You can also add feedback for each criterion; click Update once you finish marking to transfer the score to the dropbox folder. 

 

3.2 Score

You can enter a numerical value in the Overall Grade field. This is only necessary if you have not used the associated rubric.

If you use the rubric, the scores automatically transfer into the Overall Grade once the rubric is closed.

 

3.3 Feedback

You can provide qualitative feedback in the Feedback field. You are also able to include photos, URL links and other multimedia elements in the HTML editor.

 

3.4 Recording audio

You can record audio feedback for up to a maximum of 1 minute. To do this, follow the steps below.

1. Select Record Audio underneath the Overall Feedback box.

2. A popup window will appear. Ensure you Allow VU Collaborate to access your microphone when prompted.

3. To start recording, click New Recording and then click Add.

4. If you have previously recorded an audio file, you can upload it by clicking Upload File.

 

3.5 Recording Video 

You can record a video feedback for up to a maximum of 3 minutes. To do this, follow the steps below.

1. Select Record Video.

 

2. A popup window will appear. Please ensure you Allow VU Collaborate to access your camera when prompted.

3. To start recording, click New Recording and then click Add. 

4. If you have previously recorded a video, you can upload it by clicking Upload File.

 

Step Four: Publishing or Saving Feedback

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Once you have entered the desired feedback for the submission, you can either:

Publish: The feedback will be immediately available to the student, and the grades will be transferred to the grade book.

Save Draft: The feedback will only be visible to staff and not be released to students. Grades will not be transferred to the grade book until the feedback is published or a grade gets entered manually in the Gradebook.

1. Click Done to exit the submission.

2. Alternatively, click the Next Student icon, which is located at the top right-hand side of the screen, to display the next student assignment within the Assessment Dropbox folder.

To prevent students from viewing feedback prematurely, Save Draft for each submission. Then, when ready, Bulk Publishing Feedback in VU Collaborate for all students allows them to view their feedback and the grade values to be sent to the Gradebook.

 

Step Five: Providing Feeback for On Paper Submissions or Observed in Person Assessments

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1. VU Collaborate allows assessment dropboxes to be set up for On paper submissions or Observed in-person submissions. 

2. For evaluating Text Submission Dropboxes, the steps are similar to those described above.

• Initially, select the assessment folder you would like to evaluate by clicking on the assessment title in the dropbox folder. 
• On the Folder Submissions page, click the student's name you wish to leave feedback for or click the Evaluate Submission button.

3. The same methods as above can be used for providing feedback (Example: rubrics, score, written feedback, or attached file).

 

4. To evaluate On Paper Submission and Observed in Person dropbox types, you can tick all students and select Mark as Complete or provide further feedback through Evaluate Submission.

5. Once you have entered the desired feedback for the submission, you can either Publish or Save Draft. ( See Step Four ).

 

Retracting Published Feedback in VU Collaborate 

If grades and feedback have been published unintentionally, return to the grading view to individual retract results.

1. In your VU Collaborate space on the navigation bar, click Assessments then Dropbox

2. Click the Assessment Dropbox name to view the list of submissions.

3. Note the submission status, then click the document name, or status to open the grading view.

4. Look for the Update and Retract buttons on the bottom right-hand side of the evaluation page—Click Retract to hide grades and feedback from the student view.

5. A confirmation message Evaluation retracted (1) will be displayed, and the buttons will also change back to Publish or Save Draft (2).

5. Click on Done to the top menu on the right-hand side to return to the submissions folder.

In the submission views, all the feedback that got retracted will appear as Draft Saved.