Anonymous marking

Anonymous marking allows you to grade student submissions in complete anonymity, with student names hidden until marks are posted. This feature supports fairer assessment by minimising marking bias.

Assessment Code of Practice advises:

Written examinations are currently subject to anonymous marking.

Anonymity is lifted after the marking process is complete before meetings of Boards of Examiners and progress boards.

While anonymous marking is not always feasible for coursework, it is generally encouraged where appropriate and practicable. Faculties are expected to have their own methods for safeguarding student anonymity during the process, but it should be lifted when internal marking is complete for the purpose of student feedback.

Enabling anonymous marking

When creating a Blackboard assignment, you can enable anonymous marking by selecting the Hide Student Names box within the additional settings.

Additional settings can be accessed via the settings cog on the top right of the dropbox editing page.

Once this setting has been enabled:

All student submissions become anonymous to staff enrolled on the course.
Student submissions are assigned an Anonymous Student ID which replaces their name in the Gradebook. (Only for the time the assignment is anonymous.)

The marking process

You will follow the same marking process for an anonymous submission as you would for a normal submission. You can access the submission via the assignment dropbox or the Gradebook

Further information on marking a Blackboard assignment can be found here - Marking and Feedback in Blackboard Assignments

IMPORTANT: Anonymous Student ID numbers disappear when marks are posted for the assignment and students’ names are revealed.

If you need to make a note of a specific submission in order that you or a colleague can refer to it later – including once anonymity has been lifted – you should use the Submission Receipt ID, not the Anonymous Student ID.

Limitations: features not available with anonymous marking

Enabling anonymous marking restricts several features and workflows:

Group submissions
Peer review
Overriding final marks
Personalised non-submitter reminders or tracking non-submitters
Progress tracking and analytics
Class conversations
Accommodations, exemptions, and activity indicators

Student view

Students will see a banner appear at the top of their submission area to alert them that their submission will be anonymous.

All other aspects of the student submission process will be the same as a non-anonymised submission.

Student feedback view

Students will access and view thier marks and feedback just as they would with a non-anonymised submission.