Mark discussions

First, check the discussion topic has been configured to allow marks and feedback. A topic that carries assessment weighting must also have a grade item linked to it.

To configure a topic to allow marks and feedback, follow these steps:

1. Click Communication in the Subject Navigation Bar.

   

2. Click Discussions. The Manage Discussions page opens, listing all the discussion forums and their topics. You can also create a new discussion topic at this point.

   

3. Click the Actions drop-down menu next to the discussion topic and click Edit Topic. This displays the topic creation or edit page.

   

4. Click in the box field under Grade Out Of. This configures the topic to allow marks and feedback.
5. To link the topic to a grade item in My Grades, click the In Grade Book button with the ribbon icon next to it. A drop-down menu will appear.

   

6. Select Edit or Link to Existing. The Edit or Link to Existing dialogue opens.
   In the Edit or Link to Existing dialogue:
7. Click Link to an existing grade item, and then select the appropriate grade item from those that have been automatically created in My Grades. The points value is imported from the My Grades grade item and in the case when individual posts are marked or a rubric is used, the marks are adjusted automatically to fit the total.

   

8. Alternatively, if the discussion topic will be marked but does not carry assessment weighting (i.e. the mark and feedback are for information only), click Not in Grade Book and enter a value manually into the Grade Out Of field. The value you enter should be the maximum possible mark (e.g. if the topic will be marked out of 10, enter the number 10).

   For more information about My Grades, see Set up My Grades.

9. Click the OK button.
10. Toggle the Visibility of your discussion topic to be Visible or Hidden.

    

11. Click Save and Close.

Your discussion topic is now configured to include marks and feedback. You can check this by verifying that the rosette icon (“includes assessment”) appears under the topic.

For each discussion topic you can also adjust the following settings by opening the expanding accordion bars on the right of the screen:
Availability Dates & Conditions: With the Start date and End date fields you can specify when the discussion forum topic will become available and when it will no longer be available to students. You can also set up any Release Conditions and assign Sections and/or Groups to the topic if these have already been set up.
Post & Completion: These settings enable you customise the way that students participate in the forum.
Evaluation & Feedback: These settings allow you to add rubrics and specify how topics will be marked – overall (mark assigned for a student’s total contribution to a topic) or post by post (marks assigned to students’ individual posts in a topic).

Ensure you name your discussion forum topics according to any agreed naming conventions so that you can identify them more easily. For example, BD: A1 – Client scenario (Forum task) has a similar name to the grade item for easier identification.

Individual posts: setting the calculation method

If the box “Allow evaluation of individual posts” in Evaluation and Feedback is checked, marks can be assigned to each post a student makes within a topic. Brightspace then automatically calculates an overall mark for each student for the topic, based on the marks assigned to individual posts.

You can choose the most suitable calculation method from the list in the drop-down menu:

• Average Post Score: Calculates the average of all the post marks per user.
• Maximum Post Score: Uses the highest mark among all the post marks per user.
• Minimum Post Score: Uses the lowest mark among all the post marks per user.
• Mode Post Score - Highest on Multiple: Determines the frequency of marks on posts, selecting the highest occurrence of a mark per user. If multiple marks occur at the highest frequency, the system chooses the highest of those marks.
• Mode Post Score - Lowest on Multiple: Determines the frequency of marks on posts, selecting the highest occurrence of a mark per user. If multiple marks occur at the highest frequency, the system chooses the lowest of those marks.
• Sum of Post Scores: Totals all the marks on posts within a topic.

To mark student submissions within a topic:

1. Click Communication in the Subject Navigation Bar.
   
   
2. Click Discussions. The Manage Discussions page opens.
   
   
3. Click the drop-down arrow next to the topic title and then click Assess Topic.

   You will only see this option when assessment is included in the topic.

   

4. The Assess Topic screen opens, showing a list of students.

   As an alternative, you can click on the new posts (number) hyperlink to open and mark unread posts. You can also View the topic, find an individual student’s post, and click Assess Student.

5. Click Topic Score under the student’s name that you want to mark. The Assess Topic screen opens and displays all submissions made by the student to the topic. This is helpful, as you can see all the relevant posts in one location before allocating a mark.

   

   The submission panel on the left displays the discussion thread and replies. Click each post’s title or reply to open the post in a new window for context. You can adjust the size of the submission and evaluation panels by dragging the divider between them according to your preferences and screen size. This divider remains fixed in place as you navigate through your students’ submissions.
6. If marking individual posts is enabled, add a mark to each of the student’s posts. A total mark will display automatically in the Overall Grade field, calculated according to the method selected to combine marks (see Configure a topic above).
7. If marking individual posts is disabled and a rubric is in use, add marks and feedback to the rubric. The total mark will display automatically in the Overall Grade field.

   If a no-score rubric is in use, you will need to enter a mark in the Overall Grade field.

8. Provide any feedback in the Overall Feedback text editor.

   

9. Click the Save Draft button at the bottom right of the screen. This enables you to edit the marks and feedback later. Click Publish to immediately release the mark and feedback to the student in Assignments, Discussions, My Grades, Content, and User Progress.

If you click Publish, the marks and feedback are immediately visible to students. Where a discussion carries assessment weighting, the marks will be transferred to My Grades. The option to Publish should only be used with authorisation from the subject convenor or subject coordinator in a case where the submission does not require manual moderation.

To mark the next students’ submission, click the right arrow at the bottom of the screen next to the Save Draft button. This feature helps to maintain continuity in the marking process.

You can create group discussions, but marks need to be assigned to each individual student within the group.

You cannot publish or save your draft if the content in the Overall Feedback field exceeds 300,000 characters. If the content in this field exceeds the character limit or if the Overall Grade field contains an invalid grade, a dialogue box will appear, and a tooltip will show stating, "There are one or more errors in the information entered" when you attempt to save or publish.

If you need to re-mark any student submission, you can retract a mark or feedback previously allocated to a student. You can also republish the mark and feedback after changes have been made.

To Retract/Republish marks:

1. Click Communication in the Subject Navigation Bar.

   

2. Click Discussions to open the Manage Discussions page.

   

3. Click the drop-down arrow to the right of the topic and then click Assess Topic.

   

4. Select the check-box next to a student's name and click Retract Feedback or Publish Feedback.

You can carry out this operation for all students in bulk. To do this, first select the check-box at the top of the list. All students’ names will be selected.

The Status column provides more information such as: whether a topic has been marked, whether a mark/feedback is currently saved as a draft, whether a mark/feedback has been published, and when publication occurred.