The document outlines the grading and assessment processes for various programs at Victoria University, detailing assignment structures, grading timelines, and feedback protocols. Each unit consists of three assignments with specific weights, word limits, and due dates, and facilitators are responsible for given assessments and logging feedback. It includes guidance on handling plagiarism cases, ensuring quality in grading, and the next steps for facilitators in delivering effective feedback.

1. VU Online Grading & Assessment Training
March 2023
VU MBA/MOT/MFP/Nur/MH

2. 2
1. Assignment Structure
2. Marking Process
3. Process Demo on VU Collaborate
4. Grading Guidance
5. Feedback Guidance
6. Quality Management
7. Next Steps
Agenda

3. 3
All units consist of three assignments:
1. Assignment Structure
Overview (MBA,Nursing & MFP)
Assessment Weight Word-limit Due Date Grading turnaround time
#1 10% 500 End of Week 1 Thu 1 pm AEDT
#2 40%
50%
2000
(MFP/MBA)
2500 (Nur)
End of Week 3
(MFP/MBA)
End of Week 4 (Nur)
Fri 1 pm AEDT
#3 50%
40%
2500
(MFP/MBA)
2000 (Nur)
End of Week 6 Fri 1 pm AEDT

4. 4
All units consist of three assignments:
1. Assignment Structure
Overview (Masters of Teaching)
Assessment Weight Word-limit Due Date Grading turnaround time
#1 30% 1500 End of Week 2 Thur 1 pm AEDT
#2 40% 2000 End of Week 4 Fri 1 pm AEDT
#3 30% 1500 End of Week 6 Fri 1 pm AEDT

5. 5
1. Each facilitator will mark the assignment submissions for their own batch of
students (in a non-anonymised manner)
2. Each facilitator needs to grade and log-in feedback for the student papers on
a daily basis (6-12 submissions may be shared with VU during the week for
review)
2. Marking Process (1/4)
Important points to note
Assignment Completion Time
#1 Thursday (1 PM AEDT)
#2 Friday (1 PM AEDT)
#3 Friday (1 PM AEDT)
❏ Student cases with F or HD grade will be double-marked by another
facilitator
❏ In case of inconsistent grades between the two facilitators, the paper will
be escalated to coordinator for review

6. 6
2. Marking Process (2/4)
Activities post student assignment submission
Activities A1 (Different for MOT) A2 & A3
Moderation
Assignment submission Sunday Sunday
Grading of 4 anonymised papers for moderation Monday morning Monday morning
Moderation / calibration meeting Monday afternoon Monday afternoon
Marking
Complete grading and feedback for initial check (3
papers) - these will be picked up by the QC team for
checking
Monday 7:00 PM AEDT Monday 7:00 PM AEDT
Identifying plagiarism candidates to UC Tuesday 8:30 AM AEDT Tuesday 8:30 AM AEDT
UC guidance on plagiarism candidates Wednesday 12:30 PM AEDT Wednesday 12:30 PM AEDT
Marking Completion Thursday 1:00 PM AEDT Friday 1:00 PM AEDT
Feedback QC
Finalisation of initial 3 papers after incorporating
QC feedback
Tuesday 12 Noon AEDT Tuesday 12 Noon AEDT
Spot Check post completion of grading and
feedback
Thursday 12 Noon AEDT Friday 12 Noon AEDT

7. 7
2. Marking Process (3/4)
Activities post student assignment submission - Moderation
Grade student papers (4) provided by coordinator for moderation (expected to
come in by Sunday afternoon AEDT latest)
Sunday [Moderation Papers]
➔ Attend the moderation meeting with UC (Monday morning/afternoon AEDT)
to seek clarity
◆ Check for expectation to adhere to rubric and scope for leniency in
marking
◆ Guidance on points regarding improvement areas for the next
assessment task
➔ Select 3 student submissions (ideally, an excellent, average, and
unsatisfactory submission based on your judgement):
◆ Grade the submission as per rubric on VU Collaborate
◆ Enter written feedback on VU Collaborate
Monday [Moderation & Grading Kick-
off]
Ensure you grade the three submissions and enter the feedback before Monday 7 PM

8. 8
2. Marking Process (4/4)
Activities post student assignment submission - Grading and QC
➔ QCer will guide on the parameters defined in the rubric and comment on
inaccuracies/errors in the 3 graded papers
➔ Attend Feedback Moderation Meeting with LINC Mentor (if needed)
Monday [Feedback QC Comments]
➔ Incorporate the feedback recommendations in the rest of the batch
➔ Complete the grading before 2pm on Thu (A1) and Fri (A2/A3) and notify the
PM accordingly
➔ QCer will select 5 papers randomly and evaluate the feedback document on
the aforementioned rubric
Tuesday - Thursday (A1) / Friday (A2/A3) [Complete
Grading]
➔ Address comments wherever required
➔ Upload the feedback on Collaborate once they get the final approval from the
PM
Thursday (A1) / Friday (A2/A3) [Upload]
We need to turnaround final written feedback on VU Collaborate on Thursday, 1
PM AEDT (for A1) and Friday 1 PM AEDT (for A2 and A3)

9. 9
3A. Process Demo on VU Collaborate
How to grade submissions following marking rubric?
Demo of the grading process on VU Collaborate and
LF Portal

10. 10
3B. Demo for using Grading Resources (available on LINC Fellow
Portal )
This portal provides the facilitators with all the resources necessary to kick off the grading
activity on Collaborate.
1. The facilitators must ensure that they are conversant with the VU Grading
Guidelines and Checklists before grading the student submissions on the LMS.
2. All the assessment related tools and documents are saved in the assessment-
specific sections
- Moderation Sheet : To add marks/comments for the 4 papers prior to the
moderation meeting.
- Feedback Template : Use this to type feedback and paste on collaborate to avoid
formatting issues.
- Grading Tracker : Enter all marks that you grade here.
- QC sheet : Feedback of LINC QC will be shared here.

11. 11
4A. Grading Guidance
Plagiarism (1/4)
Urkund
Score
Facilitator Action Grading Approach Action
<10%
None (unless there are
instance/s of unintentional
plagiarism)
To be marked as usual
If there is unintentional
plagiarism, include examples of
instances in the feedback
10% - 30%
Investigate Urkund report;
Discount acceptable similarities
like Reference list, Report title,
Assessment Prompt of the
report
<10% after discounting acceptable
similarities
To be marked as usual unless
there are instances of
unintentional plagiarism
>10% after discounting acceptable
similarities, If the student has made
mistakes attributing sources or had
not referenced correctly, the
facilitator will give an N grade [not a
Zero (0)] on C1(Academic Literacies)
criteria.
Add a note of the Academic
Integrity Policy and
unintentional plagiarism
Student is directed to resources
on Academic Integrity in
'Getting started with VU Online'
unit.
>30%
Investigate Urkund report and
check for breaches of the
Academic Integrity Policy
Immediately report these cases to the
UC and await their guidance (Ana to
be copied on the emails)
UC to send Educative Response
to the students with 1st breach
of the Academic Integrity Policy
Ana to add student names in
the registry if a first-time
offense
● Do not apply penalty till the UC confirms. Mark the submissions
normally.
● Plagiarism assessment is not only dependent on similarity indices; please use
your judgement when grading students. Please spend time to understand if

12. 12
4A. Grading Guidance
Plagiarism (4/4)
1. Do keep the following links readily available while grading:
2. Referencing and Plagiarism: Avoiding Plagiarism - Steps to avoid plagiarism
3. Academic Integrity Policy - To understand VU’s policy around academic integrity
4. APA Referencing Guide - Keep it handy (print out or pdf copy) for quick
reference while grading submissions (especially for the first & last criteria on
the rubric)
5. Endnote - ok to use, but students have to be responsible that the final references are
correct
6. Google Scholar references are often incomplete. Students must double-check /
proofread
VU Online is not out to penalise student, rather they want the Facilitators
to use the Urkund tool as a teaching tool to assist in conveying good
academic integrity practices to their students.
Please include examples of referencing errors in the feedback

13. 13
1. Discussing the rubric with UC to arrive at a common understanding of every
criterion is a must. Use the pre-moderation meetings for this discussion.
2. We should NOT score a zero (0) mark on any rubric criteria where the
student has made an attempt to respond to the corresponding question /
sub-question from the task.
3. Continue marking the high similarity cases raised with the UC as usual.
Once the case is determined as a plagiarism case, the UC/ACC will
decide the penalty and apply it to the student submission.
4. When marking on the individual rubric criteria on VU Collaborate,
a. Facilitators should first select the grade (ex. C, D, HD, etc) for each
criterion.
b. In the criterion score, provide points in the extreme range (especially the
lower end) only when they have a firm reason for doing so.
4C. Grading Guidance
Other points to note

14. 14
1. Structure / style:
a. Follow prescribed structure at all times
b. Feedback to be aligned to rubrics
2. Substance:
a. Substantiating / qualifying your comments (no vague statements) with examples
b. Identifying instances where the student has done well / not met expectations
c. Customise by including relevant concluding remarks
3. Grammar:
a. Formal writing / choice of words
b. Spellings
c. Punctuations
5. Feedback Guidance (1/3)
Language and Grammar
Facilitators need to provide consistent feedback and LINC will engage in rigorous
quality check (QC)
USE GRAMMARLY

15. 15
Start with Dear [First Name]
Introduction and Positive Statement - First and foremost, show
appreciation for good points in student assessment
a. Pick up the 1-2 area(s) from the rubrics that the student had
done best on and commend them on the work
b. “your identification of sources of financing with either of the
different classifications is highly effective”
Areas of Improvement - Suggest and elaborate on areas that were not
as per expectations in bullet points
c. For each area, connect it back to the rubrics
d. In terms of criterion, ”explanation of why other sources of
financing may not be appropriate or relevant”, your response
could have been…”
e. Provide an example where possible and / or a tip on how it
could be improved based on the criterion
Feed Forward for the next task (in this unit or a future unit) to the
student
Concluding Remarks plus one personalised statement
Sign off with Regards
[Your Name]
5. Feedback Guidance (2/3)
Structure for written feedback
No anonymous marking;
facilitator to mark own group
To commend use the same
terminology as the rubrics that
corresponds to the point you
have given to the criterion (e.g.
D - highly effective)
for example if on the rubric they
were marked with an effective or C
Use criteria from the rubrics which
the student could have done better
This is critical to make the feedback
useful for the student. Some
constructive guidance on how to
improve or pointing examples will
help student understand the issues

16. 16
5. Feedback Guidance (3/3)
Points to be included in the written feedback
TYPE OVERALL GRADE GUIDANCE
Positive Irrespective of final grade
Rubric criterion in which the student has
done the best / you liked the most (at least
1)
Areas of
Concern
Irrespective of final grade
All rubric criterion in which the student
has failed
Overall Grade – F / P / C
Rubric criterion in which the student has
scored F / P (at least 3)
Overall Grade – D / HD
Rubric criterion in which the student has
scored lowest (1-2)
Points of
Improvement
Irrespective of final grade
Suggest three points that student should
keep in mind when working on the next
assessment task
Submissions with HD in all rubric criterion will be considered as
special case and it’s okay to not provide specific areas of concern.
You should weigh more on good aspects and justify what you
liked / appreciated and why.
Sample
s

17. 17
6. Quality Management (1/2)
QCer will review the feedback basis this rubric
PARAMETER CHECKLIST
Use of Australian English
Ensure we are providing the feedback comments in Australian English.
Make sure English (Australia) is selected while entering the feedback on
the word file & uploading on VU Collaborate
Correct grammar,
punctuation etc.
This check will be conducted on Grammarly. Register for a free account if
you do not have one at https://app.grammarly.com/
Adherence to template
Ensure you have included all parts of the template: Student Name,
Introduction, Positive Statement, Areas of Improvement, Feed Forward,
Concluding Remark & Personalised Statement
Customisation of
feedback
Ensure that:
1. Examples have been provided for all criterion included in areas of
improvement
2. Each examples are specific to the student's report, and not a repetition
of the criterion feedback
3. Customised concluding remark has been included
Correct formatting
Ensure the following:
1. Areas of improvement have been bulleted
2. Proper paragraph breaks used
3. All unnecessary text from the template (including "<", ">" etc.) has been
removed
Basis this review, VU is contemplating introducing a performance reward / penalty system
from next term onwards

18. 18
6. Quality Management (2/2)
Performance will be measured basis these parameters
5 Papers will be randomly QCeed and marked by QCer for each
assessment
3. Grading Quality (Total = 10 points)
a Assessment Feedback Quality
"0. <10 overall acceptable
papers
4. 10-11 overall acceptable
papers
7. 12-13 overall acceptable
papers
10. >=14 overall acceptable
papers"
One of the qualifiers for a Bonus relates to grading. That is-
1. All grading related activities (moderation, quality check, double marking,
clearance) have been completed in the stipulated time

19. 19
Next Steps
Things to keep in mind
For Assignment 1:
1. Use the rubric as a starting point for your feedback and customise as needed.
2. The feedback template will be uploaded on the LINC Fellow Portal two days before the
assignment due date. Kindly follow the template ONLY after the moderation meeting.
3. LINC will review individual feedback and mark it up for your correction:
a.Overall feedback to be written on an MS Office online file (instead of VU
Collaborate)
b.This will help you write better and give you an option to check grammatical errors
c. LINC QCer will QC and mark it up for your action
4. Grading timeline:
a. Please complete marking & feedback for 8 papers daily for A1 and 5 papers daily
for A2 & and any additional paper reviews (for F or HD cases)
b. Expect to put 15-20 mins for grading of each submission
Grading of submission on rubric to continue as is on VU Collaborate