The Legacy (Old) Marking Tool
WARNING: The legacy marking tool will be fully deprecated in March 2026. From this point, it will become read only and you will not be able to use it for marking. We strongly recommend using the new marking tool (default) wherever possible.
For more information about how this change will impact existing flows using the legacy marking tool, see the UNIwise article on the new marking tool conversion process.
You can ask your programme administrator(s) to enable the new marking tool on any flow where marking has not yet started. Please do not ask for the new marking tool to be switched on if marking has already begun, doing so will delete marking progress!
Add a summary comment and/or upload a feedback file
Summary comments can be entered as part of feedback to students. In a summary comment, you can enter typed text or upload a feedback file. A summary comment can be made viewable to external examiners and moderators in the shared summary view.
To add a summary comment or upload a feedback file:
Step 1: In the marking tool, select the Student/Candidate tab (top right tab) and click Add comment (next to Comments on this paper):
Step 2: A pop-up box will appear for you to add your comments via text or uploading a feedback file:
IMPORTANT: If you want the student to see this summary comment or feedback file, you must share your feedback with the student by selecting ‘Share with participant’ in the drop-down box (as below):
Step 3: The comment will automatically save. Close the comment pop-up box by clicking the X icon in the top right corner. The comment will automatically save.
Step 4: You can check that your comment has been saved by going back to the Student tab and checking that your comment has saved under the Comments on this paper section:
Mark via annotations
Annotations are available for FLOWassign where the student has submitted a single PDF file. If you have issues with annotating the PDF submission, please complete a staff query form.
Marking needs to take place while online and you should ensure that you have a stable internet connection. Look for the saving icon on the left hand side.
There are THREE ways you can annotate a submission; highlight, stamp, and draw.
Open the marking tool and select the desired submission you are going to mark.
Annotation 1: Highlight text
Step 1: Click on the first tool in the toolbox in the lower-left corner. The coloured ring around the tool indicates that it is active.
NOTE: You can activate/deactivate the last used tool by pressing or holding down Shift on your keyboard. If the last used tool is the highlight tool, you can mark text and press shift to highlight the text.
Step 2: First highlight the desired text on the paper and then confirm the section you have highlighted by selecting the red tick icon:
Step 3: A pop-up menu on the right opens automatically where you can write comments associated with this annotation in the text box provided.
In this menu, you can also change the colour/formatting of the highlight; share the annotation with the student or markers; or delete the annotation:
Colour of annotation– click on the appropriate colour to change the colour of your annotation.
Formatting of annotation – you have the option to use a standard highlighting (as shown above), as well as the option to strikethrough or underline a section.
Sharing annotation - you have the option to share an annotation with the student (participant) and/or markers (co-assessors) by selecting the relevant option in the drop down button. To share annotations in bulk, please view this section. You must share actively share your annotations if you require students to receive your feedback.
Delete annotation
Step 4: The annotation will autosave as you type or change the appearance of the annotation. Once you have completed your annotation, click the X icon at the top right of the pop-up menu.
Annotation 2: Insert a stamp
Step 1: To insert a stamp, click on the middle tool in the toolbox in the lower-left corner:
Step 2: Click the section of the submission where you want the stamp to appear:
Step 3: A pop-up menu on the right opens automatically where you can write comments associated with this annotation in the text box provided.
In this menu, you can also change the colour/formatting of the highlight; share the annotation with the student or markers; or delete the annotation:
Colour of stamp – click on the appropriate colour to change the colour of your annotation.
Stamp symbol – you have the option to choose a variety of symbols for your stamps. Click on the icons available to change the symbol of the annotation.
Sharing annotation - you have the option to share with the participant (student) and/or co-assessors (markers) by selecting the relevant option in the drop down button . To share annotations in bulk, please view this section. You must share actively share your annotations if you require students to receive your feedback.
Delete annotation
Step 4: The annotation will autosave as you type or change the appearance of the annotation. Once you have completed your annotation, click the X icon at the top right of the pop-up menu.
Annotation 3: Draw
Step 1: To insert a stamp, click on the middle tool in the toolbox in the lower-left corner:
Step 2: First, draw on the paper (i.e. circle a section of text) and then confirm the section you have highlighted by selecting the red tick icon:
Step 3: A pop-up menu on the right opens automatically where you can write comments associated with this annotation in the text box provided.
In this menu, you can also change the colour/formatting of the highlight; share the annotation with the student or markers; or delete the annotation:
Colour of drawing – click on the appropriate colour to change the colour of your annotation.
Sharing annotation - you have the option to share with the participant (student) and/or co-assessors (markers) by selecting the relevant option in the drop down button . To share annotations in bulk, please view this section. You must share actively share your annotations if you require students to receive your feedback.
Delete annotation
Step 4: The annotation will autosave as you type or change the appearance of the annotation. Once you have completed your annotation, click the X icon at the top right of the pop-up menu.
Marking via a Rubric
Where a rubric has been added to a flow by the Manager or an Author. Rubrics can either be standard e.g. a grid of criteria by ratings, or they can be custom rubrics which allow for custom marksheets including free text, drop down menus, rating scales, numbers etc.
Step 1: In the marking tool, select the Rubric button:
Step 2: Each section of the rubric must be completed in order to approve and enter a grade. This may include sections such as text fields. You can see how many rubric elements have been completed fully by looking at the bottom of the rubric:
Step 3: Once completed, you will be able to Approve the rubric:
Step 4: The rubric will tally the total score for the student and you may be asked to enter this mark to confirm. Select Approve and enter grade:
Step 5: The mark will be entered in the Candidate tab (fig 1) and you also have the option to re-open the rubric if you need to go back and make amendments:
fig 1:
fig 2:
For guidance on how to create rubrics prior to marking, please see the Author guide on Creating a rubric.
Marking: Enter a mark
You must enter a mark for each submission you are marking. To do this:
Step 1: Click the Student tab (top-right tab) in the marking tool:
Step 2: In the 'Enter grade' field, enter your mark and click the Enter grade button to confirm:
Step 3: If your mark has been entered correctly, you will see the mark populated in the top right corner (a message will also appear below to indicate your mark has been entered):
NOTE: you still need to submit your mark as final for your marking to be complete. To submit your marks, please view this section.
Sharing feedback
IMPORTANT: The sharing of feedback elements (comments, annotations and rubrics) should be set up in advance in collaboration with the teaching administrator (Manager). The Manager can apply the default sharing options for feedback before marking begins (i.e. if feedback is to be shared with students and/or co-markers). This setting cannot be applied to feedback retroactively so it is important to have this set up in advance, which will limit the need for markers to manually share their feedback.
1. Sharing annotations (in bulk)
Step 1: Click the Annotation button, which will bring up the annotation summary, and click the blue pencil icon:
Step 2: Once you have clicked the blue pencil icon, a checkbox will appear next to the pencil icon. Tick this checkbox to select all annotations (or only the annotations you want to share):
Step 3: Click the Action dropdown button and select ‘Share with participant’ to share the selected annotations with the student:
WARNING: Be careful when selecting the right option to action for your selected annotations.
If you select the Delete action by mistake, and confirm this action, ALL of your annotations will be lost and cannot be recovered. Please ensure that you are selecting the correct action when sharing your annotations.
Step 4: You can check that the annotations have been correctly shared with the student, by checking that the eye icon - in the example below, the icon shows as ‘All’ (meaning annotations have shared with been shared with the student and the co-assessors):
2. Sharing overall comment and/or feedback file
It is possible to add an summary comment for a student or upload a feedback file (such as if marking was conducted off the platform):
Step 1: If you have added an overall comment for a submission/student, select the Candidate tab and select the comment you want to share, under 'Comments on this paper':
Step 2: The comment will appear in a pop-up window and you can amend the sharing options by ticking the relevant option, as show below:
3. Sharing rubrics
If the default sharing option for feedback has not been applied correctly, markers would need to share their rubrics for every student.
Step 1: In the student paper, select Rubric:
Step 2: At the top of the rubric, you will see a sharing button - select the relevant option to share this rubric with the correct individual(s):
Sharing marks
Two options for sharing marks:
Sharing marks with other markers (open marking)
1. Sharing marks with students
In order for marks to be shared with students, two tasks must be completed:
'Show final grades' has been enabled by the Manager (administrator) who set up the assessment - steps here.
Marks must be submitted by markers and, if your assessment is set up with Reviewer approval, marks must be submitted by Reviewers (i.e. module leads or lead markers) too - steps here.
Without these two steps, students will not be able to see their marks on the platform.
2. Sharing marks with other markers (open marking)
Submitted marks cannot be seen by co-markers (assessors) in the legacy marking tool. This is possible in the new marking tool if the co-marker has been given the Open Marker assessor type.
Workarounds:
Co-marker (i.e. second marking) is added as a read-only Reviewer by the Manager (Reviewers can view marks submitted by markers across the assessment)
Markers export their completed grade sheet and share off the platform
Markers enter their mark as a comment on the paper