After much consulting with Derby students and following a huge Union of Students campaign last academic year, the University has now introduced Anonymous Marking from this semester. What this means is that all pieces of work you submit which count towards your module grades (known as summative assessment) must be submitted with your student ID number, and not your name - therefore providing you with anonymity. In some rare cases you may still be required to submit work with your name; but you will be told if this is the case. Use of your student ID applies to electronically submitted work and hard copy/artefact submissions.
What does this all mean?
It means that, as far as possible, the people who mark your work will not be given your name! The degree to which your work is marked anonymously will vary across assignments and programmes however, so look out for individual guidance that relates to your work.
What will generally happen is your work is marked firstly by your module tutor(s), who may or may not be able to identify it is your work based on how involved they have been in your work leading up to the submission. Then, second marking of a sample of your work is undertaken by a second tutor, and lastly there is a process called Internal Moderation where a further sample is checked for consistency and academic standards. it is unlikely that tutors involved in these latter processes will be able to identify the work as yours.
So, use of your student number rather than your name enables anonymity at as many levels as possible in the assessment process. Of course, face-to-face assessments can’t be marked anonymously, so there is no expectation that you try to use your number for these assessments.
Things to try to remember
- It is really important that you do not identify yourself with your name anywhere in your work – check the file name, any headers and footers as well as coversheets.
- Check that you have written your student ID number correctly on your work. It is also advised that you put your number in the file name for electronic submissions.
- Check your module handbooks carefully for guidance where you think you might need to submit by your name, and always check with your module tutors if you are not sure.
Feedback on anonymous marking
Feedback on anonymous marking will happen through your Programme Committees, so please give your Programme Reps your experiences and views.
What are Programme Reps?
If you haven't already been told, Programme Reps are student volunteers from each course at the University of Derby who take the feedback of the students to help better the student experience. You can contact or speak to them about any issues you have, good and bad feedback, things you want changing - they can make huge changes happen, so please reach out, no matter how big or small the issue is!
You can find out who your programme rep/s are by going to derbyunion.co.uk/change/academic/ and looking for your Programme (aka course).