Assessment citing another student...?!

darbooka

Where assessment results are returned with comments, to a student candidate, and those evaluation remarks for a given part of the assessment state a critical comments citing the performance of another particular student (ie, something like "this answer lacks [whatever], similar to what [whomever - another particular student] wrote", aside from the instructor being irresponsible and possibly breaching Data Protection or privacy rules, what is the effect of using another specific student as a 'benchmark' or comparison in this way? Could this be grounds for appealing the results? What can the other student do as well?

kelloggs36

They do peer assess, but it should never be divulged to the student - each student should be assessed based upon their own performance (see Wiliam and Black!!) I would discuss this with the tutor and see why they have done it this way, then go to the head of that Dept if you are still not happy. Do you know the marking policy in the Uni?

Voyager2002

I don't really understand the problem. Whoever marked your work is telling you that another student did better than you, and that you could learn something by looking at that person's work in order to do better yourself next time. That comment has been made to help you.

melancholly

i'd be more concerned that they could identify a student's work at all - isn't all assessment work meant to be marked anonymously?

I doubt the mark can be changed, but it may be worth following up with a letter to whoever is in charge of the course to question it.

It sounds like whoever marked it is trying to suggest that 2 people's work are very very similar and perhaps they worked on it together. If so, then a comment like that is a polite warning which is a lot better than them reporting someone for plagarism.

Voyager2002

melancholly wrote: »

i'd be more concerned that they could identify a student's work at all - isn't all assessment work meant to be marked anonymously?

I doubt the mark can be changed, but it may be worth following up with a letter to whoever is in charge of the course to question it.

It sounds like whoever marked it is trying to suggest that 2 people's work are very very similar and perhaps they worked on it together. If so, then a comment like that is a polite warning which is a lot better than them reporting someone for plagarism.

Several interesting points here:

I have marked work that was supposed to be anonymous, but since I knew my students things like the ideas that were used, the positions defended, and of course the handwriting meant that I knew exactly whose work I was marking. And why pretend? If you know the person then you can discuss their work with them if that is the most convenient way to give feedback. True, there is always the possibility of a marker abusing their position to exploit the student, but since each piece of work is marked independently by at least two academics, with an external moderating the process, any unfair marks are likely to be noticed and corrected.

In this case I don't see any reason for the mark to be changed.

And it does not sound like plagiarism at all: rather, two students attempted to do the same thing but one of them was more successful than the other. Nothing wrong with advising one of the students to talk to her/his coursemate and see how that other person had tackled the task in question.

melancholly

darbooka wrote: »

(ie, something like "this answer lacks [whatever], similar to what [whomever - another particular student] wrote",

Voyager2002 wrote:

two students attempted to do the same thing but one of them was more successful than the other.

maybe i'm mis-reading the OP's comment, but it sounds like 2 people did something similar and not so much that one was that much better to be worth mentioning.

i guess handwriting gives things away, but where i mark, all work is typed so no-one should be identified that way.

i strongly believe that all work should be marked anonymously - if someone wants to ask for more feedback and take their essay in, then they can do that and they are choosing to give up anonymity. at the very least, examiners should know better than to openly admit that they have identifed work - it's just asking for trouble.

si1503

melancholly wrote: »

maybe i'm mis-reading the OP's comment, but it sounds like 2 people did something similar and not so much that one was that much better to be worth mentioning.

That is the impression I got also.

darbooka

Thanks for your comments. To elaborate, this assessment was in the form of a type of oral presentation so it wasn't anonymous but none of the student peers were allowed to watch or participate so it was private to everyone but the examiners. However, it seems prejudicial that an examiner would associate one student's work specifically with another, and unfair to the other student that their work and assessment is used and disclosed to any other students. Moreover both these students don't have access to other students' results, even for comparative example or constructive criticism, so why should they both be deemed exceptional in this regard. And as it happens, both the students genuinely had not collaborated whatsoever, which only underscores the concern that some form of prejudgement about the two might have been a factor in the marking.

si1503

Personally, I feel it is unprofessional on the markers part to have made those comments. Surely the focus of feedback on marks should be 100% on your work, and not diverting attentions to the work of others. That being said, I doubt you will qualify for a remark.