Grading open-ended questions consistently is a big challenge according to the participants of our survey. The goal is that same (similar) answers are awarded the same (a similar) amount of points.
There are several possible sources of inconsistency:
-
Same grader is inconsistent across students
- Biases systematically affect the grading
- There is an (unsystematic) error when awarding points due to the fact that humans’ judgment is inconsistent
-
Multiple grades have different views on same exercise
Many of the sources of inconsistency can be adressed through the use of software, e.g. through Rubrics.