Set grading rules and feedback

Who can use this?

Who: Teachers and co-teachers
Plans: All plans
Where: Sections 6 and 7 of Instant, the Feedback step of Guided (the Handout step for question-based work), and Feedback & grading on the Assignment tab

Limits and notes

Once grades have been shared, these settings are locked.
Changing them on graded work offers Save & re-grade so the grades match.
Tone comes from the feedback style and your feedback instructions. There are no separate warmth or leniency controls.

Grading rules

Switch	What it does
Award partial credit	For questions that accept more than one correct answer, gives credit for each correct part. Question-based work only. On by default
Check grammar	Runs a spelling, punctuation and grammar check on each submission. Findings are shown to you and the student. Scores follow your rubric
Hide points from students [1]	Students still see the rubric level they earned on each criterion, plus all feedback, just no point values. Good for drafts and practice
Language of student work	The standard the work is judged against, including regional spelling. Auto-detect each submission is available

Feedback

Control	Options
Feedback style	Targeted: direct, in-line comments on specific parts of the work. Glow & grow: strengths balanced with areas to improve. Structured: organised by rubric criterion. Sandwich: positive, constructive, positive. Actionable: step-by-step suggestions for the next revision. Socratic: guiding questions
Feedback length	Concise or Detailed
Feedback language	Same as the student’s work, or a language you choose

For quizzes, exams and worksheets, feedback is given per question; style and length apply to written responses.

Instructions in your own words

Under Your grading instructions and Your feedback instructions, select Browse the library for ready-made ones such as Give credit for a valid method or Sound like me, not a bot, or Write your own. Saved instructions live under Your prompts and are ready on every class you teach. Tick Always include this to have one added to every new assignment, for all classes or the ones you pick. Some requests are turned away, and the editor says why: it cannot detect plagiarism or AI writing, and it cannot curve or rank because each student is graded alone. Others are redirected to the control that already does the job: length, language, hiding the score, a named style, or spell-checking.

How to tell it worked

The Grading section of the Settings tab shows tiles for the style, length, instructions, partial credit, grammar check and points. The next graded submission reflects them.

If something goes wrong

Everything is greyed out

Grades have been shared, or grading is running. The section says which.

The feedback ignores my instruction

Instructions apply from the next grading run. For work already graded, save with Save & re-grade.

I can't save an instruction

The editor explains: requests about plagiarism, AI detection, curving or ranking are declined. Say what earns the marks instead.

Opens GradingPal on the screen this page describes.

Last updated 19 September 2026

Yes, this helped No, something’s wrong

Report a problem with this page

Who can use this?

​Limits and notes

​Grading rules

​Feedback

​Instructions in your own words

​How to tell it worked

​If something goes wrong

​Related tasks