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Dear William,
You have opened the potential for a fascinating discussion topic about marking!
I'm not sure I can give a precise definition of "over-marking". When I use the term, I mean that I consider a piece of work to have been "over-marked" if the initial mark awarded is, in terms of my academic judgement, far too high. Generally, my academic judgement in such a case is affected substantially by the relevant level descriptors because they are part of the regulatory regime that applies to degree awarding institutions. 'Over-marking' can have another meaning - marking schemes are structured by the expected contents of the deliverable (assignment, dissertation, etc.) rather than the relevant level descriptors (e.g. 5% for introduction, 20% for literature revies,...)
Awarding marks is a matter of academic discretion, and in law, is generally considered 'non-justiciable' - that's why students can't appeal against academic judgement - and anyone else who interferes with a marker's marks without consultation and agreement is at serious legal risk as upheld in the case of Buckland v Bournemouth University.
At levels 4-7 marks are usually ranked in some way with levels of classification. That does not happen at Level 8 (level 12 in Scotland) when a PhD is either passed or not - no marks or grades. More research is needed on the general acceptability of grades, but I have seen no examples where the results of assessment at levels 4-7 are only pass or fail (some components maybe).
Another research topic is how people decide marks. One American university with an outpost in Geneva had a pass mark of 90%! Therefore a mark of 89% yields crying - but a mark of 89% in the UK normally yields cheering! So markers decide if a piece of work is a pass or not, then how much of a pass and adjust that to the marking scheme in use.
For over-marking let me give you an example. I had a level-5 marketing module to moderate at an overseas partner institution. The assignment was for the students to select a company, then prepare a marketing mix. Most of the marks awarded were 1st (>70%). On inspection all the assignments had web only references with no books or journal papers. Some of the company material and analysis was excellent. I I decided they were over-marked - the absence of books and journal papers brought into question the absence of evidence of subject knowledge and understanding. It also meant there was a complete absence of critical thinking vis-a-vis key writers. The absence of key writers also meant that there was no applicability because there were no theories/ideas/concepts that could be applied. In my academic judgement based on the level descriptors most would fail - there could be some passes (3rds) for those where the discussion revealed sufficient implied subject knowledge and understanding. Many students made the error of trying to do a marketing mix for the company, and didn't select a particular product or service for which to do a marketing mix. Some had used website discussions of concepts but no discussion about the reliability of the sources. Many of the students simply interpreted the term marketing mix as '4Ps'! Therefore in my academic judgement many of the 1sts awarded were "over-marked" and should have been fail/pass.
For your residual questions: the key problem with over-marking is that it results in grade inflation misleading the student and other potential users of the grade information (other HE institutions, employers etc.) about the student's current subject knowledge and understanding.
I'll stop there. Plenty for people to comment on.
best wishes
Geoffrey
On 14/05/2019 13:12, William Keenan wrote:
Dear Geoffrey
I found your comment on 'over-marking' interesting. However, I confess that I don't know precisely what 'over-marking' refers to and why it should be regarded with disapproval.
Perhaps other colleagues, particularly fellow External Examiners, are in the same position. Is 'over-marking', like beauty' in the eye of the beholder? What is the 'over' over exactly?
I wonder if you would kindly take the time to define what 'over-marking' refers to; provide examples of it; and point out its deficiencies and drawbacks as you perceive them to be.
I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this. Thank you.
With best wishes,
William
