Grading exams

1 Check exams

Grading starts from the “Check exams” button on the home page, which fetches the latest attempts from the cloud. The “Checking exams” progress window shows the steps and a summary (exams, new submissions, awaiting grading); close it with Close. The home page card Pending Reviews lists the exams with their number of ungraded attempts, and “Review Now →” opens the “Exams waiting for evaluation” view. In this view you can fetch new attempts again with the “Check for new” button.

2 The grading view

On the left edge is a narrow exam list (exams pending review). Clicking an exam opens its scoring grid across the full width of the view – students as rows, questions as columns. Reviewing and scoring a single question happens in the focus view (section 4), which opens from the grid.

• Exam list (left edge) – exams pending review; clicking one opens the exam’s grid. The selected exam is highlighted.
• Show all exams – also shows exams graded earlier.
• 🔄 Check for new – fetches the latest attempts from the cloud.
• Exam heading – the exam name and the number of ungraded attempts in a red badge, e.g. 3 Ungraded.
• 🔍 Search students… – the search field filters the grid rows by name or student number.

3 The scoring grid

Scoring is done in a grid where students are rows and questions are columns (1, 2, 3 …). The column header shows the question’s maximum points (e.g. 3 / 6), and at the end of the row is the Σ total of the exam’s points (e.g. Σ / 30).

• Point cells – enter or edit each question’s points on the student’s row. Automatically checked questions (multiple choice, cloze, matching) are already scored.
• Colour feedback – the colour of a point cell shows the situation at a glance: red = 0 points, orange = partial points, green = full points.
• Σ – the sum of the question points for each student, in the form sum / exam maximum.
• 🎥 icon in a column – the question is a video response or has a video confirmation.
• Student name – clicking the name (or the row with the initials) opens the focus view at that student’s first question.
• Clicking a point cell – opens the focus view directly at that question (section 4).
• Log icon / ✕ on a student row – the log icon opens the student’s exam log (monitoring, screenshots); ✕ deletes the attempt (you choose Delete Evaluation, Delete Answers or Delete Exam from User).
• Grade – the grade field of the row; fill it in by hand or with the Add Grade button.
• Select all – the grid’s selection column, used to select students (e.g. for AI grading or adding a grade).
• 🔍 Search – the search field in the filter row limits the visible rows by name or student number.

4 Reviewing a question (focus view)

Clicking a point cell or a student’s name opens the focus view – a window over the whole screen where one question is scored at a time. In this view you move smoothly from one question and student to the next without going back to the grid.

Parts of the view

• Question dots at the top – one dot per question; the current one is dark and those graded with full points are green. Click a dot to jump straight to that question.
• ⤢ / ⤡ (wide / narrow view) – at the right end of the top bar. The wide view is on by default and uses the whole window, so long answers fit on screen at once. The choice is remembered.
• Points – give points with the −/+ stepper or the quick buttons 0…max. The points are saved to the grid immediately as well.
• Task ‹ › – previous or next question in the same student’s attempt; between the arrows is the position, e.g. Task 2 / 4.
• Student ‹ › – previous or next student in the same question; between the arrows is the position, e.g. Student 1 / 5. This way you can grade one question for all students in a row.
• Next task → / Next student → – moves on to the next question; after the last question, to the next student’s first question.
• ✓ Saved automatically – points, annotations and feedback are saved immediately; there is no separate save. The student sees them only when the grading is submitted (section 8).
• ✕ or clicking the background – closes the focus view and returns to the grid.

Scoring is quick with the keyboard

• ← / → – previous / next question.
• Shift+← / Shift+→ – previous / next student in the same question.
• 0–9 – give points directly with a number key. A multi-digit score (e.g. 12) works by typing the digits one after the other.
• ↑ / ↓ or + / − – increase or decrease the points by one.
• Esc – close an open annotation window or the focus view.

5 Question details and the answer

The content area of the focus view shows all the details of the selected student and question. At the top are the question details and the question; below them the student’s answer with the Comments panel next to it, then the correct answer, the AI evaluation and the teacher’s feedback:

• Question Details – student number, awarded points (x / max), the submission time and the exam duration.
• Course task points – the student’s course task points and the number of tasks submitted (if the exam is not linked to a course, the box says “This exam is not linked to a course.”).
• Esseepisteet (essay points) – if the exam is linked to a course with essay assignments, you see the student’s essay points and their total (shown only when there are essay points).
• Question – the question text of the selected question.
• Student’s Answer – the answer the student wrote. Its heading row shows the character count without and with spaces and the word count. You can add annotations to the answer (see section 6).
• Comments – the annotations made to the answer, as cards next to the answer.
• Correct Answer – the question’s model solution for comparison. With the buttons on the answer’s heading row you can hide it (Hide model answer) or move it next to the answer (⇄ Model answer to the side, which moves the comments below; see the picture). The choices are remembered. In the model answer’s bottom right corner is the purple ✦ button “Edit this question with Alaia”, which opens the Alaia panel with this question selected – handy if you notice an error in the task prompt or model answer while grading.
• AI grading – the “Evaluate with AI” button (see section 7). For writing essay questions, next to it there is also “📊 Check stylometry”, which compares the writing style of the text with the student’s earlier texts.
• Teacher’s feedback – free-form feedback on the whole answer (text editor).

6 Commenting

You can comment on a student’s answer in two ways: by adding annotations to the answer (a targeted comment, a strikethrough or a good point, with or without tags) or by writing the teacher’s feedback on the whole answer.

Annotating the answer

Select a passage of the student’s answer with the mouse – or click a mathematical formula to select the whole formula. In the window that opens you choose:

• Type of annotation – 💬 Comment (yellow highlight), Strikethrough (red strikethrough, e.g. an unnecessary or incorrect passage) or ✓ Good point (green).
• Tags – built-in tags in the groups Strengths (e.g. Good observation, Correct method), To fix (e.g. Reasoning missing, Calculation error, Notation error, Language error) and Structure and content, plus My tags. You can choose several tags; the highlight takes the colour of the first tag.
• Comment – free text. A tag or a strikethrough alone is enough; the comment is then optional.

Save with Save or Ctrl+Enter; Esc cancels. The same text may appear several times in the answer – the annotation goes exactly to the passage you selected.

The Comments panel

Annotations are numbered in text order and shown next to the answer as cards: number, type, selected passage, tags and comment. At the top of the panel is a summary of the tags in the answer (e.g. Calculation error ×3), which helps when writing feedback.

• Clicking a card scrolls the answer to the annotated passage; clicking a highlight shows the matching card.
• Edit (or double-click the card) – change the type, tags or comment.
• Delete – press twice (Confirm delete). The other annotations are renumbered.

Your own tags

You can create your own tags directly in the annotation window (+ New tag: name and colour) or in the tag manager opened with the ⚙ Tags button of the panel. In the manager you can also hide built-in tags from the menu and rename, recolour and delete your own tags. The tags apply to all exams on this computer.

Teacher’s feedback

In the “Teacher’s feedback” field at the bottom of the focus view you can write free-form feedback on the whole answer with the text editor. Line breaks are kept, and the save status is shown next to the heading (✓ Saved).

7 AI grading

If your school uses AI, the AI can make a preliminary assessment of open questions. The assessment is made by Alaia, the school’s own AI. You see, check and edit the points before submitting.

What the AI assessment contains

The points suggested by the AI go straight into the question’s points field, and the feedback is shown with the question. The feedback is structured according to the scoring instructions: it breaks down the steps of the solution, explains for each step where points are earned or lost, and ends with a summary of the points awarded. This lets you quickly see what the suggestion is based on, and you can correct the points if you disagree.

Gradings for Alaia training (optional)

In the AI Settings window, below the grading instructions, is the option “Save gradings for Alaia training”. It is off by default. When the option is on and you submit an exam grading, a training card is saved on the school server for every question the AI assessed: Alaia’s suggested assessment and points side by side with your own final assessment. The cards can later be used to teach Alaia to grade more the way teachers do.

8 Grades and submitting

The action buttons and filters above the grid:

• Submit Evaluation – sends the points and feedback to the students; the student sees their result.
• Add Grade – calculates grades (e.g. according to point thresholds) for the selected attempts.
• Fetch AI evaluation for entire exam – AI grading for the selected students (section 7).
• Filtering – Ungraded / Graded limits which attempts are shown in the grid.