e-Assessments in Engineering - Awarding partial marks in online quizzes

The move to e-assessments was accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic, however, the extra workload to convert paper-based assessments to digital quizzes meant their implementation lacked the refinement of a traditional mark-scheme. Engineering examinations must assess students’ problem-solving ability and allocate marks for both correct solutions and working. Partial marks must be awarded, to avoid a binary cut-off between a completely correct answer and one with minor errors. Here, we implemented a Moodle quiz designed to allocate weighted marks to partially correct responses despite common errors being made. In a cohort of 96 students, 89 received an improved mark with this partial- marking implementation. 40% of students improved their grade, and the failure rate dropped from 22% to 13%, demonstrating the importance of awarding marks for follow- through errors. We believe this work highlights the need for careful design of e-assessments to ensure the resulting grades awarded to students are appropriate and valid.