Grading & feedback

Lurno marks what it can automatically and hands you everything that needs a person. This article covers the two ends of that: the grading policy you set on an assessment, and what you actually do inside a single learner attempt. For finding, claiming, moderating, and bulk-releasing work across the whole organization, see The grading queue.

Availability

Plan: every plan — nothing here is plan-gated. Permission: setting an assessment’s grading policy needs permission to update assessments (organization admins, instructors, and facilitators by default). Recording a grade needs permission to record grades (organization admins, instructors, and facilitators by default; the reviewer role holds it on the central grading queue as well). Assigning a reviewer to a pass needs permission to manage grading assignments — organization admins and instructors by default.

Don’t see this in your account? See Plans, permissions & modules.

What this does

Objective question types are scored the moment a learner submits. Everything else — essays, open responses, uploaded files, recorded answers, image annotations — waits for a person. The grading policy decides which of those two paths an assessment takes, how many reviewers are involved, and what counts as a pass. Releasing is a separate, deliberate step, so grading and publishing results never happen by accident.

Before you start

• You need permission to update the assessment to set its grading policy, and permission to record grades to mark anything.
• There must be submitted work. Attempts only become gradable once a learner submits.
• If an item should be scored against criteria, attach a rubric to that item in the content library first — the rubric input only appears when a rubric with criteria is attached. See Content library.

Set the grading policy

Open the assessment and go to the Grading view.

1. Under How submissions get marked, pick one of five methods:
   • Auto-graded — the system marks every answer, instant scores.
   • Mix · auto + me — multiple-choice marked automatically; written answers come to you.
   • I grade everything — every submission lands in your queue.
   • Two reviewers — two people grade independently and disagreements get resolved.
   • Peer review — learners grade each other. Reviewers are then assigned on the peer review surface; see Peer review & portfolios.
2. What happens when a learner submits redraws underneath as a plain-language flow strip. For the auto and mix methods a coverage line tells you how many of the assessment’s questions can actually be auto-marked and how many still need you.
3. Set the Pass mark with the slider or the number field. At or above counts as passing; leave it at 0 to decide pass/fail by hand. It defaults to 70%.
4. Two reviewers unlocks a When reviewers disagree rule that turns several marks into one score (first pass, last pass, highest, average, unanimous, or moderator decision) and a Flag for moderation when scores differ by threshold in points. A third switch, Second review required before release, is shown but isn’t stored with the policy yet — don’t rely on it.
5. Choose Save grading policy. Each save creates a new version of the policy.

The grading policy is the source of truth for how an assessment is scored. The coarse “grading mode” shown in list views is descriptive only.

Grade one attempt

The same attempt drawer opens from three places: a row in the central grading queue (Marking in your navigation), a row in the queue embedded in an assessment’s Grading view, or a released attempt in the assessment’s Results view.

1. Responses. Each gradable item appears with the learner’s answer rendered as they gave it — for a written answer, the text and any files, grouped as Photos, Audio, Video and Documents. Click a photo to enlarge it; PDFs are readable in place; audio and video play in place; every file has a download. Each item has one scoring input:
   • a numeric score box against that item’s maximum,
   • a pass/fail toggle for binary items,
   • or a collapsible rubric block when a rubric is attached, with a score box per criterion and a running weighted total.
2. Items the auto-scorer already marked show an auto-scored marker and are locked until you explicitly override them.
3. Add a note under any response, and record a voice note for that item if you’d rather talk than type.
4. Write Overall feedback for the whole attempt, with its own optional voice note.
5. Other reviewers shows other passes’ marks. If your pass is blind, that section is withheld until you submit your own.
6. The footer keeps a live total and tells you how many items are still unscored.
7. Finish with the primary button. While items are still unscored it reads Submit grade and stays disabled; once every gradable item has a score it becomes Submit & release, which marks and publishes to the learner in one step. A separate Release button covers an attempt that was already scored elsewhere.

There is no “mark now, release later” path inside the drawer on a first pass — a completed pass releases as it submits. To hold results back for a whole cohort, set a future Scores released at on the assessment instead.

Re-opening a released attempt is read-only. If you can record grades you’ll see Edit grades; re-submitting writes a new grading record rather than overwriting the earlier one.

Work handed in inside a lesson

A question a learner hands in from a lesson — an essay, an open response, an uploaded file or a recording — opens in the same drawer. It shows the learner, the lesson and program it came from, the question they answered, and their written answer and files as above. See Hand-ins from lessons.

Send it back for revision

Instead of scoring a hand-in, Request revision returns it to the learner. Write What should change — be specific — and choose Send back. The drawer then shows Revision requested.

The learner sees that changes were requested, with your note, and can change their work and hand it in again. For a question handed in inside a lesson, the new hand-in replaces the one you sent back. For an assignment, see Submissions & grading.

The assessment-scoped queue

Assessments → Grading & Review → Queue works one assessment at a time. Pick an assessment and its attempts group into Pending review, Ready to release, and Released. Opening a row here gives an attempt-level panel rather than per-item inputs: a grader pass key, a single score against the maximum, written feedback, a voice note, and Regrade / Rescore actions. Where the assessment has auto-markable questions, the panel offers the auto-marked total as a head start so you add the written-answer marks on top instead of starting from zero.

When learners see results

Releasing an attempt is what makes its score and feedback visible. On top of that, the assessment itself carries three independent release controls:

Control	Where	Effect
Scores released at	Settings → Results release	Blank releases each score as soon as it’s graded; a datetime holds every score until then
Feedback released at	Settings → Results release	The same, for written feedback — set independently of the score
When learners see correct answers	Settings → Honesty	Never / after they submit / after everyone submits, with a release datetime for the last option

Use a future scores-release datetime when you want a whole cohort to see results at the same moment. For release timing tied to a schedule, see Schedules & release windows.

Structured feedback

Overall feedback is written in three named sections:

Section	What goes in it
What went well	What the learner did well, tied to something specific
Even better if	The one change that would most improve this
Next steps	What to do before the next hand-in

The prompts are deliberately narrow — “the one change”, not a list. Feedback that names one improvement gets acted on; feedback that names six gets skimmed.

The section names follow your organization’s vocabulary. A corporate or SaaS organization sees Strengths / Development areas / Next actions instead; a school keeps the classroom wording. See Terminology.

You don’t have to fill in all three. A section you leave empty simply isn’t shown to the learner.

Feedback written as a single block, before the sections existed, is kept as it was and shown under “Feedback written before structured sections”.

Learners see the sections as sections, on their result. See Your assessments.

Questions about a mark (appeals)

A learner can ask about a mark from their own result page. The question is filed against the attempt, and the answer is recorded on it.

What the learner sees. A short thread under their result: “Sent 6 September. Your instructor will reply here; the mark stays as it is until they do.” The mark does not change while the question is open — nothing is provisional, and nobody is left wondering whether their score is real.

What you see. A Questions about marks queue with a count of what’s waiting on you. Each carries the original mark, the learner’s question, and two ways to answer:

• Keep the mark — you explain what you looked at and what you decided.
• Change the mark — you enter the new mark alongside the explanation.

Either way you write a reply, and the learner sees the outcome: “Mark changed: 62 → 71” or “Mark kept”, with your note.

The answer is a record, not a message: it stays attached to the attempt, so a later reviewer can see the mark was questioned, by whom, and on what grounds.

Mark without seeing who wrote it

Mark without seeing who wrote it hides identities while grading:

Markers see “Learner 1”, “Learner 2” instead of names. Names come back when results are released.

Use it where identity could sway a mark. It’s a grading-policy setting on the assessment, not a per-marker preference, so it applies to everybody marking that piece.

Release in bulk

Where many results are ready at once, Release all publishes them together rather than one at a time. Everything that gates an individual release still applies — an open moderation hold or an unapproved AI draft keeps that result back rather than letting the batch carry it through.

Reference

Element	What it is
Grading method	Auto-graded, Mix, I grade everything, Two reviewers, or Peer review
Pass mark	The percentage at or above which an attempt counts as passing
When reviewers disagree	How several marks resolve into one score (Two reviewers only)
Flag for moderation when scores differ by	Point gap between two marks that flags the attempt for moderation
Per-item input	Numeric box, pass/fail toggle, or inline rubric — chosen per item
Auto-scored marker	The scorer already marked this item; override to change it
Item note / voice note	Feedback attached to one response
Overall feedback	A summary note (and optional voice note) on the whole attempt
Submit & release	Replaces Submit grade once every item is scored; marks and publishes in one step
Request revision	Sends a hand-in back to the learner with a note about what should change
Release	Publishing the score and feedback to the learner

Troubleshooting

A submission never reaches a queue. Auto-marked-only attempts are already scored and never wait for a person. Otherwise check the learner actually submitted rather than leaving a draft.

A learner’s file shows “Preview unavailable — file too large”. Very large files aren’t previewed in the drawer. Use its download instead.

Submit is disabled. Every gradable item needs a score. The footer shows how many are still missing, right beside the running total.

Release is greyed out. The attempt has no score yet, or it’s flagged for moderation because two marks diverged past the policy’s threshold. Resolve the divergence first — see The grading queue.

I can’t see the other reviewer’s mark. Your pass is blind. Other marks stay hidden until you submit your own, which is the point — it keeps each judgement independent.

There’s no rubric input on an item. The rubric block only renders when a rubric resource with criteria is attached to that item. Attach it in the content library, then reopen the attempt.

A score is right but the learner still sees nothing. Check the assessment’s Scores released at and Feedback released at in Settings. A future datetime holds results even after you release the attempt.

I can open grading but can’t save a score. You may be able to view without holding permission to record grades. Ask someone who manages roles. See Roles & permissions.

Related

• AI grading

• Submissions & grading — marking work that was handed in

• AI grading

• The grading queue

• Building an assessment

• Assessments overview

• Peer review & portfolios

• Schedules & release windows