Close Menu
Honi Soit
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    •  “Like diaspora, pollen needs to bescattered to different places to survive and grow”: Dual Opening of ‘Germinate/Propagate/Bloom’, and ‘Last Call’ at 4A Centre of Contemporary Asian Art
    • Akinola Davies Jr. on My Father’s Shadow, Namesakes, and Nostalgia: An Interview
    • Into the Blue: Underwater Robots Unveil the Secrets of Norfolk Island’s Deep
    • Ancient Reef Cores Reveal Fragile Future for the Great Barrier Reef
    • Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, and Rameau walk into the Oldest Sydney Church
    • The Raftsmen: An Interview with Dr. Chadden Hunter — Sydney Film Festival Exclusive
    • The Anarchy 1138-53: to play or to plunder?
    • The Wrong Gods Review: Sacred Soil and Shifting Futures
    • About
    • Print Edition
    • Student Journalism Conference 2025
    • Writing Comp
    • Advertise
    • Locations
    • Contact
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok
    Honi SoitHoni Soit
    Sunday, June 15
    • News
    • Analysis
    • Culture
    • Opinion
    • University
    • Features
    • Perspective
    • Investigation
    • Reviews
    • Comedy
    • Student Journalism Conference 2025
    Honi Soit
    Home»News

    FASS staff not sold on anonymous marking

    Zoe Stojanovic-Hill
    By Zoe Stojanovic-HillMarch 13, 2018 News 4 Mins Read
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    Staff from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) have voiced concern over the University’s decision to introduce compulsory anonymous marking this year.

    At a forum on Friday, staff members from various FASS departments expressed frustration with multiple aspects of the anonymous marking system, which organises digital assessment submissions by ‘paper ID’ rather than by name or student number.

    Concern centred on the fact that there is currently no mechanism for managing late submissions and the technological difficulties associated with using the anonymous marking function in Canvas.

    Joe Collins of the Department of Political Economy, a leading staff advocate of anonymous marking, who trialled the system in his courses last year, acknowledged that staff face the challenge of re-educating students to not include their name and student number in the body of the text when they upload assignments.

    Director of Education Innovation, Adam Bridgeman, flagged another issue: if a student does not keep a record of the ‘digital receipt’ they receive upon uploading an assignment, the marker has no way of knowing that the student has completed the task.

    Other staff members argued that the system could prevent students from receiving personalised feedback from markers, which would give students less of an incentive to put effort into coursework.

    Anonymous marking is designed to counter the influence of cognitive bias in grading assessments — to ensure that all students are judged by the quality of their work, rather than by a facet of their identity or by their past academic performance. In part, it aims to ensure that groups that have been excluded from academic institutions throughout history and continue to experience discrimination in academia, such as people of colour, women, LGBTQ+ people, and other minorities, receive equal treatment.

    The University made anonymous marking optional in 2017, before making the system compulsory as of Semester 1 of 2018.

    The SRC has been advocating for the introduction of anonymous marking since late 2015.

    Speaking at the forum, SRC President Imogen Grant said that the SRC is committed to “ensuring fair marking by reducing any sort of implicit bias that can affect markers, regardless of their intentions to promote or disadvantage any groups of students”.

    “Markers [can] construct a schema to assign students to a pre-formed group, often drawing on stereotypes of what a high-achieving student is or a low-achieving student is,” Grant said, echoing the SRC’s 2016 policy statement on the topic.

    Grant indicated that staff would benefit from an anonymous marking system, even if they do not believe the system will have its intended effect, because it will reassure students that they are not being discriminated against.

    “Even at times when this bias is negligible there is a student perception that exists within the study body. That’s what needs to be managed as well,” she said.

    One staff member suggested that the sense of “anxiety in the room” was a not a reaction against anonymous marking per se, but a sign that staff are feeling overwhelmed by the amount of technological and organisational reforms that have been introduced recently.

    “I think the anxiety is not about the rights and wrongs of anonymous marking. I think the anxiety is the combination of so many new things that we are grappling with,” she said. “The issue is that we are bringing in this new policy right now, while we are struggling with the new curriculum and we’re struggling with this new platform [Canvas] which doesn’t do the administrative things we were able to do under Blackboard.”

    “A whirlpool of different factors…are making people anxious,” she concluded.

    Despite opposition from some staff members, compulsory anonymous marking will be enforced this semester.

    anonymous marking blackboard Canvas essays exams faculty of arts and social sciences fass TurnItIn

    Keep Reading

    UTS bans indoor protests

    Macquarie University cuts at least 50 jobs

    1 in 3 men  have used intimate partner violence, according to AIFS research

    Chau Chak Wing Museum to partner with the 25th edition of the Biennale of Sydney

    University of Melbourne expels two students, suspends two more after pro-Palestine protests

    Minimum wage and award minimum wages to rise by 3.5 per cent

    Just In

     “Like diaspora, pollen needs to bescattered to different places to survive and grow”: Dual Opening of ‘Germinate/Propagate/Bloom’, and ‘Last Call’ at 4A Centre of Contemporary Asian Art

    June 15, 2025

    Akinola Davies Jr. on My Father’s Shadow, Namesakes, and Nostalgia: An Interview

    June 11, 2025

    Into the Blue: Underwater Robots Unveil the Secrets of Norfolk Island’s Deep

    June 11, 2025

    Ancient Reef Cores Reveal Fragile Future for the Great Barrier Reef

    June 11, 2025
    Editor's Picks

    Part One: The Tale of the Corporate University

    May 28, 2025

    “Thank you Conspiracy!” says Capitalism, as it survives another day

    May 21, 2025

    A meditation on God and the impossible pursuit of answers

    May 14, 2025

    We Will Be Remembered As More Than Administrative Errors

    May 7, 2025
    Facebook Instagram X (Twitter) TikTok

    From the mines

    • News
    • Analysis
    • Higher Education
    • Culture
    • Features
    • Investigation
    • Comedy
    • Editorials
    • Letters
    • Misc

     

    • Opinion
    • Perspective
    • Profiles
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Social
    • Sport
    • SRC Reports
    • Tech

    Admin

    • About
    • Editors
    • Send an Anonymous Tip
    • Write/Produce/Create For Us
    • Print Edition
    • Locations
    • Archive
    • Advertise in Honi Soit
    • Contact Us

    We acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. The University of Sydney – where we write, publish and distribute Honi Soit – is on the sovereign land of these people. As students and journalists, we recognise our complicity in the ongoing colonisation of Indigenous land. In recognition of our privilege, we vow to not only include, but to prioritise and centre the experiences of Indigenous people, and to be reflective when we fail to be a counterpoint to the racism that plagues the mainstream media.

    © 2025 Honi Soit
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms
    • Accessibility

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.