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Assigning Grading Tasks

Pawtograder has a robust feature to allow instructors to assign grading tasks to staff. When a grading task is assigned, the instructor can set a due date for that task, and re-assign the task to a different grader if needed. When reassigning a rubric part to a TA who already completed grading a different rubric part for the same submission, the new work will appear in their pending work list. Pawtograder will also automatically allow any other grader to complete the task if the original grader is unable to complete it (without needing to re-assign the task).

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Automatic Completion of Related Reviews

When a grader completes their assigned review, Pawtograder automatically:

• Marks other review assignments as complete if they cover the same or a subset of rubric parts
• Completes the overall submission review when all required rubric checks are satisfied
• Validates that uncovered rubric parts have no blocking requirements before marking the submission complete

This reduces duplicate work when multiple graders are assigned to overlapping parts of the same submission.

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Conflicts of Interest

Pawtograder will automatically ensure that graders do not grade assignments that they have a conflict of interest in. Graders can self-input their conflicts (under “Course Settings” - “Grading Conflicts”), and instructors can review and enter conflicts for all graders in the class. Graders are encouraged to input a “Reason” for their conflict, so that instructors can understand the nature of the conflict and help avoid declaring spurious conflicts.

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Bulk Assign Grading

Pawtograder’s Bulk Assign Grading feature (from an Assignment’s “Grading Assignments” page) allows instructors to assign grading tasks to staff in bulk. When reassigning a rubric part to a TA who already completed grading a different rubric part for the same submission, the system automatically clears the completion timestamp so the new work appears in their pending work list.

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Assignment modes

The algorithm offers several distribution modes:

• By submission: Submissions are split between graders first. Each grader receives complete submissions with all selected rubric parts.
• By rubric part: Rubric parts are split between graders first. Each submission is graded by multiple graders, each handling different rubric parts — allowing specialization.
• Assign to lab leaders: Each submission is automatically assigned to all lab leaders of the student’s lab section. No manual grader selection is needed.
• Assign to group mentors: Each group’s submission is automatically assigned to the group’s mentor. Submissions without groups or without assigned mentors are skipped. Grading conflicts are still respected.

You can choose which rubric to assign (the “Grading Rubric” is the default, and what is used to calculate the student’s grade for the assignment), and optionally choose which rubric parts to assign. The algorithm will only operate over unassigned grading tasks. To support complex workflows, you can manually assign some subsets at a time (filtering by section or tag). To select assignees (for “By submission” and “By rubric part” modes), you can filter by role (e.g. graders, instructors, or both), and optionally filter by tag or instructor group. The form will show which graders will be assigned, and you can manually override the selection of graders. You can choose to reuse existing grading assignments (e.g. if you want to assign the same graders to the same submissions as a previous assignment, or even to assign the same graders a different rubric on the same submissions). Selecting this option will override all balancing efforts. Lastly, you can choose to enforce that graders are not assigned to the same submission as they were on a prior assignment or rubric. This feature is useful to assign meta-graders, where the meta-grader is a different grader than the one who graded the submission. You will be able to preview the assignments before creating them, and can manually tweak them through the drag-and-drop interface.

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Instructor Groups

Instructor groups let you organize course staff into teams for grading assignments. This is useful when you have multiple sections, campuses, or specialized grading teams — for example, to partition grading responsibilities across teaching teams, ensure graders only see submissions assigned to their group, or manage grading workflows independently for different course sections. To manage instructor groups, navigate to Course Settings and select Instructor Groups. You can create new groups, add or remove staff members, and view all existing groups. When assigning grading tasks, filter by instructor group to ensure that only staff from specific teams are assigned to grade particular submissions.

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Assigning Group Mentors

For group assignments, you can assign mentors to student groups from the assignment’s Groups management page. Each group can have one assigned mentor — typically a grader or instructor who provides guidance and feedback to specific groups throughout the assignment. To set a group mentor:

1. Navigate to the assignment’s Groups page.
2. Find the Mentor column in the groups table.
3. Select a grader or instructor from the dropdown for each group.
4. The mentor assignment is saved automatically.

Group mentors:

• Are displayed to students on their submission pages and in the group widget.
• Can be automatically assigned to grade their groups’ submissions using the Assign to group mentors bulk grading mode.
• Can view analytics for only their assigned groups in survey responses.

When using the Assign to group mentors mode in bulk grading, each group’s submission is automatically assigned to that group’s mentor. Groups without assigned mentors are skipped with a warning, submissions not associated with a group are also skipped, and grading conflicts are still respected. This mode is useful for structured mentorship workflows where each mentor is responsible for grading their assigned groups throughout the semester.

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Review Due Dates

Each review assignment has its own due date — separate from the student’s submission due date. Adjust them per row by editing the review assignment in the Grading Assignments table, or in bulk via the Bulk edit grading due dates / Bulk edit self-review due dates buttons; details in Bulk Actions → Bulk Review Due Date Updates.

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Grading Comments and Review Release

Once a review has been released to students, grading comments are locked to maintain grading integrity. Graders cannot edit or delete their comments after the review is released, ensuring that students receive consistent feedback and preventing post-release modifications that could cause confusion. Instructors retain full editing privileges and can modify any comment, even after release. If you need to make larger changes to feedback after release, unrelease the review first, make your edits, and then re-release it.

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TA messaging when feedback is released

When a TA attempts to add or change marks on a submission whose review has already been released, Pawtograder now shows a clear warning instead of a generic permission error:

“This grading feedback has already been released to students, so you cannot add or change marks. Ask your instructor to click Unrelease on this submission review if a change is needed; after edits, they can release again.”

This warning appears in the rubric sidebar and as a toast notification when a TA tries to save a comment or annotation on a released review. The rubric criteria panel also shows a warning banner so TAs see the restriction before attempting to save.

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Group Grading with Split Rubrics

When grading group assignments, Pawtograder supports per-student adjustments even when using split rubrics. This allows you to:

• Apply different scores to individual group members for specific rubric items
• Add student-specific notes and feedback within a group submission
• Maintain fair grading when group members contribute differently

This feature is particularly useful for peer evaluation scenarios or when individual accountability is needed within collaborative assignments.

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Individual Grading for Group Assignments

For group assignments, Pawtograder supports individual grading where each group member receives a separate grade. This is useful when group members contributed unequally, when you want to assess individual understanding within a group context, or when different group members demonstrated different levels of mastery.

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Enabling individual grading

When creating grading assignments for a group assignment:

1. Select the option to Grade group members individually.
2. The system creates separate grading tasks for each student in the group.
3. Each student’s grade is recorded independently in the gradebook.
4. Graders can assign different scores to different group members.

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How individual grading works

• Separate rubric instances: Each group member gets their own rubric evaluation.
• Independent scores: Students in the same group can receive different grades.
• Shared submission: All group members’ grades are based on the same submitted work.
• Gradebook integration: Individual grades appear in the gradebook under each student’s name.

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Best practices

• Communicate expectations: Let students know in advance if group assignments will be graded individually.
• Document differences: When assigning different grades to group members, provide clear feedback explaining the differences.
• Consider peer feedback: Use peer feedback surveys to inform individual grading decisions.
• Be consistent: Apply the same grading criteria to all group members, adjusting scores based on individual contribution or understanding.

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Reassigning Grading Tasks

After grading tasks have been assigned, instructors can reassign them to different graders when a grader is unable to complete their assigned tasks, when workload needs to be rebalanced, or when a conflict of interest is discovered after assignment.

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Reassigning individual submissions

1. Navigate to the assignment’s Grading Assignments page.
2. Find the submission or rubric part you want to reassign.
3. Click Reassign next to the grader’s name.
4. Select a new grader from the dropdown.
5. Optionally update the due date or add a note explaining the reassignment.
6. Click Confirm Reassignment.

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Bulk reassignment

1. Navigate to the assignment’s Grading Assignments page.
2. Select the submissions you want to reassign using checkboxes.
3. Click Bulk Reassign at the top of the list.
4. Choose the new grader(s) for the selected submissions.
5. Optionally update due dates.
6. Preview the changes before confirming.
7. Click Confirm Bulk Reassignment.

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How reassignment works

• When a submission is reassigned, it appears in the new grader’s pending work list immediately.
• If the new grader had already completed a different rubric part for the same submission, the system clears the completed_at timestamp so the new work appears as pending.
• Any existing grading work (comments, rubric checks) is preserved and remains visible to the new grader, who can continue or modify it.
• Reassignments respect conflict-of-interest rules.
• The system notifies the new grader of their assignment.

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Automatic completion by other graders

Even without explicit reassignment, any grader with appropriate permissions can complete a grading task assigned to another grader. This allows for flexible workflows where graders can help each other meet deadlines, backup graders can step in when needed, and instructors can review and complete any grading task. The original assignee remains listed as the primary grader, but the completion is tracked with the actual grader’s identity.

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Automatic reassignment on resubmission

When a student submits a new version of their work after grading has begun, Pawtograder automatically handles the reassignment of grading tasks. The system will:

• Move incomplete grading assignments to the new active submission
• Preserve existing grading comments on the original submission
• Reopen grading assignments so graders can review the new submission
• Prevent data loss by detecting conflicts with existing grading work

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Bulk Operations on Submissions

For row-selected bulk release, unrelease, mark-complete, and reassign operations, plus filtering by group mentor, see Bulk Actions.

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Managing Review Assignments

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Viewing review assignments

The All Assignments tab provides a comprehensive view of all review assignments, organized into two sub-tabs:

• Grading reviews: Shows all non-self-review rubric assignments (grading review, meta-grading, code walk, etc.).
• Self reviews: Shows only self-review rubric assignments.

Each table displays:

• Submitter information
• Assignee details
• Due dates (in the course’s configured timezone)
• Review status (Not Started, In Progress, Completed)
• Rubric and review round (grading reviews only)

You can filter, sort, and export review assignments to CSV for external tracking.

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Editing individual review assignments

Click the edit icon on any review assignment row to modify:

• Due date: Set or update the deadline for completing the review.
• Assignee: Reassign the review to a different grader (grading reviews only).

For self-review assignments, only the due date can be edited since self-reviews are always assigned to the student who submitted.

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Bulk editing review due dates

Use the Bulk edit grading due dates or Bulk edit self-review due dates buttons to update multiple review assignments at once:

1. Select a rubric from the dropdown (required).
2. Choose a new due date and time.
3. Optionally check Only rows not yet completed to skip finished reviews.
4. Click Apply to matching rows.

The system updates all review assignments for the selected rubric that match your criteria, showing you how many rows were affected. Grading reviews and self-reviews are edited separately for clarity.

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Tracking Progress

Use the Grading Status view to monitor overall progress, per-grader workload, and pending reviews across the assignment.

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Managing Repository Permissions

For assignments with GitHub repositories, the Fix Permissions button on the Repositories page lets you audit and correct GitHub repository permissions for all assignment repositories in a single operation:

1. Navigate to the assignment’s Repositories page.
2. Click Fix Permissions.
3. The system audits all repositories, computes the correct collaborator list from current group membership, and enqueues permission sync jobs for each repository. Repositories that haven’t been created on GitHub yet, or where no students have confirmed GitHub usernames, are skipped.

The button displays a summary showing the number of syncs enqueued, repositories skipped (no usernames or not ready), and any errors encountered. This is useful when students join or leave groups after repository creation, when GitHub permissions become out of sync with group membership, or when you need to verify that all students have correct repository access.

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Student Overview Page

The student overview page (accessible from Manage → Students → select a student) provides instructors with a comprehensive view of an individual student’s course participation and performance.

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Student information

• Email address: The student’s account email.
• Lecture section: If enrolled in a Canvas/SIS section, displays the section name, meeting times, and location.
• Lab section: Shows the lab section name, meeting times, location, and assigned section leaders.

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Assignments table

The assignments table shows all course assignments with the following information for the selected student:

• Title: Assignment name (linked to submission if available)
• Group: For group assignments, displays the group name, other group members (excluding the viewed student), and the group mentor (if assigned)
• Submission #: Ordinal number of the submission (linked to submission page)
• Submission Time: When the student submitted
• Autograder Score: Automated test results
• Total Score: Final grade out of maximum points
• Due Date: Assignment deadline (with any student-specific adjustments)
• Adjust Due Date: Quick access to modify the due date for this student