Mark sheet schemas

Schemas are the measurement scales used within OSCE marking criteria. Any common measurement scale that might be used to record assessment outcomes can be created in the system.

For example:

• A continuous scale (e.g. 0, 1, 2, 3...)
• A dichotomous scale (e.g. True/False, Achieved/Not achieved)
• An ordinal descriptive scale (e.g. Unsatisfactory, Borderline, Pass...). 

Whilst you can create a marking schema directly within an individual item's mark sheet, it is usually more efficient to create schemas globally at the site level. This way, they can be applied and reused across the site while building stations. This saves time, ensures consistency, maintains data integrity, and reduces the chance of mistakes during authorship.

Creating a new site schema

• Step 1 of 4

  Navigate to Settings > Manage Schemas

  Under Add a new schema type the title of the new schema you wish to create and click Add

  

• Step 2 of 4

  The new schema will now appear in the list. Click Edit answers to add some values to the schema.

  

• Step 3 of 4

  The fields to be completed for each point on the scale are shown in the image below. In this example, we will create an ordinal descriptive scale to be used for a global judgement in the OSCE station.

  • 1. The label used on the mark sheet and presented to examiners to select from
    2. An optional abbreviation value which is used only in the live exam dashboard
    3. An optional description field which can be used to present further guidance to examiners. This field also benefits from rich formatting options using a WYSIWYG editor. Scroll to the bottom of this article to see how this looks from the examiner's perspective in both assess for iPad and assess for browser.
    4. The numerical value attributed to the point on the scale
    5. Once all required fields have been completed, click Add to confirm

    If setting a borderline marker for later standard-setting using borderline methods, the site default is that the borderline value should be set to 1.00. This can be adjusted on request, but please contact us to discuss.

• Step 4 of 4

  Repeat until all points on the scale have been added

Editing existing schema

From the manage schemas page it is possible to either edit the schema details (e.g. change the name or make it inactive) or edit the "answers" (i.e. the points on the measurement scale).

Marking a section as inactive renders it unavailable for authors to use during mark sheet construction. It does not, however, remove the section from existing items in which it is being used.

Select the button as appropriate to start making changes. 

To toggle between display and hiding of inactive sections, click the Show inactive schema column header.

Schema changes are strictly version-controlled at the item level. This is to prevent changes at the global level from cascading into active exams without a conscious decision being made to do so. Please refer to our article on Global vs local criteria for further information.

The mark sheet view

The finished mark sheet view with embedded scoring criteria can be seen in the images below. Toggle for the final rendered views in both assess for iPad and assess for browser applications.

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