Program Features

This page gives a brief explanation of how the program works. For a more comprehensive hands-on tutorial, you can see the Markin tutorial pages - the tutorial is normally supplied with the program. You can even test out the program by downloading and installing the trial version from the download page.

The process of marking a single piece of work using Markin has three stages:

• Importing the student's text
• Marking the text using annotations, comments, and grades;
• Exporting the marked work in a format suitable for the student.

When you have marked several pieces of work, you can use the program's comprehensive Statistics analyser to collate and compare marks from different students, or from different pieces of work by the same student.

The simplest way to import text is by cutting and pasting using the clipboard. As long as you can view the student text in a word-processor or email program, you should be able to cut and paste it into Markin.

As well as cutting and pasting, Markin is able to import two kinds of word-processor file:

Rich Text Format is a format which can be saved and loaded by all major word-processing programs on both Mac and Windows platforms. If you and your students use RTF files for the submission and return of work, you will be able to avoid many of the difficulties surrounding the importing and exporting of different file formats between platforms and word-processors.

Plain Text files with the extension ".TXT".

Markin provides four different ways of adding marks to an essay text -

Annotations are pre-defined ways of marking specific errors, or giving specific kinds of praise. Annotations are inserted using a set of buttons on a movable button bar, which is displayed next to the main marking screen. For example, if you see a spelling mistake in the text, you could mark it by clicking a pre-defined "Spelling Error" annotation button, rather than having to type "This is a spelling error". Annotations can be positive as well as negative, and they can be divided into categories, and given "values" to indicate their relative importance.

Comments are used when you have something more specific or detailed to say. They are used when no pre-defined annotation can explain a problem in enough detail to be helpful. Comments are like footnotes; you insert a comment (which appears as a number in the text), and then type the message to the student.

Feedback is what comes at the end of the marked essay; this is where you express your general responses to the whole text.

The Grade can be anything you like -- a letter grade, a percentage, a mark out of ten, or any other form of assessment.

Click here to see a sample Markin screen showing how the different kinds of marks appear to the teacher.

Marked work can be returned to the student in two different ways -

...as a Word-Processor File: the program allows you to export marked text to a file in Rich Text or Plain Text format.

...as a Web Page: the program can export marked work as an HTML web page, in three different formats. On Markin web pages, the marks you add in the program show up as hyperlinks on the page, and the student can see more details of the annotations or comments by clicking on these links.

The best format to use depends on the type of browser your students are using - the current version of Markin has three export formats, for browser versions v3, v4, and v5 onwards. (These browser version numbers apply generally to both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, and the v5+ export has also been tested extensively with Mozilla.)

Any of these exported web pages can be sent to the student as an email attachment using your usual email program, or from within Markin using the program's email feature. The Web Page exports can also be posted on a web server and accessed by the student via a network, or via the internet.

Click here to see a marked text in v3 format.

Click here to see a marked text in v4 format.

Click here to see a marked text in v5+ format.

Both these examples are visually rather plain, but you can edit the templates Markin uses to make its web pages, to customise how your marked pages look.

Click here to see a customised marked text in v5+ format.

Once you have exported the marked text, you can use Markin's Email feature to send the text back to the student by electronic mail, without leaving the Markin program. Note that you must be connected to an electronic mail server to use this feature.

You can also use your normal email program to return the marked work, by attaching the exported file to an email message.

Advanced features in the Markin program include:

Statistics - analysis of marks in any number of marked files, formatted for easy pasting into a spreadsheet.

XML support - all Markin files are stored as XML data for easy integration into database environments.

Useful Text and Useful Links - you can compile lists of web page addresses and pieces of text which you use frequently when marking, and insert them into your comments and annotations with just a couple of mouse-clicks.

Auto-Marking - the program can automtically enter the same mark for every incidence of a particular error.

Translation - you can use features in the latest version of Markin to translate the "User Interface", the technical name for the words shown in the program's menus and windows. Translated User Interfaces can be shared with other users - see non-English Versions for details.

Email Marked Work Back To Students - the program contains its own email section, where you can store the email addresses of your students. Once the address is entered, you can send a piece of marked work back to a student just with a couple of mouse-clicks.