Bulk Grading Assist

Grade a whole class at once — upload a batch of submissions, let the machine evaluate them, and export the results.

Bulk Grading Assist lets you grade a whole class's work at once. You upload a batch of student submissions, the Feedback Machine evaluates each one against your criteria, and you review and export the scores and feedback.

Bulk Grading Assist is enabled per institution and class. If you don't see Bulk Import on your machine, contact us.

Grade a batch

1

Start a bulk import

From your Feedback Machine's menu, select Bulk Import. Upload a .zip containing your students' .docx and/or .pdf files — each file becomes its own submission (only .docx and .pdf files are processed). A single import accepts up to 1 GiB of files (with individual files up to 30 MB). Then select Start Bulk Import, and keep the browser tab open until all submissions are created.

In Canvas, an assignment's Download Submissions option gives you a zip of student files you can upload directly. Feedback Machines recognizes the Canvas filename format and groups multiple files from the same student.

2

Let it evaluate

Feedback Machines creates a submission for each file and evaluates it against your criteria. Evaluations run in the background — up to 200 at a time — so large batches process steadily without you waiting on each one; when the system isn't busy, a full class of around 1,000 submissions can finish in as little as an hour. You'll see live progress for each submission; any that fail are retried automatically, and you can retry remaining errors yourself.

3

Review results

The import lists every submission with its score and status. Open any one to read its full feedback and criteria breakdown — the same view a student would see.

4

Export

Select Export Results to download:

• Canvas gradebook — scores as a CSV you can import into Canvas.

• Feedback files — a zip of per-student feedback.

• Submissions — a zip of the original student files.

You can export all students, or only each student's highest-scoring submission.

Refine and re-evaluate

Bulk grading is iterative. As you review the results, you'll often spot evaluations you'd have graded differently — that's expected, and it's easy to correct:

1. Spot a discrepancy. While reviewing the grading results, note any evaluation you don't agree with.

2. Explain it to the machine. Open the Modify panel and describe the discrepancy — for example, adjust a question, change point values, or add an instructor note clarifying how that case should be handled.

3. Re-evaluate. Come back to the import and select Re-evaluate All to re-run every submission against the updated machine.

Your original import and its results are preserved, so you can compare before and after.

This review → refine → re-evaluate loop is the core of bulk grading. A few rounds is normal — it's how you bring the machine into agreement with your judgment.