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Objective questions are easy to grade: answers are typically right or not, so grading can be automated. But subjective questions such as free-response prompts require graders to interpret a learner's reasoning or performance. Interpretation is slow and painstaking, and therefore hard to scale. Distributing the work to specified graders can help––many hands make light work––but only if graders know what to look for when evaluating answers.

Enter the answer key!

Answer keys give graders correct answers to reference, accelerating analysis and evaluation. Lesson creators can also give graders notes, tips, and guidance to help them provide consistent and reliable judgments across different responses.

Answer keys can be added to the following lesson builder elements:

Each of the aforementioned elements includes two tabs: Practice Details and Grading Resources.

Under Practice Details, add the question or prompt you want learners to answer, then toggle the Grading Resources tab to reveal answer key magic! 🪄

The Grading Resources tab is where you'll supply graders with a correct answer and notes to help them calibrate their assessment activities. These fields are optional and independent of one another (that is, you can add one or the other, or both). You can also add feedback criteria to help learners understand what constitutes a great answer.

Optionally, select Make visible to learners on report card to disclose the correct answer. This helps learners understand why an answer is wrong.

Taken together, these resources can be used to author rubrics that establish performance expectations, define levels of achievement, and help graders fairly and accurately assess learners' work.

In the Grading Station, questions with an answer key will display as pictured below.

Graders can see in one convenient location the prompt learners followed, the answer they supplied, the correct answer, and notes to help graders make consistent judgments across different answers.

If a lesson includes recorded practice questions, uploaded recordings will be included as thumbnail images. These can be expanded, allowing graders to evaluate recordings without leaving the Grading Station.

A. Learning's other question elements are automatically graded, eliminating the need for an answer key. The following question elements do not have a Grading Resources tab:

A. Free-response questions are not graded by default; submissions are only routed to the grading station when questions are set to be graded. Check the question element in your lesson builder and confirm that "Graded" has been checked, as pictured here.

A. Yes! Please send a request to the Support team at support@lessonly.com.