Meet the Data AutoMarker

Sage Accounting’s Tim O’Reilly explains how its AutoMarker provides rapid formative and summative feedback that significantly improves the learning experience for students

The date is 23 March and Boris has told us all to stay at home. I mentally decide which drawers need sorting out, we are going to have a quiet period…

I turned on my computer the next morning to a mountain of emails from tutors and providers who need to get their accounting students through the AAT UACS unit or finish their degree course. The issue was not just one of software provision and learning materials, but also of testing. How could you remotely and securely test the student’s ability to use the software?

Sage Qualifications have a great deal of experience in the delivery of qualifications, courses and, crucially, the testing. We understand the problem of swapping report files and compromising the validity of the test and results. This situation needed a solution that could be used with confidence to remotely test the student’s skills.

The solution was to mark the data rather than any reports the student produced (which could be changed or shared) and therefore to create software that marked the accounting data in the student’s cloud software immediately after they had taken their assessment. If the assessment was undertaken in an invigilated environment (we developed remote invigilation to integrate with the portal) this would be an extremely secure and valid method of testing.

Innovate UK agreed to help with funding and advice to create the software and the detailed coding required for the many different assessments we deliver (we also accommodate different currencies) –and our Sage Accounting data AutoMarker was born! This was a major step forward for the many thousands of learners who needed to use our courses and qualifications. We have over 40,000 students currently on the portal.

The AutoMarker investigates the leaner’s software after they have worked through their assessment and marks the data against an agreed marking system. The marking system can be very detailed or basic depending on the requirements of the awarding organisation.

The AutoMarker will turn incorrect entries red, correct entries green and entries that are incorrect but are not material it will mark blue and return a report.

A feedback report can be exported, which can be shared with the learner, indicating the areas of pass or failure.

This functionality proved so successful that we use it throughout all our learning materials so that learners can have their data marked as they work through the course materials.

We now use the AutoMarker on formative as well as summative learning on our AEB/SFA funded qualification delivery, as well as with our university partners where it forms part of their degree course.

We find the feedback from students and tutors remarkably rewarding. The data AutoMarker gives students instant feedback and is a very secure, accurate way of learning and testing.

• If you want to know more about Sage Accounting Data Automarker then check out AutoMarker - SageQualifications.com. Or drop a line to Tim O’Reilly at tim.oreilly1@sage.com