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Digital Annotation

This guidance has been created to support Teaching Online and Online Assessment during COVID-19 disruption.  This does not reflect our normal advice on planning and teaching for online-only delivery, and instead focuses on the basics that you will need during this time.

Digital annotation is the process of adding text or handwriting to existing digital files (e.g. uploaded student PDFs assignments or Student undertaking an online assessment.journal articles). The main advantages of digital annotations are that the resulting documents are easier to find, share and archive; there are also other speed-ups like inserting frequently used comments. This technology is particularly pertinent at the moment as students, assessors and external examiners will not have access to physical scripts. However, a major barrier is that the annotation process is slightly more involved than simply annotating paper with pen.

The following suggestions and guidance on this page are designed as a useful starting point when you are considering annotating PDFs for assessment purposes: there is no universal best fit approach and you should consider what works best for you and your available hardware. You should also consider what are the aims of the annotation (to support your thinking process, justification of grading, need for feedback, etc) and planned extent of the outputs (tick/cross, mark allocation, text based comments, free/Mathematical annotation, etc).

Annotation options overview

Option A: Annotate with Moodle Grading

Assignments are marked & commented on in browser.

 Advantages Disadvantages
  • Works in browser (cross platforms)
  • No setup/download needed.
  • Supports grade input at same time
  • Easy document workflow and administration: no need to download/upload, easy to sharing and archiving
  • Requires internet connection
  • Basic editing and zoom controls
  • Not possible to bulk download annotations

Option B: Annotate with a PDF editor

Download documents and annotate locally.

 Advantages Disadvantages
  • Easy to use and flexible annotation tools
  • Closest approximation to "pen and paper"

Option C: Comments with Marking Guides or Moodle Rubrics

Create a Moodle Marking Guide or Rubric with criteria linked to a given question. Create text based comments linked to each question. Advantages Disadvantages
  • Specific prompts for markers (supports standardisation)
  • Easy numerical grading & automated counting of marks
  • Can be used alongside other annotation options
  • Comments are not "in-line" so difficult to cross-reference with original student work: this limits efficacy of annotation as a
    • "thinking" tool for the grader
    • audit/quality assurance process
    • student feedback
  • Cannot be retroactively applied. Must be setup at the start (before the first submission)
  • Supports text based comments only
  • Not possible to bulk download annotations

Option D: Separate annotations

Create a digital/analogue accompanying list of annotations (e.g. Excel spreadsheet, physical notebook).

 Advantages Disadvantages
  • Easy to setup, no additional software/hardware needed
  • Comments are not "in-line" so difficult to cross-reference with original student work: this limits efficacy of annotation as a
    • "thinking" tool for the grader
    • audit/quality assurance process
    • student feedback
  • Additional administration task if scanning annotations is needed

Option E: Hard Copy Print Out

Print submitted work and annotate with pen (scan to upload at a later date).

 Advantages Disadvantages
  • Simple to grade
  • Administration: requires printing, collating, (scan & uploading) overheads - only suitable for small cohorts
  • Possible low image quality of student work following upload scan

Software

There are many different PDF editing tools for a range of platforms, and these suggestions are aimed giving good coverage across devices and ease of use. They all work best with a touch screen device with a stylus (e.g. iPad/surface pro/touchscreen laptop/Android tablet or graphics tablet etc), but one also needs to consider screen size, palm rejection (resting hand does not trigger button press) and personal preferences.

Tool

Advantages

Disadvantages

Guidance
 

Moodle annotation tools (Option A)

You can annotate directly in browser using Moodle build it marking tool.
  • Works in browser (cross platforms)
  • No setup/download needed.
  • Supports grade input at same time
  • Easy document workflow and administration: no need to download/upload, easy to sharing and archiving.
  • Requires internet connection
  • Basic editing and zoom controls
  • Not possible to bulk download annotations
 

Adobe Acrobat Reader (Option B)

(all platforms)

Adobe Reader App allows text annotations, text highlighting and shape tools

Microsoft OneDrive App (Option B)

(iOS/Android only)

This app gives access to your staff OneDrive account - you can annotate pdfs
  • Annotation controls are easy and intuitive to use
  • Integrates with staff OneDrive: PDF edits are synced to cloud and available on desktop computer for sharing/archiving.
  • Changes are processed locally (supports offline annotation)
  • Available for iOS/Android only and requires (small) app download.

Xodo PDF Viewer and Editor (Option B)

(all platforms)

Desktop version runs in browser (alternatively as a browser extension for offline use) and Mobile Apps available. No sign-in/registration needed.
  • Annotation controls are easy and intuitive to use
  • Supports all platforms via local browser "app" on desktop and dedicated iOS/Android apps
  • Changes are processed locally (supports offline annotation)
  • The University of Bath has no supporting licence or agreement with Xodo: the suggestion is provided as-is.
  • Annotated files are saved as new files (rather than as edits)

Further Guidance relating to Alternative Assessments (Summer 2020)

Downloading student submissions

It is recommended to bulk download student assignments in folders (see Downloading Student Submissions), which a named folder for each student with their submission inside. Please note:

  • the downloaded folder gives a clear structure and locations for annotations, as well as a useful for archiving (either on X drive or via Moodle).
  • the folder name unique identifies the student, avoiding issues with incorrectly named student work.
  • new or edited version of the submitted files inside each students folder can be bulk uploaded as feedback files in Moodle (see Uploading feedback from zip). This provides a way to merge and collate many markers using different annotation options (e.g. Options A,C with option B,D,E).

Managing Annotations

For administration activities (e.g. around review boards, external examiners) and annotations please contact tel@bath.ac.uk. Please note that it is not possible to bulk download feedback files, but external examiners can be granted access in Moodle.