Why marking sheets in a download are skipped

When you attach a blank marking sheet to an LMS assignment, the "download all submissions" ZIP includes a copy in every student's files. Feedback sheets from an earlier round can come back the same way. DeepMarking spots these copies and leaves them out of marking.

Why this matters

Without it, the template would be read as student work. A student who handed in nothing would still appear to have a submission, and it would be the marking sheet.

How a marking sheet is recognised

A file is treated as a marking sheet in either case:

• The same file appears for several students. The same original file name, named like a marking sheet (for example it contains "marking", "rubric", "criteria" or "mark sheet"), is in the files of three or more students, or of every student when there are only two. This catches Word and PDF templates too.
• A spreadsheet looks like a marking sheet. It has a criteria column, a marks column and at least two criteria with a mark, plus a sign such as a title that says it is a marking sheet, a second marks column for the awarded mark, or blank Student ID or Marker lines. A sheet exported from DeepMarking is recognised as well.

These checks run in your browser. The files are never sent for marking.

What happens to a skipped sheet

It is not read and not marked. Only its file name goes with the student's submission, noted as a marking sheet rather than student work.

Your own rubric is not affected

The rubric you add to the Rubric slot is handled separately. This check only applies to files inside student submissions.

Students with only a marking sheet

A student whose files held nothing but the template has no work to mark. In group work, they may be linked to a teammate's submission instead. See Group submissions.