5 Tips to Set Up Your Grading Scale on Ed.ai

“There’s never two of anything” is a striking line from Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory.

The same could be said of teachers’ grading habits.

You might give credit for a clever approach, even when the final answer is wrong. You might be particularly strict about mathematical notation, or accept a shortcut because it’s the one you taught in class.

And some rules are so ingrained in your teaching practice that you don’t even think to write them down.

AI, however, doesn’t know any of this.

For the AI behind Ed.ai to pick up your grading habits, it needs two things: clear instructions and a carefully tuned grading profile. That’s what gets the tool working at its best.

So, how do you teach Ed.ai to grade your way?

Here are five tips to get you started.

1. Always spend time in Ed.ai’s grading scale section

When you create an assessment in Ed.ai, the worksheet is the only mandatory document.

From there, you have two routes:

Route 1: Worksheet only

Ed.ai analyzes it and generates a grading scale for you to review.

Route 2: Worksheet + your own rubric and answer key

Ed.ai analyzes them as well and generates a grading scale fine-tuned to your documents.

Either way, review the scoring details before you even look at your students’ papers.

Use the “Modify scoring details” option or, better, the “Edit with Ed” feature. You can go back and forth with Ed in plain language and adjust as you go.

Check that the total points and their allocation across exercises and questions make sense.

A five-point exercise might award two points for showing the method and three for mathematical accuracy.

If you change the total, double-check the breakdown. Inconsistencies can confuse Ed.ai.

2. Let Ed know what makes you unique as a grader

Maybe you sometimes throw in a bonus point to lift a weak paper. Maybe you have an unwritten cap on off-topic answers.

AI doesn’t detect these habits on its own, so make sure your grading scale reflects all of your expectations:

✍️ How you expect calculations, notation and reasoning to be written

⭐ What you value in a response

❌ Which mistakes you want to penalize (or let slide)

🧭 Which methods or approaches you accept

If you expect students to use a method you taught in class, say so. Otherwise, as long as the approach is correct, Ed.ai will award credit, even if the student takes a different route than the one you taught.

Ed.ai needs to know whether you’re assessing the final answer, the reasoning, the method, or all three.

You can also configure your grading profile on the platform and specify the tone you want for written feedback and whether you award partial credit.

3. Don’t chase the perfect answer key

If you decide to import your own documents, such as an answer key or a rubric, don't spend hours trying to fine-tune the most mathematically perfect version of every answer.

An overly detailed answer key can actually backfire: Ed.ai may become too rigid, rejecting valid approaches or becoming more demanding than you would be. The class average can drop as a result.

We recommend a succinct answer key.

The one place where we do want you to be specific? Your particularities as a grader (see point 2 above).

4. Methodically manage differentiated assessments

You might prepare A/B/C versions to prevent cheating, include optional or bonus exercises or adapt a worksheet for students with specific learning needs.

Ed.ai can handle these variations within one assessment, but it needs to know what it’s looking at.

Make the structure clear in your instructions.

Name different versions consistently

Ask students to identify which version they’re working on directly on their paper. If only certain exercises vary, make sure those are clearly identified too.

The clearer the differences between versions, the easier it is for Ed.ai to apply the right expectations to each paper.

5. Stay vigilant: AI can make mistakes

Although our models reliably detects most elements by now, a few things can still trip it up:

✏️ Messy or hard-to-read handwriting

📐 Geometry figures

📊 Graphs and complex diagrams

Our tool detects these types of exercises and flags them for human review, but it pays to keep an eye on them.

💡 Tip: After a few rounds with Ed, write down your grading instructions in a separate document, then upload it with each new assessment.

Here are some examples of instructions you can give Ed.ai :

☐ “Students should always be allowed to earn partial credit for a given part of a question.”

☐ “Grade the FRQs (Free-Response Questions) out of 5 points: 2 points for the final answer and 3 points for the explanations.”

☐ “Quizzes are worth 20 points by default, while exams are worth 100 points. Please ensure that the total score across all questions matches these values, based on the assignment title.”

☐ “Don’t use the word ‘weak’ in written feedback.”

No two teachers grade alike, but with a well-prepared grading scale, Ed.ai can come pretty close to grading like you.

Cover image © Ed.ai / Olia Danilevich