TAG Developments has created an intuitive means to allow on-screen marking, annotation and assessment of digital coursework that does not alter the original work. Traditionally, when teachers or moderators/verifiers have assessed student coursework electronically, they must have installed on their computer the actual software application that the student used to create the coursework in order to actually view the work themselves.  Furthermore, in annotating and marking the work electronically, the teacher/moderator has essentially had to alter the original work (by adding comments to it, for example, and then resaving the file with a different name).  TAG Developments has come up with an innovative solution to address both of these issues, and that also provides teachers with immediately recognisable means of marking students’ work on screen.

Our Red Pen Tool includes the following functionality:

• Automatic Flash-based file conversion of any work that is going to be marked – the student (or teacher) merely needs to upload the file and TAG Development’s servers will do the rest;
• Any printable file format can be converted for use by the Red Pen Tool.
• Only requires a PC or Macintosh computer with a standard browser, internet connection and a Flash plug-in installed in order to access the Tool;
• Teachers/moderators are able to view both the original work AND the Flash version of the file;
• Teachers/moderators can then annotate the work, add comments at specific points, add notes anywhere, and highlight sections of the work;
• Teachers are also able to drag and drop assessment objectives/learning outcome statements onto the exact place in the coursework where this has been evidenced;
• Teachers/moderators can then review the work to see where each learning objective has been met;
• Any number of teachers/moderators are able to access and annotate the work;
• Each teacher/moderator has their own distinct layer (and colour that their annotations will appear in);
• All annotations/comments/notes/marks appear on separate transparent layers over the top of the original work;
• Users can then see individual moderator annotations, or see all or a selected number of moderator annotations at the same time;
• The original work remains unaltered;
• The Red Pen Tool is now available with MAPS to all existing and new customers;
• The Red Pen Tool can be integrated into any VLE or Learning Platform;
• The Red Pen Tool is also available as a stand alone online tool for schools to subscribe to and use.