Perceived differences in tutor grading in large classes: Fact or fiction?

For many years the authors have coordinated a large engineering design subject, having a cohort of approximately 300+ students. Lectures are supported by tutorials of approximately 32 students which incorporate collaborative team learning activities and project-based learning. Each tutor is responsible for grading the assessment tasks for students in their tutorial. A common issue is how to achieve a consistent standard of marking between different tutors. To address this issue the authors have used a number of methods including double-blind marking and remarking to support consistent grading. Despite mainly finding only small variations between the grading of different tutors a number of students still complained about a perceived lack of consistency. We theorised that differences in the feedback provided by tutors was a contributing factor to this perception. In this paper we report investigating this theory and finding that while students´ perception of difference in grading were not unfounded, the problem was exacerbated by inconsistencies in the language tutors use when providing feedback.