Grading Guide

A comprehensive guide to the three grading methods, using the Answer Key, and how students review their feedback.
👉 March 15, 2026 Update: ChartFlow now offers three distinct grading methods to fit your curriculum. Whether you need a simple score, a structured rubric, or line-by-line feedback, the Grading Report ensures you see exactly what the student documented and when.
 

Section 1: How to Select Your Grading Type & Grade Students

1. Choosing Your Grading Type

When creating a new activity, you will see a box labeled "Grading Type". Select one of the following options from the dropdown menu (for information on how to create an activity, see our Activities Help Page):

⚠️ Important: The layout of the grading page and how you enter feedback will change based on which Grading Type you select.
🟢 Basic

Our standard grading option. Use this for a quick review of student documentation with the ability to provide an overall score and summary feedback.

🟡 Inline

Unlike the other types, grading is done directly in the Grading Report row-by-row for each student entry. You will see a grade and comment box next to each individual student entry for granular feedback.

🔵 Rubric

Add a Rubric Template to provide feedback to your students based on structured criteria and performance levels. (See our Rubric Templates Help Page for more info on how to make a rubric template.)

🔵 Selecting a Rubric Template:

When you select the Rubric grading type, a button will appear to "Select a Rubric." Clicking this opens a menu where you can choose from the following categories:

  • All: View all rubrics available to you.
  • System: Pre-made rubrics created by ChartFlow.
  • Organization: Rubrics shared by other instructors within your school.
  • My Rubrics: Rubrics that you have personally created.
  • Search Bar: Use the search bar at the top of the menu to find rubrics by name.
💡 Note: You can edit an activity at any time to change the grading type.

2. Navigating to the Grading Dashboard

Accessing the grading dashboard follows the same process across all three grading methods:

  1. On your Home or Courses page, find the activity in the specific course you wish to grade and click Grade & Manage.
  2. The Grading Dashboard will appear. It displays student names in the first column on the left, with each patient listed in the columns to the right.
  3. In the top right corner of the dashboard, you can use two helpful tools:
    💻 Student View: Toggle this to see the patients chart exactly as your students see it.
    📥 Export: Download the grading data to a CSV for your external records.
  4. Under the patient column, you will see the student's status:
    ⭕ Not Started: The student has not yet opened this patient.
    ⏳ In Progress: The student has opened the patient.
  5. Within the status box, use these icons to review student work:
    📋 View Chart
    Opens the student's chart exactly as it is, allowing you to go through their flowsheets manually.
    💬 View Comment
    Appears only after a comment is saved. Shows the feedback left for the student in the blue grading box. (Note: This icon will not appear for the Rubric grading type.)
    📊 Grading Report
    Shows everything the student documented for this patient on a single page for easy review.

3. Navigating the Grading Report Page

The Grading Report puts all student documentation on one page so you don't have to search through different flowsheets. Every value a student entered is listed row-by-row with its associated timestamp from the patient's chart, so you see exactly what was documented for that specific time.

On the top patient header you'll see:

View Chart Button
Switch from the grading report to the student's patient chart as they saw it.
Grading Dashboard Button
Return to the main grading page where you will see all students and patients.

On the report, you will see the individual entries in this format:

Time Stamp
Displays the date and time assigned to that entry within the patient's record.
Field Name
Displays the specific flowsheet and field where the data was documented (e.g., Vital Signs: Heart Rate).
Student Value
The specific data the student documented in that field.
Answer Key
Shows what the correct answer should be. [Note: This section only appears if an Answer Key was created beforehand.]

The Blue Grading Box:

The blue grading box is available in both the Patient Chart and Grading Report for all grading types. While it is always available, please note that the layout of the box will look different depending on which grading type you have selected.

🔘 Toggle Box: The little gray toggle on top lets you make the box smaller or close it.
↔️ Navigation Arrows: You will see 2 sets of arrows on the top of the grading box. The upper arrows cycle through different students that opened the patient and the lower arrows cycle through that students opened patients.
💯 Grade Text Box: Enter the student's grade for this patient here. For Basic, this is a free-text box; for Inline, it displays the added scores of all graded entries; and for Rubric, it only accepts numbers.
💬 Comment Box: Leave a summary or general feedback for the student to review.
💾 Auto-Save: All progress saves automatically as you work.

4. How to Leave a Grade and Comment for Each Grading Type

🟢 Basic:
  • Grading is simple and done with the blue grading box at the bottom of the page.
  • Inside the Blue Grading Box:
    • Grades and comments will save automatically as you type.
    • Use the upper arrows to cycle through students and the lower arrows to cycle through patients without leaving the page.
  • You can grade on the grading report or in the student's chart, as the grading box appears in both.
  • The student will see their score and comments under the patient in their activity dashboard.
🟡 Inline:
  • Unlike the other types, grading is done directly in the Grading Report row-by-row for each student entry. You will see a grade and comment box next to each individual student entry for granular feedback.
  • Grades and comments for each entry will save automatically as you type.
  • The Blue Grading Box is still available, but it is used only for leaving an overall summary comment for the entire patient and viewing the added scores of all the graded entries in the score box. Any information entered here also saves automatically.
  • The student will see the full grading report with these specific per-entry scores, total score, and comments when reviewing their grades.
🔵 Rubric:
  • The blue grading box on the bottom will contain your rubric template (for more info on how to make a rubric template, see our Rubric Templates Help Page).
  • Inside the Blue Grading Box:
    • Each criterion is graded with a number grade and gets a comment in the free text box on the right of the criterion.
    • As you grade each criterion, the total score is calculated and automatically appears on top of the rubric.
    • Use the upper arrows to cycle through students and the lower arrows to cycle through patients.
    • Everything entered into the rubric will save automatically.
    Structure of the Rubric:
    • Criteria (Rows): Specific skills or tasks being assessed.
    • Max Points: The maximum point value assigned to each individual criterion.
    • Performance Levels (Columns): The scoring levels (e.g., "Excellent" to "Poor") used for evaluation.
  • You can grade on the grading report or in the student's chart, as the grading box appears in both.
  • There is an overall Comment Box located under the rubric for general feedback.
  • The student will see the full rubric with your scores and comments when reviewing their grades.
 

Section 2: How To Create and Use The Answer Key Feature

💡 Activity Types: When making an activity, you choose between 1 of the 3 activity types: New Patient, Simulation, or Template Patient. Please note that for the New Patient activity type, there is no option to create an Answer Key.
  1. Once you finish setting up a Simulation or Template Patient activity and click Save, an Answer Key button will appear on the right side of the page, directly under each patient that was added to the activity (for information on how to create an activity, see our Activities Help Page).
  2. Click the Answer Key button to open the patient's chart in Answer Key Mode.
  3. Everything you document here will be used as the official answer key for that activity.
    💡 Example: If you document a temperature of 101°F in Vital Signs within Answer Key Mode, the Answer Key column on the Grading Report will show 101°F as the correct answer.
  4. As you enter data in Answer Key Mode, ChartFlow saves your progress in real-time—meaning when you are finished, you can simply leave the page.
  5. These values (answers) will automatically appear in the Answer Key column of the student's Grading Report for instant comparison during your review.
 

Section 3: How Students View Grades

💡 Note: The way students view their grades is different depending on the grading type their instructor used.
🎓 Instructions: To see your grade for any assignment, find the graded activity under its course on your home page and click the View Activity button to the right. This will take you directly to the activity dashboard where your grade is located.
🟢 Basic:
  • The final score and summary comments are visible directly under each patient in the activity dashboard.
🟡 Inline:
  • On the activity dashboard, students will see their averaged overall grade and overall comment under each patient that's graded.
  • Directly under the grade, students can click View Grading Details to see each of their entries graded.
  • This opens the grading report showing each individual documentation entry the student made for that patient.

  • Grading Report Navigation

    • View Chart Button: Switch from the grading report to the student's patient chart as they saw it.
    • Grading Dashboard Button: Return to the main grading page where you will see all students and patients.

    Individual Entry Format

    On the report, students will see individual entries in this format:

    🕒 Time Stamp: Displays the date and time assigned to that entry.
    📝 Field Name: Displays the flowsheet and specific field documented.
    ✍️ Student Value: The specific data the student documented.
    💯 Score & Comment: The specific grade and granular feedback for that entry.
  • At the top of the report, students will see their total grade, which is the same as shown on their dashboard.
🔵 Rubric:
  • On the activity dashboard, students will see their averaged overall rubric grade under each patient that's graded.
  • Directly under the grade, they can click View Rubric Details.
  • This opens the patient’s chart in read-only mode.
  • You will see a blue View Rubric button at the bottom.
  • Clicking that button will make the graded rubric appear.

  • Structure of the Rubric:

    • Criteria (Rows): Specific skills or tasks being assessed.
    • Max Points: The maximum point value assigned to each individual criterion.
    • Performance Levels (Columns): The scoring levels (e.g., "Excellent" to "Poor") used for evaluation.

    Feedback Sections:

    🔢 Score: The specific points awarded for each criterion.
    💭 Comment: Detailed feedback left by the instructor for each specific area.
    🏠 Return to Activity: Takes you back to the activity dashboard.
  • On the top of the rubric, students will see their total rubric score.
 

If you have any questions or need assistance with these features, please reach out to our support team at [email protected]