Once students start submitting work, you can review and grade their responses directly in Kira's Grader. This article walks you through the full grading process for a standalone lesson.
Before You Start
At least one student must have started the lesson before grading becomes available.
Step 1: Open Grading Studio
There are a few different ways to access grading, the simplest being by going through our Grading Studio. To access Grading Studio, click Evaluate on the left side navigation panel, then select Grading Studio.
You can also get to places for grading via the Manage and Assignments button on the lefthand navigation panel. Clicking an assignment will reveal student progress and offer a 'Grade' button as long as students have completed work in the assignment. You can also get to this view via the Assignments tab in your Classes page.
Finally, if you view the Gradebook in your Classes page, you can click on any activity to be brought to it's grading tab, as well.
Step 2: Grade by Activity Type
Grading works differently depending on the activity type.
Auto-graded activities
Multiple choice, fill in the blank, and drag and order activities are graded automatically. In the Grader, correct answers are highlighted in green and incorrect answers in red. You can add an optional explanation in the feedback field beneath the question — useful for clarifying why an answer was wrong or how to arrive at the correct one. You can also override the score if needed.
Open-ended activities Free response, essay, and document upload activities require manual review or AI-assisted grading.
To open up the Grading panel, you must click "Grade with AI" for one question or "Grade All with AI."
Evaluation — A summary score and percentage showing overall performance, a breakdown of how the student scored against each rubric criterion, plus plagiarism detection and AI writing detection signals.
Rubric — The full rubric used to assess the response, so grading stays transparent and consistent.
Feedback — Where written feedback lives. If you use AI grading, feedback is generated here automatically — but it's always editable, and you can add your own comments at any time.
Step 4: Check AI Writing and Plagiarism Flags (Optional)
For written responses, Kira automatically runs two checks, visible in the Evaluation tab:
AI Writing Detection — flags content that may have been AI-generated and describes rationale for its flags.
Note: AI isn't always the best at detecting AI grading! Use this to bolster your Spidey senses before having difficult conversations with students, but understand sometimes AI can be tricked.
Plagiarism Detection — flags content that may match other sources and returns a list of places the text was pulled from.
Results appear as descriptive labels: "Very unlikely," "Moderately likely," or "Very likely." A green checkmark appears when both checks are complete.
Use these as one signal among many. They're intended to inform your review, not make the determination for you.
Step 5: Release Grades
When you're satisfied with your review, click Release Grades. This sends each student their score and any feedback you've added.
⚠️ Grades are not visible to students until you release them. You can grade across multiple sessions and release when you're ready.
FAQs
Can I grade in multiple sessions and release later? Yes. Grades are saved as you go. Students won't see anything until you click Release Grades.
Can I override an AI-generated grade? Yes. Click into any graded activity and adjust the score or feedback before releasing.
What does the grading progress bar track? It shows how many submissions you've reviewed — manually or with AI — out of the total. It updates as you go, regardless of whether grades have been released.
Can I add feedback on auto-graded questions? Yes. For multiple choice questions, there's an explanation field beneath each question where you can add teacher feedback before releasing grades.
What if a student hasn't started the lesson yet? They won't appear in the Grader until they open the lesson and begin at least one activity.
Can I grade one student at a time? Yes. Use the student selector in the left panel to move between students. You don't have to grade everyone before releasing.