Delivering on-screen marking at national scale
How AQA combines scale, speed and integrity in high-stakes assessment delivery
Every summer, millions of learners depend on AQA for accurate results delivered on time. Behind those results is one of the UK’s largest on-screen marking operations, where scale, speed and integrity have to work together.
Before on-screen marking, scripts and mark schemes were posted to examiners. The process was costly, less reliable and made it harder to identify marking issues quickly. Since its introduction in 2019, e-Marker has helped AQA move to a secure online marking environment, giving teams the flexibility, oversight and quality-assurance tools needed to deliver at national scale. This shift gave AQA greater control over the marking process while maintaining the accuracy and reliability that high-stakes assessments demand.
“Education systems face an immense operational challenge: marking millions of high-stakes exams for university admission, often within short timeframes. Efficiency matters, but never at the expense of quality. Marking must be consistently reliable, secure, and free from risk of malpractice, because even small failures can deny students the grades they deserve. We believe scale, speed and integrity must go hand in hand to maintain trust in national assessment systems.”
Shaun Crowley, Director of International Business Development
Delivering scale without losing trust
Large-scale assessment delivery depends on clear processes, consistent standards and reliable oversight from start to finish. For AQA, this means coordinating thousands of examiners across multiple subjects and components while protecting confidence in every marking decision.
A national operation in numbers
In one summer assessment series, AQA delivered:
Over 2 million scripts marked
Approximately 12,000 examiners used the e-Marker platform
169 assessment components marked
At this scale, success depends on more than moving scripts online. Before scaling e-Marker across qualifications, AQA tested and refined the platform with marking and operational teams to ensure it could support the practical demands of live assessment delivery.
A key challenge was marking long-form responses at scale, including around 1 million English Literature scripts in a single summer. AQA overcame this by using e-Marker to bring full scripts into a secure online marking environment, giving examiners a consistent way to mark responses. Examiners could easily add annotations and comments to support the marks awarded, while tools such as zoom, contrast and rotate helped to make scripts easier to read and mark. The platform also gave operational teams clearer oversight of progress and quality.
Turning marking into a managed national operation
Under tight results-day deadlines, teams required breathing room, visibility and control. e-Marker supported this by bringing scripts, examiners, progress monitoring and quality assurance into one secure online environment.
Marking complete scripts online
AQA needed a consistent way for examiners to mark complete scripts across qualifications and components. e-Marker enabled this by giving examiners secure online access to scanned scripts, reducing reliance on paper-based workflows.
Managing examiner teams with confidence
At national scale, operational teams need to see how marking is progressing and where support may be needed. e-Marker gives managers oversight of examiner activity, helping them manage individuals or groups more effectively during live marking.
Quality checks built into marking
For AQA, quality assurance had to be part of the marking process itself. Integrated checks help teams monitor whether agreed standards are being applied and provide support while marking is still underway.
Clear evidence at every stage
A clear record of activity supported governance, transparency and operational monitoring. This gave AQA teams evidence of what happened across the platform and when.
Managing issues quickly and securely
When issues arose during live marking, teams had to act quickly and securely. e-Marker helped them categorise and monitor queries, escalations and concerns, including safeguarding-related matters.
Helping examiners mark with confidence
AQA’s marking operation depends on thousands of examiners being able to work effectively and consistently. e-Marker supported this with a clearer on-screen marking experience and tools that help examiners apply mark schemes with confidence.
Feedback from markers showed that the platform made core marking tasks easier to complete, especially submitting marks, annotations and comments.
Since 2019, AQA has marked millions of scripts online using e-Marker. Every year, the number of scripts has increased, helping AQA to dramatically reduce its carbon footprint with less postage. It has also allowed AQA to recruit a much wider and more diverse pool of markers because they don't have to commit to marking large batches of papers in a specific time period. AQA is committed to using e-Marker to execute its vision of never letting a learner down and ensuring everyone gets the correct results quickly.
74%
of markers said it was easy or very easy to submit marks, annotations and comments using e-Marker
Explore on-screen marking with us
AQA’s experience shows that on-screen marking is not just a technology change. At national scale, it becomes an operational model for protecting quality, supporting examiners and maintaining confidence in results.
Whether you are looking to improve marking efficiency or modernise assessment delivery, our assessment technology team can help you explore the right approach.
Contact our team to learn more about e-Marker and our wider assessment technology solutions.
Contact our team
Fill in our contact form and we'll get in touch.
Email: info@aqaglobal.com
Tel: +44 (0) 20 3960 0671
Follow us on LinkedIn
Message us on WhatsApp
Our London office
AQA Global Assessment Services
Lynton House
7-12 Tavistock Square
London
WC1H 9LT
UK
Offices in Manchester, Milton Keynes, Bahrain, Sharjah and Hong Kong
Events
Meet with our experts at a conference near you.
We regularly attend education and assessment events around the world, often presenting our latest research.