Remote Judging allows Engineering Notebook evaluations, Team Interviews, or both, to be completed before the event. This article covers how remote judging works and the consistency, youth protection, and scheduling requirements that apply. It is written for judges, Judge Advisors, and Event Partners.
Definitions of the terms used here are maintained in the central glossary.
Remote judging supplements rather than replaces the in-person deliberations where final award decisions are made. See the Participating in Judging Deliberations article to learn more about the deliberation process.
Consistency Requirements
The standard does not change with the format. The six Commitments of the Code of Conduct, the two principles of the Student-Centered Policy, and the protections of the Youth Protection Policy apply to remote judging exactly as they do in person, and teams are evaluated against the same rubrics and award criteria.
All teams must be judged using the same format: if notebooks are judged remotely, all notebooks are judged remotely, and if interviews are remote, all interviews are remote. Remote judging should occur as close to the event as possible, preferably within two weeks of the event.
Because the format applies to everyone, the Event Partner should consider before choosing remote judging whether every registered team can take part on equal terms — reliable internet access, a device, a suitable space, and a workable time. If some teams would be unable to participate, judge in person.
Youth Protection in Remote Judging
At an event, judging happens in an open, public space where other adults are present. Online, those conditions have to be created. The Youth Protection Policy requirements below apply to every remote interview.
- Judges work in groups of two or more. No judge meets with a team alone.
- An adult from the team must be present and visible for the entire interview. Under the Youth Protection Policy, that adult is 18 or older and not enrolled in primary or secondary education.
- Remote interviews may not be recorded by any party.
- Scheduling and any other communication with a team goes through the team's adult contact, not privately to students.
Remote Engineering Notebook Judging
- Teams submit Digital Engineering Notebook links, along with their summaries, through events.vex.com. The summaries work the same way in any judging format. To learn more about the summaries, see this article.
- All notebooks should be evaluated under the same conditions and time constraints.
- Multiple judges should evaluate each notebook.
- Judges at the event must still have access to the notebooks for deliberations.
- Teams are responsible for ensuring notebook and summary links work and are accessible.
- Any downloaded copies of notebooks must be deleted after the event.
For how notebooks are evaluated, including the rubric, see Judging Engineering Notebooks.
Remote Team Interviews
A remote interview is the same interview held over video: a brief conversation between judges and the students, scored on the same rubric as an interview conducted at an event. See Judging Team Interviews for how to conduct and score an interview, including the rubric and the role summary documents play in interviews.
Accommodations for students who communicate differently are welcomed and protected in remote judging as they are in person. An interpreter, communication support, additional processing time, captions, or a written response is how that student takes part. Score the content of the answer, never the delivery or the connection quality.
Scheduling
Schedule interviews consistently for all teams and allow time for technical issues. Leave time between interviews for scoring, discussion, and preparing for the next team rather than scheduling them back to back. Interviews stay brief conversations of roughly the same length for every team, as they are in person at an event.
Confidentiality
Notes, rubrics, and records from remote judging are confidential and are handled the same as materials from in-person judging. They stay within the judging team and are destroyed at the close of the event. Downloaded copies of notebooks are deleted, and no part of a remote interview is recorded or retained.