ORA Comparator Research

Most platforms do not have a single tool that addresses all the assessment types that ORA provides, so in the documents below this, each platform is broken down into:

• Staff-graded assessments

• Peer-graded assessments

• Self assessments

Generally, all platforms offer some form of staff assessment feature, with platforms geared towards self-paced, low-touch learning being the least likely to have any form of investment involved.

Most platforms have some form of peer assessment feature, but it’s regularly underdeveloped or absent entirely if the platform’s use-case is aimed specifically at self-paced or small-scale learning.

Very few platforms have dedicated tools for self-assessment, and those that do provide it typically feature it as a subfeature of peer assessment, which sees even less investment than peer assessment. This is surprising for academic platforms like Canvas, as self-assessment is regularly requested by academics, but most learning platforms simply don’t deliver.

Overall, ORAs are pretty well positioned competitively, though their high complexity and heavy nature compared to similar tools means that in some areas ORA can be too much work to use. As an example, needing to construct a full rubric for grading is a task beyond many non-academic course authors. Canvas has by far the most complete and complex solution that I have seen for the functionality supported by ORA.