Recommendation judging

What is recommendation judging? 

For some programs, merely collecting a numerical score for submissions doesn't quite fit the bill. These accounts typically wish for judges to provide accolades for entries that go above and beyond or bring something special to the table. If you'd like judges to mark deserving entries as "Gold", "Silver", "Bronze", "Best in show", or something else entirely, recommendation judging may be just what you're looking for! 

If your program has implemented our VIP judging mode the instructions below will be quite familiar. For those that haven't, see the steps outlined below to begin configuration. 

Step 1: configure a score set

Recommendation judging utilises the framework provided by our VIP judging mode. As such, there is significant overlap in the process starting from the beginning: the creation of a VIP judging score set. 

1. In the Manage workspace, navigate to Judging > Settings > Score sets
2. Click New score set
3. Select the VIP judging radio button under the 'Judging mode' heading
   
4. Assign a Score set name, noting that this name will be shown to your program's judges so it should be clear and concise; i.e. 'Stage 1'. 
5. Click Save when finished 

The above steps are the basic requirement for a VIP judging score set, but additional options are available. For a breakdown on each of those settings see our dedicated guide: VIP judging configuration. 

Step 2: configure recommendation scoring criteria

Like with standard VIP judging, recommendation utilises scoring criteria. The key difference for recommendation is that, instead of judges selecting a numerical value to score the entry, they can choose a word or phrase. To configure a recommendation scoring criteria, follow these steps:

1. Open the Manage workspace and go to Judging > Settings > Scoring criteria
2. Create a New criterion
3. Provide a Score title (maximum 32 characters), this is required
4. Input a Shortcode; this is used in summary tables and exports where space is limited— the full score title may be too long and take up too much space
5. The Label (the visible heading associated with the criterion), Help text, and Hint text are all optional
6. If you have multiple Score sets, select the one just created
7. Under the 'Control' heading, choose the Recommendation radio button
8. Three default options (Gold, Silver, and Bronze) will appear, but they can be edited, reorganised, or added to:
   • To edit a Label or its associated Score, simply click into the field and make your adjustment
   • To add further options, hover your cursor between those that appear or below the last and click the + that appears
   • To reorder existing options click and drag them into your desired sequence
9. Provide a desired Weight for your recommendation criteria 
   
   Tip: if you don't wish for your recommendation criteria to impact the overall scoring of an entry, set this value to 0. 
10. Under the 'Commenting' heading, choose your desired option(s)
    
    
    • Comment on individual scores invited will make a comment area on this criteria available to judges.
    • Comment on individual scores required will make a comment on this criteria compulsory for judges. 
11. If the scoring criteria you're creating should be displayed alongside a specific entry field, select the entry field from the Align this score with a field, otherwise it is simply positioned at the bottom of the entry 
    
    Important: if you align a scoring criteria with a conditional field, it may or may not appear to your judges and you'll see a warning message. Should this be intentional, we recommend utilising the "Mean" calculation within your score set configuration. For more details, see: What is the difference between 'Sum' and 'Mean' result calculation?. 
12. Provide an Order for the scoring criteria, this controls the placement of the scoring criteria on screen for the judge, in score matrix and exports
    
    Note: if you choose to align the score with a field as mentioned above, there is no need to assign an order value.
13. Finally, chose which Categories (all or some) this scoring criteria should be used for
14. Save when finished

Example: recommendation criteria will appear to judges similarly to standard scoring criteria. 

Set up a judging round

1. In the Manage workspace, go to Judging > Settings > Rounds
2. Click Add round
3. Select the Judging round radio button under 'Round type'
4. Set Starts and Ends dates/times
5. Save

For more detailed instructions, see: Ultimate guide to rounds. 

Create a judging panel

Panels help you easily manage which entries go to which judges. You can configure as many panels as necessary for a given score set— you might typically have one panel per category. 

1. In the Manage workspace, go to Judging > Settings > Panels
2. Create a New panel
3. Choose VIP judging as the judging mode, and select the score set created earlier
4. In the 'Entries' section, check the categories/chapters/tags for entries that are to be judged
   • There are two additional settings in this section: Only include moderation approved entries and Include archived entries. If moderation is in use, checking the first box will ensure only approved entries go through to judging. Checking the second box will include archived entries. 
5. In the Who section select who will be allowed to judge whether that be all users with a specific role to judge or only selected users
6. In the When section, check the round configured earlier, for when judging will be permitted
7. Save

Testing your recommendation configuration

It's important to test your judging configuration to ensure that the entire process works in a way that meets your organisations needs and expectations. For a full breakdown on how to test your recommendation judging see: How do I test my judging set-up?

Notes on recommendation

• The scores associated with each recommendation option must be unique meaning that multiple labels cannot hold the same value. 
• If the scores associated with recommendation shouldn't impact the overall score of an entry, set the Weight to zero. 
• Judges will see the score of each entry and any given recommendation in their list view. 
• The judging leaderboard can display columns with counts for each recommendation option by clicking the cog icon at the top of the list view. 
• Recommendation results are not included with standard Results - VIP judging exports, but can be added as columns in a custom export. For more information see our Ultimate guide to exports.