How to effectively combine quantitative and qualitative judging in score-based awards assessment

Choosing the best entries in your awards program can be a challenging task. Perhaps you have thousands of entries. Or maybe you’re managing a creative awards program where the assessment can be quite subjective. 

It’s important to create a judging rubric that finds the best entries every time, and one that will use a combination of transparent numerical scoring with your judges’ expert opinions to pinpoint the best entries. One of the best ways to effectively do this is to combine both quantitative and qualitative scoring.

Why combine quantitative and qualitative scoring in awards judging?

Quantitative scoring is a way to provide an assessment through predefined metrics in your rubric that result in a numeric value or score. Quantitative scoring can be very effective in providing your awards judges a way to assess entries objectively and consistently, as well as identify patterns and trends. In a nutshell, it is the hard data assessment of an entry.

Qualitative scoring, on the other hand, is the “soft data” assessment of an entry. It’s the look, the feel, the feedback and comments of an entry. It goes beyond numerical scoring to offer a holistic assessment on an entry. This type of assessment can help find the best entries in a more subjective awards program, such as art or writing contests. 

Alone, each style of assessment can have limitations, not capturing the full picture or scope of an entry. 

Employed together, however, quantitative and qualitative judging can add depth, nuance and context that numbers or written feedback alone can’t capture. It balances the hard and soft aspects of an entry, providing objectivity with expert opinion from your judges. It can be a win-win for any awards program looking to create a well-rounded judging rubric. 

When to use quantitative scoring

Quantitative assessment is ideal for when you want your judges to use a pre-defined rubric to score varying criteria in an entry.

For a fair and balanced assessment, your numerical scoring rubric should evaluate different aspects of the entry. For example, a literary work might be judged on grammar, imagery, coherence, creativity and content, while a stage performance could be assessed on creativity, audibility, confidence and charisma. 

When using quantitative scoring, you might ask judges to rate each applicable field in your entry form on a defined numeral score. This could be from 1-5, or 1-10, or any numeral scoring system that works for your program—just make sure it is clear for your judges. 

Scoring criteria will vary depending on your awards program and industry, but could include measurables such as:

• Impact: How significant is the result?
• Originality: How new, creative or unique is the approach?
• Scalability: Can the idea be expanded or grown?
• Execution: How well was the idea delivered?
• Collaboration: Was there co-design or partnership?
• Evidence and data: Did they provide strong data, supporting documents or metrics?
• Sustainability: Will the impact last over time?

When to use qualitative scoring

Qualitative scoring is ideal to highlight and recognise the intangibles in an entry. This could mean providing feedback and review on the background or “story” of an entry, the authenticity of an entry, or even the feel or emotion an entry evokes. 

This type of scoring can be very effective for creative awards programs where the judging can be subjective, and you want to encourage judges to reflect contextually on an entry. These won’t require a numerical rating—instead, judges simply provide feedback or recommend specific entries based on their expertise. 

Criteria for qualitative assessment could include: 

• Judge’s expert opinion: Based on your experience, what insights can you offer about this entry?
• Contextual insight: Did the entrant demonstrate a strong understanding of their audience, industry or issue?
• Values alignment: How well does this entry align with the spirit or purpose of the award?
• Ethics and integrity: Did the entrant demonstrate transparency, equity or social responsibility?
• Entrant voice: Does the entry reflect the entrant’s own voice or lived experience?

Create multiple judging rounds to provide space for qualitative and quantitative assessment

How can awards programs prompt judges to provide both qualitative and quantitative assessment in a streamlined manner—without getting overly complicated?

Consider creating multiple judging rounds for your awards program. You might be doing this already, for example, if you have a qualifying round where you weed out weaker entries before moving the stronger entries on to your judges for review.

You might want to start with a quantitative scoring round, where you create a pre-defined rubric for your judges to use based on various criteria. Scores can be tallied here and the strongest entrants will move forward.

In the next round, you could create a qualitative round, where you ask your judges to dive in deeper, provide their expert opinions and insights into each entry. While the qualitative assessment does not have to be scored, you could also assign numeral values to this sort of review, then add it to your first round of scoring. 

Weighted scoring can also be very helpful. Consider using a weighted blend. For example, you might want to weight the quantitative assessment at 70% and the qualitative at 30%. 

A few important tips to keep in mind:

• Use descriptive labels in the scoring scale so your judges understand what the numbers mean.
• Ask judges to provide feedback, especially helpful in qualitative scoring. You might want judges to add internal comments for program managers only, which can be helpful in serving as tie-breakers or providing background on the judge’s scoring.
• If you require judging feedback, use built-in reminders for the judges to “Please explain your score.” Let them know if the comments will be public or internal-only.
• Show entrants their scoring to add credibility to the program and boost trust. This way, all participants will walk away with insights and value from the experience. 

Use technology to streamline your awards judging

Save time and make the review process easy for your judges with Award Force, which enables you to create sophisticated awards judging processes with ease. Use qualitative and quantitative scoring, along with an entire suite of helpful judging tools, to help you choose the best entries, every time. 

Learn more about the Award Force judging suite.