Judging on Devpost for Teams

• How to set up judging
• Adding criteria
• Adding awards
• Adding judges
• Set up judging groups
• Why add judging groups
• Starting the judging process
• How to conduct multi-round judging
• Judging a hackathon
• Navigating through the results
• Sharing feedback
• Ending the judging period & selecting winners
• How to conduct voting

How to set up judging

If you want your judges to evaluate projects directly within Devpost for Teams, you'll need to enable judging. This will allow judges to:

• Score projects on a scale of 1 to 5
• Provide comments on projects
• Assign projects to specific judges using judging groups (optional)
• Generate reports of scores and feedback

Important Note: If you plan to manage judging outside the platform, you can skip enabling this feature. You'll still be able to list your judging criteria and judges on the hackathon page, but judges won't be able to submit scores and comments within Devpost for Teams.

To enable judging:

1. Go to your hackathon page and switch to Edit mode.
2. Click the Judging icon in the Admin bar.
3. Follow the prompts to set up your judging criteria and preferences.

Select Yes to have your judges rate projects based on 1 - 5 criteria. Click Confirm to proceed.

After enabling judging, the setup guide will appear on the left side of the Judging screen. Here, you can add categories, criteria, awards, and judges.

Categories help organize projects by theme or region, which can simplify judging. For example, you can create categories for different geographic regions, and participants will be asked to select the relevant region when submitting their projects.

Adding criteria

Click Criteria to add up to 6 criteria for judges to use while evaluating projects — judges can rate 1 - 5 for each criterion. 

Adding awards

If you haven't already added awards, you can do so in the Awards screen. After the judging period ends, you'll see the final scores and can select winners accordingly. 

Note: You need at least one award to start a judging round.

Adding judges

Once you have a list of your judges, you can add them to the Judges screen. Only members of your organization can be added as a judge to the Hackathon. You can add judges by entering a coworker’s name into the Judges field.

Set up judging groups

To streamline judging, organizers can create judging groups and assign specific judges to each group. This ensures judges only review projects assigned to their group.

To create a judging group, navigate to the Judging section under Results and click Create judging group. You can then add a title for the group and select the judges for that group.

❗Note that you’ll only be able to assign projects to these groups once the submission period has begun and projects have been submitted.

Why add judging groups? 

Judging groups offer several advantages:

• Increased efficiency and organization in the evaluation process
• Streamlined demos
• Further categorization of projects

If you've already added categories, judging groups allow you to assign judges within those categories for more specialized evaluations.

Starting the Judging Process

Once you've set up judging, you can start the judging round. Judges will be notified when the evaluation process begins. To start the judging round, click Start Judging Round.

How to conduct multi-round judging

Multi-round judging allows for multiple rounds of evaluations. To conduct another round, end the current round by selecting End judging round, then select Create round 2 when prompted. You can create more than two rounds if needed.

After completing all judging rounds, click End Judging Round. You'll be prompted to select "End Judging & Select Winners."

Judging a Hackathon

Devpost for Teams simplifies the judging process. Once added to a hackathon, judges receive a confirmation email. When the judging round starts, they can

1. Go to the hackathon page.
2. Click the Rate Projects button to access the judging criteria and assigned projects.

When the judging period begins, Judges can simply navigate to the hackathon page and click on the blue Rate Projects button. This will lead to a screen displaying both the judging criteria and the projects assigned to the respective judge.

Next judges will evaluate each project against the criteria using a 1 to 5 rating scale; they can also offer valuable feedback on each project by adding comments. 

Judges’ ratings and comments are automatically saved, allowing them to revisit the projects anytime during the judging period.

As judges progress through rating the projects, they can easily track their progress in the top-right corner — this area indicates the remaining projects for review.

Navigating through the results

During the judging period, Organizers can monitor scores and comments. Please note that Organizers can directly share this information with participants through the platform. 

Organizers can track judging progress and view scores in the results screen. The judging progress section shows the evaluation status of each judge and their ballots. The scores section displays each project's average score and any comments.

To gain further insights, organizers can export two types of data reports:

• Scores & comments by judge: This report details individual judge scores and comments, offering insights into their evaluation process.
• Scores by project: This report shows the average score for each project, aiding in identifying potential winners.

After selecting an export, you'll receive an email with a link to download the .csv file.

Sharing feedback

Organizers have the option to share scores and feedback with submitters after each round. To do this, navigate to the Judges feedback section and select the desired information to share: round score and/or individual judge feedback. Organizers can also choose to anonymize judge feedback. Once a judging round has ended, click Share feedback to display the selected feedback on the submitter's project page. Submitters will also receive an email notification.

Ending the judging period & selecting winners from the Judging dashboard

With all projects scored, you’re almost at the finish line — wrapping up the judging period and selecting the winners!

We understand judges can get busy, so we've empowered Organizers to decide when to end the judging period. Here's how:

• Ensure all projects have been scored.
• If you have awards, make sure they're set up in the platform (you'll need to link each winner to an award).

Once you're ready to end the judging period, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the judging feature.
2. Click End judging

After ending judging, you can select winners directly in the platform:

1. Navigate to the Winners screen within the Results area in the Judging screen.
2. Click the dropdown menu under Winner.
3. View projects starting with the highest scores.
4. Choose a project linked to the desired award.

Not ready to reveal the winners just yet? No worries! You can save your choices and announce them later.

Once you announce winners, you’ll see a gallery of winners that you have selected on your Hackathon page.

How to conduct Voting

To enable voting and allow your hackathon registrants to vote on projects, go to the Results section and click on the Voting screen. You will be prompted to create a voting group. You have the option to create multiple voting groups, each with its own unique link. These links can be shared with your participants, providing them with easy access to the projects they need to vote on. You have several options when creating a new voting group:

• Voting permission: There are three settings to choose from:
  • "Sign in required" - Voters must sign into DFT to vote
  • "Public" - Anyone with the voting link can access the voting ballot and cast votes, no sign-in required
  • "Email only required" - Users must enter their email address to vote but won't need to perform a full sign-in
• Project order: You can select how projects will be ordered on the voting ballot
  • Alphabetical A-Z
  • Alphabetical Z-A
  • Custom
  • Randomized

You can then select the projects that you would like to be included in the voting group. If you selected a Custom project order, you will be prompted to set the order before saving the voting group.

Note: If you create more than one public voting group, you will have the option to combine those voting groups and send voters a Combined Public Voting Link.

If you have any questions, contact [email protected].