Grading and Rubrics
Do you often get frustrated with the work product submitted by your students? Do you sometimes wonder if you are being consistent in your grading? Rubrics are grading tools that can provide students with clear expectations about the assignment and how it will be graded. This can result in higher quality products being submitted which can reduce your grading time. While creating rubrics can be time consuming, it is often a worthwhile investment. It provides you with an opportunity to reflect on the purpose of the assignment and your expectations. Most of us already have “mental rubrics” so this is an opportunity to formalize and document those ideas. Using rubrics can also help you be more consistent when grading.
Rubrics
Why use Rubrics?
Do you often get frustrated with the work product submitted by your students? Do you sometimes wonder if you are being consistent in your grading? Rubrics are grading tools that can provide students with clear expectations about the assignment and how it will be graded. This can result in higher quality products being submitted which can reduce your grading time. While creating rubrics can be time consuming, it is often a worthwhile investment. It provides you with an opportunity to reflect on the purpose of the assignment and your expectations. Most of us already have “mental rubrics” so this is an opportunity to formalize and document those ideas. Using rubrics can also help you be more consistent when grading.
What are the types of rubrics?
There are several different types of rubrics. The one you choose will depend on the learning task. Checklists are the simplest to create and use but focus on presence rather than quality. They consist of a 2 column table with the component on the left and then room for check mark on the right. Analytic rubrics are the most comprehensive in nature and therefore take the most time to create. Analytic rubrics are tables with components listed in the first column (i.e. writing skills, content, quality of sources) followed by “low”, “medium” and “high” columns. In each box of the table, the professor indicates what constitutes low, medium, and high level work for each component. The challenging part is to identify distinctions that go beyond statements like “excellent description”, “good description” and “poor” description. This does not provide meaningful information to students. Instead, information about what represents these levels of work is needed. If done well, they can be incredibly powerful tools, providing a detailed lens into the professor’s “mental rubric”. The third type is a holistic rubric. This type of rubric is often used when it is not possible to “break down” the components of an assignment. Instead, it provides overall guidance about high quality versus low quality work.
