Using rubrics
Assessment & Evaluation
A rubric is a type of scoring guide that assesses and articulates specific components and expectations for an assignment. Rubrics can be used for a variety of assignments: research papers, group projects, portfolios, and presentations.
Why use rubrics?
Rubrics help instructors:
Assess assignments consistently from student-to-student.
Save time in grading, both short-term and long-term.
Give timely, effective feedback and promote student learning in a sustainable way.
Clarify expectations and components of an assignment for both students and course teaching assistants (TAs).
Refine teaching methods by evaluating rubric results.
Rubrics help students:
Understand expectations and components of an assignment.
Become more aware of their learning process and progress.
Improve work through timely and detailed feedback.
Considerations for using rubrics
When developing rubrics consider the following:
Although it takes time to build a rubric, time will be saved in the long run as grading and providing feedback on student work will become more streamlined.
A rubric can be a fillable pdf that can easily be emailed to students.
Rubrics are most often used to grade written assignments, but they have many other uses:
They can be used for oral presentations.
They are a great tool to evaluate teamwork and individual contribution to group tasks.
Rubrics facilitate peer-review by setting evaluation standards. Have students use the rubric to provide peer assessment on various drafts.
Students can use them for self-assessment to improve personal performance and learning. Encourage students to use the rubrics to assess their own work.
Motivate students to improve their work by using rubric feedback to resubmit their work incorporating the feedback.
