Rubrics for Course Assessment
A rubric is a tool to aid in marking by setting clear expectations in advance of receiving the work from students. Rubrics go beyond a marking guide by not just listing criteria to be judged, but also by providing clear examples of what each level of achievement looks like.
What is a rubric?
Put simply, a rubric is a tool that helps save time during marking and helps provide effective feedback to students. Rubrics are written alongside the assignment and lay out the criteria on which students will be assessed, and what each level of achievement looks like.
A rubric can be holistic or analytic depending on what is needed. Holistic rubrics consider the student work as a whole, while an analytic rubric breaks the marking down into independently assessed components.
More Information
A rubric helps ground the marking process in clear expectations for each aspect of the assignment. This requires an up-front time commitment in describing aspects, what success looks like for each aspect, and what score or marks will be attributed.
Remember! Rubrics should be written to speak to the student, rather than the instructor. (Though they are helpful for instructors!)
This up-front commitment pays off during the actual marking as the basic judgments have already been made. If TAs or Markers are assessing students’ work, or instructors are team-marking an assignment with colleagues, rubrics can help get everyone using the same language and standards on an assignment.
Rubrics can be a powerful part of the student learning process by creating a shared knowledge of expectations. When a student sees the rubric for an assignment, they can see precisely what dimensions require improvement, and what such improvement would look like. When used as part of formative assessments, this shows students paths to learning and success.
Creating Rubrics
Canvas supports adding rubrics to your assignments. Mark using a rubric, and the total can push automatically to the gradebook as the assignment score. Students can see feedback that is listed in the rubric; this can help cut down on time spent on marking.
How to add a rubric to an assignment (Instructure Canvas Guide)
Alternatively, rubrics can be made in a word processing or spreadsheet program, printed out, and written on freehand. This technique is used by some instructors for live presentations so that there are no device distractions.
Get Support
Learning Services is pleased to offer dedicated support for rubrics as part of the assessment and course design process.
Additional information is available at the Self Serve Rubric Support page.
If you have questions, or would like to discuss further, please email help@sauder.ubc.ca.
References
Stevens, D, & Levi, A. (2013). Introduction to Rubrics. (2nd edition). Stylus.