Esther,
I like your use of the term "growth pattern." It's good to see where the students are coming from or where they are at the moment and then see them grow in their learning. Nice job.
Cathleen,
I put examples of good and bad posts in my syllabus. The students need to understand the expectations for sure.
Thanks!
Christine,
Rubrics help instructors and students - right on! As the instructor becomes more skilled in be more objective and provides meaningful feedback, the students will move closer to achieving the learning outcomes. Thanks!
The role of a rubric is to provide students with a clear understanding of the objectives and expectations relative to an assignment. In many ways, a rubric helps to empower a student as the information provided in the rubric enables the student to assess their own work prior to submission.
My college uses rubrics for specific courses that are assessed quarterly. Students are informed what is being assessed and when the "featured" assignment is due.
An assessment tool for measuring students outcomes and objectives of the course and/or specific course assignments. It helps us see the growth pattern of each students assignments, etc.
A rubric should enable the student to know the expectations of an excellent post, so they can continue to post insightful and logical responses.
A rubric will help us, instructors, in grading discussions/assignments consistently and fairly. It will also help students understand what they are expected to produce for a certain assignment. This will give them an idea whether their work is sufficient or not.
Earle,
AND - this same rubric will help the instructor be more objective and consistent in their assessment.
Thanks!
A well written rubric will give students the information they need to complete the assignment and the knowledgde of how they will be evaluated.
Heather,
Clear communication and clear expectations are a must. When students get the rubric before the assignment, it provides time to review the guidelines. Nice job.
I believe it is to set clear expectations to the student. If the student knows what to expect, we can work with them to drive the the expected results. It is equally important when grading to refer to the rubric so students know areas they excelled in and possible areas for improvement.
Heather
Jacqueline,
Excellent. The key is that is helps all stakeholders - students and instructor. Thanks for sharing your ideas/thoughts.
Heather,
AND, it helps the students as well. The better they understand the expectations, the better than can achieve the learning outcomes.
Thanks for your input.
I believe that it has several roles.
1. It helps instructors to do consistent grading, as it is a guideline for instructors to remove or add points just as much as it is informative to students.
2. Provides students with specific goals to achieve in order to receive full credit for assignments and discussions.
3. Establishes the standards that everyone will have to rise to, which is like setting rules for a society.
Of course my list is not all inclusive, but these are a few things that I see a rubric achieving.
It helps me grade as much as it helps set expectations. It is a very useful tool.
Cynthia and William,
You bring up very good points. I'm glad you can transfer what you have used in the F2F classroom to the online classroom. Nice job.
Cynthia,
Rubric rock! ;-) The criteria are the kep components to the development of the rubrics. Thanks for sharing.
I agree, William. I used rubrics in the traditional classroom, so I was prepared when I started teaching online. It certainly does help make the grading process easier and more objective. I also do not get bogged down in over commenting. I paste the rubric in grading comments, choose what is most important for the student to work on, and assure that I provide additional feedback and resources to assist the student.
Cynthia
The role of rubrics is to provide specific criteria for the assignment assessment so students know what is expected. Since using rubrics (for years), I have had fewer complaints from students about their grades. The rubric helps me to show them where they are doing well, but also what they need to improve on as they work on subsequent writing assignments.
I use the same rubric to evaluate each writing and discussion assignment for the following:
Purpose/Content Development 45 percent
Critical Thinking 20 percent
Communication Skills 30 percent
Information Literacy and Documentation 5 percent (I include using sources under critical thinking)
Students receive comments detailing exemplary, sound, adequate, inadequate (D), or F work in each category.
Cynthia
