Shanel,
The key is also that the rubric helps the students AND the instructor!
I feel a rubric standardizes grading and creates an objective way of evaluating a student’s assignment. To take it a step further, if you make your rubrics available to the class, the students are able to see exactly what you are expecting.
Students want to know what did and I do right and what did I do wrong. Those questions can easily be answered in rubric style feedback. Of course there should also be an individualized component for each student as well.
A rubric should guide the student in understanding the expectations of the academic unit; however the rubric should not give so much information that critical thinking and discovery are excluded in the process.
The rubric assists the instructor in setting expectations for the students and themselves. It helps the instructor grade assessments. It also helps both the instructor and student to gauge whether they understand the topics and are achieving the desired outcomes.
A rubric is a tool used to assess and evaluate a student's work and make sure that the it is done consistently and objectively. These are often used in discussion forums as a means to score a student's participation. It sets the guidelines for the delivered content in the forum so the student is fully aware of what is expected in their reply (i.e. grammer, spelling, netiquette, contribution, relevance, timeliness, and content). Specific rules can be applied as to what is and is not allowed (i.e. posting "I agree" or "Good job".
Rubrics provide upfront the criteria for how the students will be evaluated in meeting the course objectives. We use them for both for measuring student online discussion and posts and for evaluating and graded their assignments. I takes the guesswork out as each student is informed of what is expected and alleviates potential come-backs from students.
A rubric is used to give students clear expectations. I also teach face to face and using a rubric with my students give them a goal to reach for. They are able to understand what they must do in order to receive the grade that they want prior to completing the assignment.
Patricia,
You must use rubrics. It will change your life and your students lives.
Go for it!
I have never used this in grading but think it is a wonderful idea and will adopt it. This will also help other adjunct instructors who will teach the course(s) in their grading.
This was a wonderful learning tool I took from this module.
Allen,
I'm glad you mentioned the subjectivity and objectivity. Right on! It's important to assess students consistently. It does help the instructor and students.
Thanks!
Hello All,
Good evening! When grading assignments, there is usually in most cases some level of objectivity present on open-ended assignments. Too much subjectivity can lead to inconsistencies in grading, and in some cases, even unfair grading at the extreme. Using rubrics helps to minimize subjectivity in grading by clearly stated the objectives that students will be evaluated on. Using rubrics as a guide makes it easier for students to accomplish learning objectives so that they do not have to worry about what the teacher wants. It also makes grading easier for the instructor as items can be clearly pointed out for what was and was not accomplished. All in all, using rubrics is of great value to students and instructors.
Have a great night!
Al
Stephen,
Yes, the thing people forget is that it helps both the instructor and the students. Thanks for including that.
A rubric can help instructors evaluate all of the outcomes of an assignment in a balanced way, and avoid focusing on just one aspect, whether good or bad - avoid the halo or pitchfork effect.
It also helps to clarify expectations for the students when the topic is assigned.
Sharon,
You are right on with road map. The main think I want instructors to understand is that the rubric helps both the instructor and students.
Thank you for reiterating this.
If you want to get to your destination, it is good to know the location of that destination. A strong rubric is a roadmap for students
to successfully complete an assignment. Students are given the expectations for the assignment and precisely how to meet those expectations. The rubric allows students to evaluate their assignments before submission to make sure that they have covered all of the material in a manner that will satisfy the course requirements.
The rubric also provides the instructor a solid base for evaluating student work. When grading an assignment the instructor can refer back to the rubric to help students understand their areas of excellence and areas of opportunity. The rubric helps the instructor to provide consistent feedback to all students for all assignments.
A rubric is helpful for all learning environments but it is especially helpful in the online environment where there are limited opportunities for discussion of expectations and evaluations and tools that provide clarity has important.
Joel,
I totally agree that rubrics help both the instructor and the students. Love that you use a live chat to do that.
This is an excellent response and I agree wholeheartedly. In my institution, the rubrics are provided for me and I am required to use them as given. In some cases, I feel that these are too vague and do not provide sufficient insight and direction to the students. I therefore attempt to clarify what is meant by the rubric including specifics such as number of words, number of sentences or paragraphs, and by providing examples of acceptable work. I also make a point of going through the rubric in a live chat session before each assignment is due.
Catherine,
Yes, it helps the students tremendously, but also helps the instructor ensure the objectives are being measured and that they are evaluating consistently.
Thanks!
The rubric allows the students to know ahead of time what is expected of them. It shows the categories of acceptable and unacceptable work. The students know exactly what they need to do to obtain each grade level.
Ms. Melendrez,
Do you use rubrics? If so, how have they helped you?
I believe a rubric is important to both the learners and the instructor. The students can basically know what their scores/grades might be depending on how many of the rubric's components the learners covers. The instructor benefits from rubrics because there is no room for any unintentional bias in grading.
