Beth,
Love your word choice - critical. It is mission critical for sure to use rubrics so that the instructor can assess more consistently and the students can understand the expectations. Thanks for your input.
Rubrics in the online environment are critical. Without face-to-face interaction, this becomes an imperative tool by which to provide feedback. Students are able to prepare assignments accordingly and see where they will be required to perform and how they will be graded. It also facilitates a consistent grading policy for the instructor and hopefully, provides tangible evidence as to how grades are determined should a student have a question.
Pennie,
When you use a rubric, make sure you also assess if it is evaluating what it should be evaluating. You want to make sure there is clear information. Thanks!
We drafted a rubric with the intent to be more explicit about what is required to meet course expectations when providing assignment and assessment feedback to individual students.
Ron,
Glad you are finding them helpful. With good development, rubrics are extremely helpful.
I have found that it helps to clarify assignments and reduce questions as well.
William,
Very nice. Your five reasons are right on target. Thank you for your input.
Rubrics are important for several reasons: (1) they provide specifc information about student performance, (2) they identify the elements for a highly rated assignment (3) they provide a tool for a more accurate and consistent form of grading for the instructor,(4)they provide a more objective and accurate assessment of student performance, (5) they provide useful feedback to the student.
David,
Thank you David. We all learn from each other. I tell my students, and it's true, I learn something new every day!
Keep learning!
Jim,
Ah - glad this was helpful. As we continue to learn (life long learning), we do see things in a different light.
Thanks!
You are very welcome Dr. Crews. I am inspired to use rubrics for every grading assignment in 2013 to help both me as an instructor and to provide guidance for my students. Thank you for your leadership, knowledge and assistance.
This course has provided me with a completely different understanding of how rubrics work. I thought that they were just for grading but now I know that they are used in constructing an entire course with feedback and direction. Thank you. I will use this course and knowledge to do a better job in all of my classes.
David,
Your last statement is perfect in describing a great reason for using rubrics. Thanks for your input.
Sunil,
Adding to the quality of the assignment is a very good point. Thanks for your input.
David,
You are right. Creating the rubric for an assignment helps the instructor think carefully about the assignment and components. Thanks for your input.
It is important for a number of reasons and I think the most important is to calibrate scoring in a consistent manner for the teacher and possibly more important for the student to understand and know what is expected of him or her to get an excellent grade. This clear expectation motivates proper planning and execution.
Rubrics help the instructor feedback system to be more effective. As notes rightly indicate, the rubrics are effective tool to help instructors to articulate the goals of the assignment and assessment of an assignment based on the learning objectives. What I have experienced this over and over again as an online instructor, the rubrics handed to students before a project/ an assignment will greatly enhance the understanding of the project/assignment and avoid any confusions in the minds of the students as they are aware what is expected in that task and how their projects/assignments are going to be evaluated and assessed for the grades, which results in better quality assignments/projects. Another great advantage of rubrics is they help the assessment of the assignments/projects consistent throughout the grading process in an online environment.
Thanks
Sunil N. Kulkarni
It may be even more important for an online instructor as he or she needs to impart what is important and the weighting of tasks. This will help students who do not have the classroom environment and visual cues to assess what is important.
Daniel ,
Glad you are finding rubrics as beneficial to your assessment process. The students appreciate it too. ;-)
Grace,
When a good rubric is created with excellent criteria, it reduces the number of questions students ask about why they did not earn a certain number of points.
