Grace,
Yes, the students do appreciate knowing the expectations up front and it helps them work toward the learning objectives. Thanks for your input.
James,
Yes, it's a part of building community with the students. Being clear with the students through the use of rubrics is excellent. Thanks!
tycie,
Consistency is a key to the use of rubrics. The students can more fully understand the expectations and are assessed more fairly with a rubric. Thanks for your input.
I cannot imagine not having rubrics in my courses. They serve as essential standards and criteria for measuring performance. They offer direction for improvement (student and instructor). Rubrics are essential to assessment; students expect them as a primary tool for preparing for class and understanding the scales of performance.
The standardized approach can be modified by circumstance e.g. art v. accounting class. The baseline analytics, however, must be clear, logically arrayed, and beta tested for effectiveness.
Great point, Elizabeth. Using a rubric, you can show the students the reasoning behind taking off 2 points here and 4 points there, without them comparing with another student and thinking that they were graded unfairly.
As an online instructor, Rubrics are important for standardization purposes. You want to keep a certain standard and the best way to do that is to use a rubric. It helps the students to know what you expect from them and what they need to do to achieve that desired A grade.
I feel it is a way to establish a rapport with the students and provide clear course guidelines and expectations for students.
Rubrics are important to ensure grading is consisent and fair. It also gives specfic measures each student must achieve in order to meet course objectives. In a sense, it serves as a navigatonal guide to success for the students.
Kristina,
So glad you provide the rubric when you introduce the assignment. This helps clarify the assignment and expectations. Nice job.
Dr. Tena B. Crews
Kristina,
And, rubrics help the students understand assignments/projects and the expectations. Thanks.
Dr. Tena B. Crews
Adib,
This is excellent. You are seeing another benefit to rubrics. Keep up the good work.
Dr. Tena B. Crews
Adib,
Yes, the details are beneficial to the students, but don't forget that the rubric helps the instructor as well. Thanks.
Dr. Tena B. Crews
I use a rubric to ensure that I provide a standard point of reference for all grading to uphold a high level of objectivity and reliability. I include the rubric when I present the assignment and I include the same rubric within the student feedback. This maintains consistency and a baseline for students to work towards earning maximum points.
I agree - it helps to standardize the responses and ensure objectivity when assessing grades.
Hi, Roger... I agree with you because many of my students have shared scores with one another based on having a rubric. I also must agree that once I implemented rubrics, I saw a decline in student's emailing me various questions about the assignment expectations.
I believe that using a rubric is important because you provide students with the needed information for them to be successful. In all of my online classes, I provide all students with a detailed rubric and many of them have often advised that they found this tool to be very helpful for understanding the assignment purpose as well as provide a detailed guide for the grade they would like to receive.
Donald,
But rubrics are also necessary for assignments, projects, discussion board, etc.
As an online instructor, it is neither more or less important. On-ground instructors also need to use rubrics. Unfortunately, on-ground instructors have more leeway when it comes to grading essays.
In an on-ground class, objective multiple choice tests are quite common. For these tests, a rubric is unnecessary. On the other hand, subjective tests and essays typically need rubrics because there is a greater possibility of variation. Personally, I prefer objective tests over subjective tests. Even so, at the school where I teach, subjective test or essays are the norm. Thus, rubrics are essential.
Donald L. Buresh
Diana,
So glad this is beneficial to you. Email me any time you want to chit chat. ;-)
Dr. Crews, I think reading your feedback on this DB has been more helpful than you may realize. Yes, I am learning about rubrics, but I am the choir. What I am learning is the value of your positive feedback. I am learning from the tone of your response, your word choice, the length of the response, and the directness of your statement. The more I read, the better my responses become to my students. I am learning by your example and I think of myself as a seasoned, responsible, conscientious instructor. Thank you.
