Rubrics provide useful feedback regarding the effectiveness of the instruction and rubrics help reduce grading time.
Gloria,
Right! Rubrics should improve learning and help students achieve the learning outcomes. It does help the students understand what they will be assessed on and how they will be assessed. Thanks for your input.
The advantages of using rubrics is that they increase learning. Especially useful to instructors is that they can reduce grading time by reducing uncertainty. I have been using rubrics that have been developed by the university for many years and find them extremely useful for grading purposes. Generally, the students like them because they know exactly the weighted importance of each section of an assignment and can prepare their papers accordingly.
Muriel,
There is definitely more feedback provided. We have to make sure it's not too overwhelming. Thanks for your input.
Charlene,
Good description. Thanks for your details in this post. I know it will help others understand more fully. Thanks again.
Analytic rubrics give the student more in depth feedback on the overall accuracy and quality of their work. Students have a keener idea what the instructor is looking for when submitting his or her work.
An analytical rubric is an important tool to use as it allows for the grading criteria to be set and numerically weighted across an assignment. It also allows all students to be assessed based on the same criteria. The rubric I use places the highest weight on the content of each assignment question in descending order. The lowest weight being formatting or word count. While APA formatting and adhering to the required word count is important, the actual content of the student’s research is weighted more. It also allows the instructor to give the student feedback on the areas for improvement on the next assignment. Using the rubric and posting it in the beginning of class gives the student an awareness of how he/she will be assessed and what the requirements are to be successful in the completion of the assignment.
LE,
Excellent. Glad they are proving to be useful to you and your students. That's the idea.
Thanks!
I use Rubrics extensively in my classes. I have found that grading is much faster and there is less chance for students to complain about discrimination because everyone is scored using the same criteria. The rubrics also help me be more consistent in my evaluation of a paper or project. Like most instructors, I have a lot of grades to issue each week and having an efficient tool that provides good feedback to the students and is easy for me to use is important. So, the legal benefits, efficiency of use, and feedback characteristics of rubrics have sold me on their use.
Ann,
You are exactly right. Rubrics help all involved - students and instructors.
Thanks!
As an online instructor...it helps the student know what the expectations are for any given assignment and the points associated with meeting the criteria. I believe it helps me, the instructor, to be more consistent and objective in my grading. Rubrics can make both the instructor and the students job a little easier by knowing where everybody stands.
Dariusz,
How wonderful that the rubrics help alleviate some of the stress students feel when taking the course. Sounds like you have a good grasp in developing good rubrics. Thanks for your hard work.
As an instructor of history, I find rubrics to be an Indispensable element of my classroom. I teach for a technical university in which there are no Liberal Arts majors. All of our students study subjects such as Business, Information Technology, Visual Communication, Healthcare Administration or Criminal Justice. None of the students I encounter are History majors.
Consequently, many of my students are wholly unfamiliar with the subject of History and are very worried about their performance with a subject as foreign to them as History. It is for this reason that I find the use of rubrics to be one of the best teaching tools I possess. The rubric allows students to more clearly comprehend the various elements of the assignments I require them to fulfill. Often, a well-constructed rubric will answer most if not all of the questions a student may have about a particular assignment.
Reginald,
I agree. It may be time consuming to create effective rubrics,must there are many more advantages. Thanks.
Dr Wilkinson/faculty, from my experiences that advantages outweigh the disadvantages tremendously. Rubrics allow assessments to be more objective and consistent. Thus students are able to self-assess their own work prior to submitting it. It allows us to clarify criteria in specific terms. This type of feedback clearly shows the student how their work will be evaluated and what is expected. Lastly, it helps improve student overall performance, because they know what to focus on.
Reginald
Don,
Right on. The best thing about rubrics is that they help both students and instructors. Thanks for your input.
I have used rubrics for years in both online and onground courses. I find that the students like rubrics as they define the expectations for the assignment; for the instructor they make it easier to grade, and to find potential problems with the course and assignments allowing for modifications to either the course or rubric.
Donna,
Good rubrics take time to develop but the criteria can be developed to assist students in reaching learning outcomes. Include the learning outcomes in the rubric and keep explaining them I students and it will be beneficial. Thanks.
I've made many rubrics over the years. I am not convinced that they assist students. Some give guidelines, but since a great deal of the criteria for any course is vague, from my experience online, not when I was constructing courses in seat, I have difficulty with determining what the advantages are. Rubrics don't, to my mind, eliminate subjectivity in grading unless they are very, very precise. How often are they that precise that there can be no quibbling from the student on how they were graded?
Dr. James and Lauren,
Thanks for continuing the conversation. Course content does allow for the ease of use of rubrics in some circumstances. Thanks!
