Its important to evaluate the rubrics to ensure that they are assessing the important components of the course. Since each class is different, its good to have the basic rubric and then consider enhancing the basics based upon the interests and performances of the students in that specific class.
Rubrics should be evaluated for effectiveness. If rubrics do not aid students with continuous improvement, then they are not effective (or some area of the rubric needs to be tweaked).
We should ask questions about our rubrics as identified in the training.
Does it allow for multiple types of feedback?
Are levels of work identified?
Is criteria used to judge student work clear?
Rubrics should be evaluated to ensure the rubric does what you intend for it to do.
Any rubric should be continuously evaluated based on the general evolution of any class. Each semester, instructors should learn more about their own class based on student participation, feedback, and patterns. If there is a specific area in a specific project that an inordinate amount of students do not do well on, that pattern is clearly indicating a problem in the comprehension of the assignment or the deliverables. At any rate, inconsistencies as such can often be rectified by modifying the associated rubric.
Michael Maldonado
Diana,
UGH - can you not change the rubrics or at feast add criteria that relate to your learning outcomes? You are right, rubrics will not be helpful if they do not relate to the requirements.
Dr. Tena B. Crews
Kristina,
We all want to view our rubrics to make sure the are measuring the right things. Modifications may be necessary. Thanks.
Dr. Tena B. Crews
Our rubrics must reflect changes in the courses and be updated regularly. The rubrics I must use do not relate to the requirements of the assignments which makes the use difficult for the instructors and not helpful for the students.
In most subjects, the content and curriculum may change which leads to a change in modifying the rubrics. Additionally, professional development activities such as these can be utilized to improve current rubrics to ensure added reliability and quality.
Willie ,
You are right about no one size fits all. Rubrics cannot just be pulled out of a drawer, they have to be carefully created.
Donald,
We can improve everything we do. We just have keep working to make the necessary improvements.
I believe that regardless of whether I am modifying an existing rubric, creating one from scratch, or using a rubric developed by another party both before and after using the rubric is a good time to evaluate it and determine if it is the most appropriate tool for the assessment task. All rubrics are not appropriate for all situations. As the readings in the lesson suggested: there is no one-for-all rubric. Some questions I ask myself when evaluating my rubrics are: Are the criteria and scales well-defined? Is it clear what the scale for each criterion measures and how the levels differ from one another? Has it been tested with actual student products to ensure that all likely criteria are included? Is the basis for assigning scores at each scale point clear? Is it clear exactly what needs to be present in a student product to obtain a score at each point on the scale? Is it possible to easily differentiate between scale points?
I tend to think that evaluating rubrics is a lot like improving a PowerPoint presentation that is given to students in a virtual classroom. Bassically, it is difficult to perfect a PowerPoint presentation. I can only assuem that the same is true for rubrics.
Donald L. Buresh
Shana,
Yes, you are so right. Reviewing everything we do to help us improve is essential. Thanks for your input.
Before grading each assignment, rubrics should be evaluated to ensure it matches the content of the assignment just in case the requirements have changed.
Mike,
Definitely. The revision process goes on forever. We can always do something better. Thanks!
I always believe in reviewing and re-assessing your work after you receive feedback. Most people cannot build something perfect the first time. Re-evaluating and improvement are key to success.
Natalie,
Right on. If the rubrics are just made up "willy nilly" and not to assess the instructional objectives, they are worthless. It's good to have that strong connection to make sure you're assessing what you need to be assessing. Thank you.
Rubrics are not effective if they are not assessing the right things, and if they are not beneficial for the learners using them. Without evaluating your own rubrics, you do not know if they are more helpful for you, the instructor or the learner. I have revised my own rubrics over time, but I know I still have a lot of work to do. I have only changed my rubrics based on the way students complete the assignments. If it looks like they are not understanding the requirement, I will make my rubrics more detailed, though I am well aware that more needs changing. Without doing a thorough assessment, asking myself the questions from this module, I am making assumptions based on the wrong "evidence." A structured evaluation will help you ask the questions that will best allow you to make changes that would benefit all users of the rubric.
roger,
Yes, we must evaluate the rubrics to make sure they are on target. It is great that you are making sure the students understand the expectations as well. Nice job.
You need to evaluate the rubrics to see if they are set up right for the course objectives and whether or not they properly measure progress towards them.
The wording of rubrics, as I have discovered, can be ambiguous or lack sufficient clarity that students interpret it multiple ways and then ask lots of questions if they get it wrong. As you can imagine, this can be a time consuming activity to respond to all of them.
So, I post modified versions of the rubrics for all the units so that there is a better chance for success on the students part simply because they have a much clearer picture of what the expectations are.
This action, coincidentally, does speed up the time it takes to grade the assignments, and although there is still a few students who email questions it has drastically reduced the volume.
