Rubrics are an excellent way of providing students with feedback on the quality of their learning activities and assessments. A rubric will explicitly identify the key criteria for evaluation on an assessment, as well as the level at which a student is performing. A well-designed rubric will help you grade consistently, transparently, and fairly. There are two main types of rubrics - holistic and analytic.

Holistic Rubric

A holistic rubric can be thought of as a simple one-dimensional approach to evaluating a student's performance on an assignment. It consists of a single scale with all criteria listed together in a single row or column. Then students receive a score, usually a numerical value indicating how well they performed. "0" or "1" is often the lowest number on the scale while the highest numbers may range from "3" (exceeds expectations) to "5" (excellent) or even higher, such as a 10-point scale.

Example Holistic Rubric

Analytic Rubric

An analytic rubric is usually multi-dimensional and dives in deeper on each criterion. Each essential element is judged separately, then a combined score is generated based on the rating on each criterion. Feedback can often be provided for each criterion, leading to more detailed information for students they can use for improving their performance. Feedback is precisely tailored for each student.

Example Analytic Rubric

PI_5_1: Simplify a given algebraic Boolean expression by applying the K-Map and express in POS form

There are a lot of resources out there for creating rubrics for your courses. Learning management systems like Canvas also have built-in tools for helping you create rubrics. Additionally, rubrics are an excellent way of assessing the soft skills students develop in your course.

Here are some useful links:

• Canvas Rubrics - The Canvas rubrics tool is surprisingly powerful, especially when combined with other features. For instance, you can create student learning outcomes, link them to rubrics, and then use the Learning Mastery gradebook feature to track student performance over time at a very granular level. It takes time, patience, and practice to set it all up. But if you do, there's quite a bit you can do to measure student performance.
  • NOTE: Unfortunately, you cannot import an already created rubric into Canvas. For instance, if you have a handy rubric already set up in Word, you can't just import that document into Canvas. You have to create it from scratch using Canvas' toolset. However, you CAN re-use rubrics across courses and assignments within Canvas, so it's well worth the effort to set them up.
• RubiStar - One of the better rubric creation tools available. They have quite a few templates you can start from and then modify to make your own. It's mostly geared towards K-12, but with a little creativity, you can build your own for higher education.
• TemplateLAB - Here you can find 46 downloadable rubrics in Word format. As with RubiStar, they tend to be focused on a K-12 audience, but you can modify them to your own needs as well.

There is as much art as science to creating an effective rubric. It can also take a lot of time and effort to set one up, but they are also highly re-usable across courses or programs. Once you have set them up, you can save yourself a lot of time and effort for future grading.

If you would like to meet with CAFE to discuss your rubrics, please click the button below to schedule a consultation.