Charles,
Right on. Improving in any activity is a continual process. Thanks.
It is important that the criteria be understood clearly and in the same way by both students and instructors. Criteria that call for areas that students consider subjective on the part of the instructor can be troublesome. The criteria need to be as specific and objective as possible without eliminating the instructor’s guidance as a specialist in the field being evaluated. If a student meets all the criteria but the instructor knows from professional experience that the submission does not measure up to professional standards, it’s time to take another look at the rubric. A good rubric in my opinion should say “here’s the grade and here is how it was determined point by point.â€
However, I taught art courses for many years which frequently called for separating my “taste†from the objectives of the assignment. In some areas that called for a professionally-based subjective evaluation I included a category that indicated the level of success the submission would achieve in a real-world situation. This usually fell under the “feedback†section and depending on the purpose and situation may or may not have been figured in the final submission score. In this way students got my opinion without a penalty for disagreeing with my personal preferences.
Wayne,
Right on! Without effective criteria that everyone understands, it's difficult to achieve the learning outcomes. Adding real-world factors is important as well. Nice job.
Common mistakes in creating rubrics include too many criteria, using quantity components or a varying scale, not allowing students to see improvement, not clearly defining the criteria and not connecting the assignment to course objectives or outcomes. Many rubrics, including my own, are too general in nature, failing to explain what is to be defined, explained or demonstrated to illustrate learning has taken place. Students need to have a clear "roadmap" that defines when their work has achieved the intended goal. They also want to know the difference between grade levels and rubrics need to be fairly specific here. I am often asked why a student had points deducted. If I cannot use the rubric to explain this, I need to modify it.
Joseph ,
Yes sir. If you have too many criteria, you may need more than one assignment. However, with too few or not well-defined criteria, that is not going to help either. Tha ks for bringing this up in this forum.
Many of the rubrics I've worked with have been predetermined, and they relate to overall course objectives. This can be problematic when specific assignments relate to specific learning outcomes that build upon one another, leading up to overall course objectives.
For instance, when students are first learning to find sources, I don't feel that students should be graded on locating, evaulation, use, and citation. Rather than grading on "mastery of implementation of sources", perhaps we should look at one step at a time.
To rectify this, I'm wondering about having a rubric that has a couple of range areas that indicate levels of mastery and also a section for things that are either/or, as it criteria met or not met. Does anyone else use a combination rubric such as this?
That probably depends on how one uses a rubric. If the rubric is specific enough and geared at the appropriate level of learning expectation it would not necessarily promote grade inflation.
I certainly agree with the statement. From my perspective, many of the rubrics assign too high of a point value for APA and format of the paper This becomes evidence where the grade that the student receives is higher than I feel that the student has earned. I have graded some papers that have very poor grammar and sentence structure and thesis development but have excellent formatting still able to earn 85% and above.
Alaina,
You definitely have to set the rubric up with essential criteria to assess what you need to assess in relation to the learning outcomes. I rarely find a predetermined rubric that meets my needs. You can have combo rubrics. The combination of what you need can be outlined effectively in a rubric, just make sure it leads to the assessment of the learning outcomes.
Michael,
Good point. Rubrics should be designed with appropriate criteria and learning outcomes to help the students understand the expectations and do better. But this is not grade inflation.
Lee,
The criteria/points are essential for effective assessment. A students shouldn't be able to pass the assignment when he/she scores in the "fails to meet" column in every aspect. Thanks for your input.
Dr. Kelly:
I actually think the oppossite. My experience is that Rubrics cause me to stricter in the grading as there isn't a lot of room for personal assessment. It either meets the Rubric or it doesn't. I find that there are times I simply have to work with the numbers to make them work.
Rachelle
Rachelle,
I agree. They keep me on track. Thanks!
Dr. Tena B. Crews
By far two of the most commonly made mistakes in making rubrics is having to many criteria and not being task specific.
Amy Branch
Amy,
sometimes when we have too many crieria, it's just confusing and it really doesn't assess what we are trying to assess.
Thanks!
Some of the more common mistakes that can occur might be that the Rubrics focus too much on just one aspect of the assignment and are lacking on information for some of the other areas of an assignment. Many assignments (at least at the College leve) contain multiple (6 or more required parts to answer) areas to address and your Rubrics need to align well with the areas the students will be covering in their papers or DB posts.
Tom
Thomas ,
The criteria are so important. They can be lacking or too detailed - both cause issues. Thanks for your input.
I find that if you create a rubric that is too specialized and too detail-specific, that you can not only "tie up" your ability to grade, but you can confuse the student. Rubrics, although meant to be objective, need to also be a little flexible so that the instructor can use his/her best judgement as to which category in which to place the student. It is a mistake to make it so specific, that the student cannot use a certain amount of creativity in writing his/her assignment. The purpose of the rubric is to guide the student to learning objectives, while informing them of both their strengths and weaknesses.
Yes, I think that when you make the rubrics, "too simple" that you are probably providing a rubric that is too generic to really help the student know what is expected. When this happens, students will often tend to "blow off" the rubric because they consider the rubric to be ineffective.
Stephen,
There is a fine line between a too simple and too detailed rubric. Thanks for your input.
