Regardless of whether you are modifying an existing rubric, creating one from scratch, or using a rubric developed by another party, both before and after you use the rubric is a good time to evaluate it and determine if it is the most appropriate tool for the assessment task. Questions to ask when evaluating a rubric include: Does the rubric relate to the outcome(s) being measured? The rubric should address the criteria of the outcome(s) to be measured and no unrelated aspects. Does it cover important criteria for student performance? Is the rubric authentic, does it reflect what was emphasized for the learning outcome and assignment(s)? Does the top end of the rubric reflect excellence? Is acceptable work clearly defined? Does the high point on the scale truly represent an excellent ability? Does the scale clearly indicate an acceptable level of work? These should be based not on the number of students expected to reach these levels, but on current standards defined by the department often taking into consideration the types of courses student work was collected from (introductory or capstone courses). 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? Can the rubric be applied consistently by different scorers? Inter-rater reliability, also sometimes called inter-rater agreement, is a reference to the degree to which scorers can agree on the level of achievement for any given aspect of a piece of student work. Inter-rater reliability depends on how well the criteria and scale points are defined. Working together in a norming session to develop shared understandings of definitions and adjusting the criteria, scales, and descriptors will increase consistency.

As described by D. Stevens (2005) Five Basic Parts of a Rubric Part 1: Course Learning Outcome We have added this as a rubric component (to the basic four outlined in Introduction to Rubrics). Course learning outcomes are your expectations for what you want students to learn by the end of a course. Your assignments and other curricular activities should help students achieve these outcomes and the rubric is an effective way of assessing the levels of their achievement. Placing the course learning outcome at the top of the grading rubric gives relevance to the assignment. Part 2: Task Description The task is almost always some type of “performance” by the student. The task can take on a multitude of forms such as a paper, specific assignment, poster, or presentation. It can also focus on other skill sets such as participation or use of proper lab protocols. The task description fits well just below the course learning outcome and serves to remind us later on, like during grading, what the assignment was or how it was written. Part 3: Scale The scale portion of the rubric shows how poorly or highly the task was executed. Terms used for scaling should be tactful but clear. Scale terms are placed in the top row of the rubric. Examples of terms: • Excellent, satisfactory, unsatisfactory • Exemplary, proficient, marginal, unacceptable • Distinguished, proficient, intermediate, novice • Advanced, developing, beginning Part 4: Dimensions The dimensions are a way of showing the different components of the task simply and completely. Dimensions of a rubric help clarify, to students, what aspects are relevant or important to successfully complete the task (such as grammar, analysis, factual content, research techniques). Dimensions can be weighted differently to stress the importance of each component. The dimensions comprise the first column of the rubric. Part 5: Description of the Dimensions Descriptions of dimensions help show where a student failed to reach the highest expectation of a given task. Dimensions with only one description, the highest level of performance, are referred to as scoring guide rubrics. They allow greater flexibility and more personalization but they also expand the amount of time needed to grade. The most common number of dimension descriptions is three. The more descriptions, the harder it becomes to grade. Once a dimension has exceeded five descriptions, the ability to grade becomes very difficult; there are only so many differentiations a dimension can have before they become repetitive. The rubric matrix is filled in with the dimension descriptions.

They take more time to create and use. There are more possibilities for raters to disagree. It is more difficult to achieve intra- and inter-rater reliability on all of the dimensions in an analytic rubric than on a single score yielded by a holistic rubric. There is some evidence that raters tend to evaluate grammar-related categories more harshly than they do other categories (McNamara, 1996), thereby overemphasizing the role of accuracy in providing a profile of learners' proficiency. There is some evidence that when raters are asked to make multiple judgement, they really make one. Care must be taken to avoid a "halo effect" and focus on the individual criteria to assure that diverse information about the learner's performance is not lost.

Some advantages of using rubrics are: They provide useful feedback to learners on areas of strength and weakness. Their dimensions can be weighted to reflect relative importance. They can show learners that they have made progress over time in some or all dimensions when the same rubric categories are used repeatedly

Does it exist a specific number of words we should use for each detail that we assess? I love rubrics. They might be time consuming but they are a great tool. The only major frustration I have had is to explain in few words my expectation in each detail I want to assess. Sometimes I feel I am not reaching out if I don't write a lot. It has been successful though so far; However, just for curiosity and improvement, I would love to hear from other educators and instructors if you have read how many words average we should use to describe our expectations for each detail we assess in an analytical rubric.

I would like to have some feedback about this question because I would like to hear any other ideas about other type of rubrics that will be successful to do other than the Analytical. I have the tendency to do Analytical rubrics giving detail by detail of what I want to assess. I think is a great way to do them. But I am also open to new ideas. I have made them up, but I also will love to see any other rubric from a dental clinical instructor. So I could see what I could be missing.

I love to use diagnostic assessments periodically throughout my classes to assess the students prior knowledge of a given topic we are about to cover. I tell the students these are not included in their grade, but just help me know what I need to focus on when teaching them. I then like to give the same assessment again at the end so they can compare where they were to where they are. Students are often quite amazed at how much they really learned when they compare the two assessments!!

I don't think we do enough of this. Pre-tests are important so that instructors can appropriately individualize instruction.

I have used these for several years. I think we should start early in a student's career asking him/her to select the best work from each course to become part of a portfolio that will demonstrate growth, as well as skills the individual has mastered. An e-portfolio can go on a student's Web page or on a disc to be shared on interviews.

Are you being perceived negatively by students in your classroom? After we set aside the hard grader and tough policy enforcement arguments some of which are not entirely valid, we are left with how students perceive us as faculty in chat, email and in the classroom. When we are sharing life-changing and positive advice, our approval ratings are through the roof! But when it comes time to deliver the bad news, many fall short. - How do you explain why plagiarism is not acceptable, but not viewed as an ogre? - How do you counsel a student on not giving up but starting class over next session when completion is mathematically impossible based on performance? - How do you explain to a student that though he/she spent six hours writing an assignment it received a D because it was not on point? - How do you address late work and incompletes? Faculty often reverts to a style devoid of emotion and empathy when addressing these serious issues. This may be a strong reason students don't recommend them or feel as though they are not motivating, fair or helpful

When Failure is Imminent A certain number of students fail classes every session. This is a hard fact. While we do everything in our power to help students succeed in the early weeks of class, some students will arrive at a point of no return where they no longer can pass a class. Our messages now need to shift. Confronting failure is a serious blow to a student’s ego, make no bones about it. How can an instructor mitigate the circumstances and nurture a failing student's willingness to take the class again next session? And feel good about doing it?

Outside Resources I use other technology outside of that provided by the university. To have some fun in the classroom, I subscribe to www.animationfactory.com – I get cool animated gifs and great powerpoint backgrounds. As silly as this may sound, students comment on the FUN graphics and how it makes everything come to life and seem more interesting. Every session a few students email me weekly and say that they look forward to seeing what crazy graphic will be used on an email or a posting. Anything that can make a student look forward to information about an assignment is a GOOD thing! I also use BlueMountain Cards http://www.bluemountain.com/index.pd. I send out a welcome greeting using the cards and students send back the cutest messages…here is connection #1. At the end of W4, I send out inspirational emails…the responses I get in return often evoke tears, and finally the end of class grades are delivered via Blue Mountain.

I've taught accounting courses for a few years. There has been some consistency in the assessments. How would I find examples of alternative and authentic assessments used in accounting courses?

Do you think it really is beneficial to involve the students in the creation of the rubrics?

What are your thoughts of the rubric generator?

Do you think the rubric setup is more beneficial for the student or the instructor?

Do you think it is best to have the mean grade percentage of exams available for view to the entire class so that they can see what the overall grade was for everyone on an assignment?

From my past experience as a student, I found that most educators seem to miss this crucial step. Just getting a brief synopsis of what your students know or don't know about the class can greatly impact they way you approach the material and how successful your students are in that class. Every class I teach, even if it's for the same subject, I teach differently depending on the types of students I may have that semester. What are your thoughts?

I was thinking that this particular tool would be quite effective in providing feedback on Individual Projects but I'm really uncertain as to how this should be set up. It's seems to me that it's better than the tool that has been provided as part of the"turn it in" program. Has anyone tried using this? I don't know that it's practical to have each student submit a draft ahead of time - this would be awfully time consuming for both students and instructor.

We use value added assessment nearly every day. As students progress through the course,we evalate their improvement in the performance of tasks they will be charged with when entering the work force.