Sharon,
You have provided key words in this post that reflect the advantages of rubrics: clarification, expectations, requirements, and structure. Nice job.
I think rubrics give students the opportunity to earn the maximum number of points on each assignment. When students are made aware of what is expected they are more likely to do exactly that.
Traci,
The rubrics help both students and instructors. Everyone should be on the "same page" when it comes to the expectations. Nice job.
Rubrics will help students to understand what is expected of them and what they need to do to achieve a grade. It will also provide the instructor with understanding of what concepts need to be reinforced that the students are not getting.
Phyllis,
Good point. The instructors learn from the rubrics as well - they learn what the students know and don't know. Nice job.
It is so important for the students to get the feeling you are grading on the same scale for all of them. I like to provide my students with the rubric at the beginning of the course. Also, I reference the rubric when I grade their assignments.
Roshawna,
Consistency is important. Rubrics do benefit both the students and the instructor in that way. Nice job.
Hi Fred:
I thoroughly understand having trouble with rubrics in certain coursework. Sometimes we get so carried away with "measuring" that we don't look at the overall product.Hence, holistic rubrics. But i can say after years of using holistic rubrics to score GED essays, this is not the answer either. (0:
Carla,
We have to keep trying to develop the best rubrics we can. The key is in the criteria and making sure they are complete and correct is essential.
Thanks!
Online instructors need to take every opportunity they can to illustrate clarity in their classes. Rubrics are a part of that clarity and clearly communicating our expectations to the student. A good rubric is a great opportunity to reiterate and reinforce the assignment instructions. I even tell students to envision and use my rubrics as a final "checklist" to make sure they have everything they need to score as many points on the assignment as possible. Students should be able to compare the rubric to their final assignment to have peace of mind that all of the requirements of the assignment are met.
Jennifer,
Helping students understand the rubric and criteria and how they can use the rubric as you noted as a final checklist. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Rubrics help qualify and quantify instructor expectations for excellence and can support the rewarding of good effort or be the impetus for counseling insufficient performance.
Norman,
Right on! Rubrics are one tool that helps everyone involved - students and instructors. Thanks.
Tena,
I teach business course and I found using rubrics enables my students to know how I will grade their work. Students appreciate fairness and objectivity in assessing their work. A rubric is one tool that my students like and I encourage them to challenge my comments and feedback based on the posted rubrics in my classes. I do not get any grade appeals because students know what I expect from them. I plan my lessons in such way that I ensure that I cover all the materials for each learning event. Thanks, Tom
Tom,
Sounds like you are using rubrics well and they are helping you and your students as well. This is the key to using them. Make sure you are connecting them to the objectives as well. Nice job. Thanks for your input.
It gives you a pulse if information is being learned and understood. Many times student may not totally get it an still try to move on .
In my opinion, when you have a rubric in place, the students understand what is expected of them in the assignment. This becomes very important in the online classroom where the face-to-face interaction is missing and various schedules may cause a delay in seeking answers to a specified question. Some students may not be able to attempt their assignment until 2am and may have questions as to what criteria are to be met for the assignment. Personally, I’m not up at 2am to answer that question immediately; however, the implantation of a rubric that is made available to the student with the directions of the assignment may quickly point the student to the answer they are looking for in a more timely manner. Additionally, when the assignment is returned to the student, constructive feedback indicating where points were lost or awarded allows them to better understand their grade as they can visually see where they met the criteria or did not. I think this also helps with less subjective grading or preferential grading when a set rubric is utilized.
Tim,
Good point. I like the word you used - "pulse." Rubrics do help the instructors and students.
Thanks for sharing.
Jennifer,
Anything we can do to help students further understand the expectations, learning objectives, etc. is great. And, as you said, it does help alleviate questions instructors need to answers. Thanks!
Yes, sometimes I find rubrics to be extremely time consuming, however, I have learned the feedback it provides is beneficial to the students. Why? Because it provides them their opportunity of improvement in certain areas.
-Professor Schwartz
