Teacher

How do I create and use rubrics?

Use rubrics to help you provide detailed and meaningful grades and feedback.

A rubric is a scoring guide used to indicate activity expectations, possible performance outcomes, and the scores associated with them.

You can create rubrics using the activity editor in the Editor or using the Clipboard. This article outlines both approaches.

Open the Editor from the Main Menu.
Select or create the activity for which you want to build the rubric and click the pencil (edit) icon.
- Note: You can only create rubrics for activities that are manually graded. This means that they cannot be applied to an entire assessment and practice question activity, but they can be used for individual essay questions within those activities.
Open the Settings tab.
On the Gradebook settings card, select Rubric from the Score entry dropdown.
Click Add rubric underneath the dropdown.

Select a rubric template from the dropdown and click Next, or choose <empty> from the dropdown and click Add to build a rubric from scratch.

To build rubrics, you create:

Levels, which define the columns of the rubric table and represent possible levels of performance. You can:
1. Add levels by clicking the plus sign that appears to the right of the levels fields.
2. Remove levels by clicking the x that appears above each level field.
3. Provide level titles by clicking the level's field and entering text. If you don't provide titles, level headers display Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, etc. By default, the levels build, left to right, from lowest scores to highest.

Criteria, which define the rows of the rubric and represent the behaviors that are being assessed. You can:
1. Add criteria by clicking the plus sign that appears at the bottom left corner of the last criteria.
2. Remove criteria by clicking the x that appears to the right of each.
3. Name each criteria by describing the desired behavior in the Title fields above each. If you don't provide titles, the criteria headers display Criteria 1, Criteria 2, Criteria 3, etc.
4. Describe what a student needs to accomplish to earn each level's score within each behavior (criteria). Select the field and enter text.
5. Provide the maximum criteria composite score in the Max field. This value is automatically distributed evenly between the existing levels in the criteria and populates the Points fields and level headers within the criteria. You can edit the Points fields if you don't want the value distributed evenly, but you must do so after entering the Max value.

Click Save when you're finished.

To add a rubric to a Clipboard activity:

Create a Clipboard activity using these instructions; check the Gradable box to enable the 4 Edit gradebook settings for... step.

On step 4 Edit gradebook settings for..., select Rubric in the Score Entry dropdown.
Click Add rubric, give it a name, and follow the directions below.

To build rubrics, you create:

Levels, which define the columns of the rubric table and represent possible levels of performance. You can:
1. Add levels by clicking the plus sign that appears to the right of the levels fields.
2. Remove levels by clicking the x that appears above each level field.
3. Provide level titles by clicking the level's field and entering text. If you don't provide titles, level headers display Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, etc. By default, the levels build, left to right, from lowest scores to highest.

Criteria, which define the rows of the rubric and represent the behaviors that are being assessed. You can:
1. Add criteria by clicking the plus sign that appears at the bottom left corner of the last criteria.
2. Remove criteria by clicking the x that appears to the right of each.
3. Name each criteria by describing the desired behavior in the Title fields above each. If you don't provide titles, the criteria headers display Criteria 1, Criteria 2, Criteria 3, etc.
4. Describe what a student needs to accomplish to earn each level's score within each behavior (criteria). Select the field and enter text.
5. Provide the maximum criteria composite score in the Max field. This value is automatically distributed evenly between the existing levels in the criteria and populates the Points fields and level headers within the criteria. You can edit the Points fields if you don't want the value distributed evenly, but you must do so after entering the Max value.

Click Save when you're finished.

Open the activity you want to grade using the Grade Editor.
The rubric you created appears under the Content tab.
For each criteria, click the description that best matches the student's performance.
Click Leave Feedback below each dimension for which you want to provide feedback.
Click Submit when you're done.

Additional articles

Tips

You can only create rubrics for activities that are manually graded. This means that they cannot be applied to an entire assessment and practice question activity, but they can be used for individual essay questions within those activities.