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How do I create and use rubrics for activities and essay questions?

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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 and use your own rubrics or use domain-wide rubric templates provided for you.

This articles covers how to:

Add a rubric to an activity using the Editor

Add a rubric to an activity using the Clipboard

Add a rubric to an Assessment Essay question

Create a rubric with the rubric editor

Use the rubric to grade

Add a rubric to an activity using the Editor

To add a rubric to a manually graded activity using the Editor:

  1. Open the Activity editor for the desired activity.
    • Note: You can only create rubrics for activities that are manually graded. This means that they cannot be applied to an entire Assessment or Practice question activity.
  2. Open the Settings tab.
  3. On the Gradebook and submission card, select Rubric from the Score entry dropdown.
  4. Click Add rubric underneath the dropdown.  
  1. You can:
  2. Click Add.

Next: Follow these instruction to create and edit a rubric with the rubric editor.

Add a rubric to an activity using the Clipboard

To add a rubric to a manually graded Clipboard activity, create a Clipboard activity using these instructions.

  1. While creating it, check the Gradable box to enable the 4 Edit gradebook settings for [Activity] step.
  1. On step 4 Edit gradebook settings for [Activity], select Rubric in the Score Entry dropdown.
  2. Click Add rubric.
  1. You can:
  2. Click Add.

Next: Follow these instruction to create and edit a rubric with the rubric editor.

Add a rubric to an Assessment Essay question

To add a rubric to Assessment Essay question:

  1. Open the Assessment > Questions> Essay question > Score card.
  2. Click Add rubric.
  1. You can:
  2. Click Add.

Next: Follow these instruction to create and edit a rubric with the rubric editor.

Create a rubric with the rubric editor

To build rubrics, you create Levels and Criteria.

Create Levels

Levels 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.

Create Criteria

Criteria 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.

Use the rubric to grade

  1. Open the activity you want to grade using the Grade Editor.
  2. The rubric you created appears under the Content tab.
  3. For each criteria, click the description that best matches the student's performance, and the score automatically reflects your choice.
  4. Click Leave Feedback below each dimension for which you want to provide feedback.
  5. Click Submit score when you're done.
Use the rubric to grade

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.
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