Rubrics - Why use rubrics?
Why are rubrics important
Rubrics support learning in the classroom. Rubrics inform your teaching, they help coordinate instruction and assessment, give students feedback and help students learn. Rubrics help students clarify the qualities of work they should have. Students can see what the learning target is, and the criteria for success.
Why use rubrics
The main purpose of rubrics is to assess performances -- what students do, create, say or write. This could be a process (e.g., nursing procedures), a product (e.g., a written report) or a presentation. Performances are not learning outcomes. They are indicators of learning outcomes. Rubrics describe the performance and are used for feedback and teaching.
Rubrics should be used for learning as well as for grading. These should be shared learning targets with students.
What rubrics can do for you
- allow you to grade more quickly; hence students have access to the most current accurate grade
- provide consistency in evaluating student work while still allowing an instructor to respond to a specific student's strengths and weaknesses.
- make it possible for students to assess their own work because they know the instructor's expectations.
- allow you to align assignment with course outcomes.
Where can you use rubrics
- In Canvas assignments, rubrics appear directly below the assignment instructions so students can review the requirements before they even begin the assignment.
- In discussions, students have the option to view the rubric before posting.
- You can also add a rubric to a quiz, but they're just to provide additional feedback on the quiz. Quiz scores override the rubric score.
You can use the rubric tool as simple as a checklist (did the student do the required task?) or more complex for multi-faceted grading such as what would be required to grade an essay or lab assignment. Rubrics can even be used by students to offer peer reviews of each other's work.