Rubrics: Good for Students, Good For Teachers

A rubrics-based classroom can revolutionize student progress and success while streamlining and focusing your feedback and grading process. Creating effective rubrics front-loads learning and performance expectations. Students understand how their work is evaluated based on specific quality descriptors for each scoring criterion, including Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) and other curriculum-based objectives. Further, rubrics promote quick and thorough feedback to enhance their learning-objective-specific skills.

With rubrics, your students will be much more motivated as they develop multiple methods to demonstrate their learning. Rubrics also allow a more efficient, focused and non-biased grading system.

What Are Rubrics?

A rubric is a learning and assessment tool or set of guidelines that support the consistent application of learning expectations, objectives, and standards. There are typically four components of a rubric:

1. A task description
2. A scale (and scoring) that describes the level of mastery
3. The components or dimensions of the task that students are to complete for their assignment
4. A description of the performance component or dimension quality at each level of mastery

What You Will Learn

Students in the rubrics course will learn the different types and benefits of rubrics, how to write and create rubrics and how to grade with rubrics using the latest software tools.

Learning outcomes in the Rubrics: Good for Students, Good for Teachers course include:

• Differentiate between assignment checklists, instructions, and various types of grading rubrics
• Evaluate the best kind of rubric to use for different assignment types
• Write directed and measurable criteria within a rubric for specific course learning objective
• Create qualitative and differentiated descriptions on a continuum of performance standards as measurable levels
• Apply a self-created rubric to an assignment grading process
• Replicate the rubric creation process

The course is divided into seven learning modules:

• Module 1 – What are Rubrics and Why Should We Use Them?
• Module 2 - Formative Assessment vs. Summative Assessment
• Module 3 - Benefits of Rubrics for Students
• Module 4 - Benefits of Rubrics for Teachers
• Module 5 - How to Write a General Rubric (Part 1)
• Module 6 - How to Write a General Rubric (Part 2)
• Module 7 - How to Write Other Types of Rubrics

Who Should Enroll in the Rubrics Course?

Teachers at any grade level or subject matter will benefit from learning how to recognize, write, and implement rubrics in their teaching practice.

NOTE: Required book must be acquired separately.

This course is applicable towards the Curriculum Design and Assessment Certificate and Student Engagement Certificate.

What Educators Who Took the Rubrics Course Are Saying

“This course is very well organized with a nice variety of assignment types. The Professor created videos and quizzes were very helpful.”

– Educator, California