Grading with Rubrics

Grading with Rubrics

One best practice for grading a variety of student submissions is using a rubric. By using a rubric to grade discussions, an instructor:

• Clearly explains expectations to students 
• Makes grading easier for instructors
• Creates a consistent grading system

Creating Course Rubrics

STEP 1: Click on the Rubric link on the left navigation panel.

STEP 2:  Name your Rubric something you will remember

STEP 3:  Enter your Criteria. Click on +Criterion to add additional criteria to the grid.  Click the pencil to enter a description of each Criterion. 

STEP 4:  Click the plus sign to add more numbers to the Ratings.  Click the pencil to edit the text in the Ratings. 

STEP 5: Enter the number of maximum points for each Criterion. If you change the value in the final column, the values will adjust for each rating. 

STEP 6: Once you have edited the Criteron, you can select several options for the rubric.

1. To write write free-form comments Links to an external site. to students in SpeedGrader, select the I'll write free-form comments... checkbox. If this option is selected, no ratings are used to assess the student and criterion values are assigned manually.
2. If you want to remove points from the rubric, select the Remove points from rubric checkbox. If this option is selected, no points are associated with the rubric, but students can still be rated using the rubric criterion.
3. If you have the Learning Mastery Gradebook enabled but you don't want outcome results to be posted to the Learning Mastery Gradebook, select the Don't post Outcomes results to Learning Mastery Gradebook checkbox [3]. Generally speaking, Learning Mastery outcomes are not used at Northwestern and you do not need to do anything with this option.
4. If you want to use the rubric for grading Links to an external site. in SpeedGrader, select the Use this rubric for assignment grading checkbox. We recommend using this option to assist in your grading process.
5. If you don't want students to see the score total for the rubric, select the Hide score total for assessment results checkbox. Students can still see the point values for each criterion, but the total score will not be shown at the bottom of the rubric. This option is only available if the rubric is not used for grading.

STEP 7: When you have completed your Rubric, click Create Rubric.

Adding a Rubric to your Assignment

STEP 1: After you have created your Assignment and saved it, click on the Add Rubric button on the bottom left.

STEP 2:  Click on Find a Rubric.

STEP 3: Rubrics are organized by Course. Find the correct course and Rubric and click Use this Rubric to attach it to your Assignment. 

The Rubric will now be available in Speedgrader and the students will also be able to see it in the Assignment.