Using Rubrics to Evaluate Course Assignments and Program Objectives

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Using Rubrics to Evaluate Course Assignments and
Program Objectives

• Suzanne Weinstein, Ph.D.
• Manager, Instructional Consulting
• Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence

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Objectives

• At the end of this session, you will be able to
• develop a rubric to assess student performance in
  a course.
• report scores on assignments for program
  assessment purposes.

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What is a grading rubric?

• A scoring guideline for evaluating student
  assignments such as essays, papers or
  presentations.
• It describes the levels of achievement for a
  specific assignment.

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Advantages

• Can be used to grade complex products or
  behaviors efficiently.
• A single grader can score assignments by
  different students more consistently.
• Multiple graders can score consistently.
• Communicates expectations so students turn in a
  better product.
• Make rationale for score transparent (reduces
  arguments over grades)

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Disadvantages

• May not be able to address everything we want
  students to know.
• May limit student response (to only what is
  defined by the rubric)
• May limit creativity.
• Time-consuming to create.

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Types of rubrics

• Analytic rubric
• Provides separate scores for specific components
  to be measured.
• Holistic rubric
• Provides a single overall score for the
  assignment.

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Steps to designing a rubric

• Using your learning objectives as a guide,
  determine the components you want to assess.
• Choose the type of rubric you want to create.
• Clearly identify and describe levels of
  performance.
• Develop a scoring scale.
• Test the rubric.
• Revise as needed.

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Example Communications objectives

• Students will be able to
• Demonstrate their knowledge of different
  criticisms of the journalism field
• Develop a literature review that is consistent
  with research protocol
• Collect and analyze data pertaining to a research
  topic
• Present findings from a research study
• Discuss the implications of the findings of a
  research study

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Communications Assignment Rubric
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Communications Assignment Rubric
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Communications Assignment Rubric
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Communications Assignment Rubric
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Communications Assignment Rubric (analytic)
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Communications Assignment Rubric (weighted
analytic)
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Using rubrics for program assessment.

• Determine Criteria
• 75 of students will score at least a B on the
  particular assignment.
• Score assignment
• Report aggregate scores across students on this
  assignment.

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Some resources on rubrics

• Pierce, W. (2006). Designing rubrics for
  assessing higher order thinking. URL
  http//academic.pg.cc.md.us/wpeirce/MCCCTR/Design
  ingrubricsassessingthinking.html
• Moskal, Barbara M. (2000). Scoring rubrics what,
  when and how?. Practical Assessment, Research
  Evaluation, 7(3). Retrieved March 19, 2007 from
  http//PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v7n3
• University of Hawaii at Manoa http//manoa.hawaii
  .edu/assessment/howto/rubrics.htm
• University of Illinois Illinois Online
  Networkhttp//www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/po
  intersclickers/2004_03/index.asp