I began by going over analytic rubrics. As the term "analytic" implies, you first cut up your assessment into its relevant parts, then you set the expectations for various levels of success for each part, and provide a description of each level of success for each relevant part. This is an example of an analytic rubric for an online discussion post.
Using an analytic rubric forces you to decide and clarify what counts as success on an assessment. You should give this rubric to your students before they begin working on the assessment, because it serves as a clear statement of what you want them to be doing.
Furthermore, once you have an analytic rubric, you are able to grade more quickly - just check to see what level of performance the students are exhibiting for each part. Check or otherwise indicate which aspects of the assignment they are doing well on; circle or otherwise indicate what needs work. This saves time on writing comments.
An analytic rubric allows you to grade fairly - you will be subjecting each student's work to the exact same criteria every time; less risk of a grade being determined in part by the quality of the work you read just before. You use the same, fixed criteria for each student every time. In addition to actually being a fairer way to grade, it also increases the perception of fairness, because every student knows what criteria were used to grade every product. Should students challenge a grade, you will be able to fall back on the fact that you established the criteria for success in advance and subjected each product to the same criteria.
I tried to anticipate and respond to common objections to using rubrics. One objection is that rubrics promote a paint-by-numbers approach on the part of students: students can rotely follow the rubric to create a product that scores well but perhaps does not represent real learning. An initial reply brought up in the workshop is that even very clear rubrics do not allow students to produce an excellent product without doing real work (and hence learning from it). That dovetails with my reply: insofar as a rubric provides your students a clearly described path to success, that is a very good thing. Even if you very clearly describe what it takes to succeed on an assessment, the students still have to produce a product that fits your description.
Another potential objection is that a rubric will restrict your freedom to grade: you will have obligated yourself to grade on specific criteria established in advance. My reply: yes, rubrics definitely do that, and that is a good thing. You definitely should identify in advance the criteria you will use to grade your students, and you should definitely let your student know what those criteria are. Reserving the right to grade your students on unspecified criteria is not beneficial, because if you exercise that right and actually grade your students on unspecified criteria you are doing something that will be very difficult to defend.
A final objection is that a rubric might not allow for creativity on the part of your students. I sympathize. It can be difficult to anticipate all the great ways students might approach an assignment. If you are worried about stifling creativity, you can build creativity right into the rubric, either as its own dimension or as a necessary element for exemplary performance on certain dimensions. Or, especially for more advanced students, your rubric may not specify all the steps involved in creating a product, and instead focus on particular outcomes, leaving the means up to students.
What follows was written by my colleague Sandy Finley, from when she gave her version of a rubrics workshop. It still applies, and links to sources that are still good places to investigate, so I found little reason to do any rewriting:
Rubrics are beneficial to both instructors and students. For instructors, rubrics
- Anchor grading to specific learning objectives,
- Make the grading process more consistent and fair,
- Save grading time by streamlining feedback process,
- Improve communication with other instructors and students, and
- May help you refine your teaching skills.
For students, the use of rubrics by the instructor, especially when rubrics are handed out with an assignment, has many benefits, including
- Helping students clearly understand the expectations of the assignment,
- Helping them evaluate their own work,
- Preparing them to use detailed feedback,
- Reducing their anxieties about the subjectivity of grading, and
- Motivating them to reach the standards specified.
The following describe the types of rubrics, their uses, and how to build them.
Authentic Assessment Toolbox http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/index.htm
Berkeley http://teaching.berkeley.edu/rubrics
Carnegie Mellon http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/assesslearning/rubrics.html
Cornell http://www.cte.cornell.edu/teaching-ideas/assessing-student-learning/index.html
Michigan State http://fod.msu.edu/oir/rubrics
Online Tools for building Rubrics
RubiStar http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
iRubric http://www.rcampus.com/indexrubric.cfm
Samples of rubrics
Assessment of Learning in HE http://course1.winona.edu/shatfield/air/rubrics.htm
Fresno State http://www.fresnostate.edu/academics/oie/assessment/rubric.html
Rubric Tutorials
RubiStar Tutorial http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=Tutorial
Blackboard Tutorial – YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBWHumFZnG4