Rubrics
Recently, D2L Brightspace updated the look and experience of creating rubrics.
This does not affect how rubrics are configured and settings from the
previous experience are retained, they are now displayed in a different layout.
Please refer to the Updated Experience section at the end of this page for more
information.
A rubric is a powerful tool and a simple way to set up grading criteria for assignments--one that defines in writing what is expected of a student to get a particular grade on an assignment. eLC allows rubrics to be created at the course level and be used to assess a variety of items, from gradebook items like quizzes or papers to discussion posts.
There are two types of rubrics available for use:
- Holistic Rubrics - Single criterion rubrics (one-dimensional) are used to assess participants' overall achievement on an activity or item-based on predefined achievement levels. Holistic rubrics may use a percentage or text-only scoring method.
- Analytic Rubrics - Two-dimensional rubrics display levels of achievement as column and assessment criteria and include an overall achievement by totaling the criteria. With analytic rubrics, levels of achievement display in columns and your assessment criteria displays in rows. Analytic rubrics may use a points, custom points, or text-only scoring method. Points and custom points analytic rubrics may use both text and points to assess performance; with custom points, each criterion may be worth a different number of points. For both points and custom points, an overall score is provided based on the total number of points achieved. The overall score determines whether the activity is achieved.
- Creating a Rubric in eLC
- Editing a Rubric
- Rubrics: New Experience
- Setting Up Rubrics for Assignment Submission Folders
- Setting Up Rubrics for Discussion Topics
- Setting Up Rubrics for Quizzes
- Using the new Brightspace Editor in Rubrics
Creating a Rubric in eLC
You can create holistic and analytic rubrics to use in your course.
This tutorial will provide step-by-step instructions on creating a rubric.
1. Navigate to Course Admin: To begin the process of creating a rubric in eLC, from the Course Navbar, select the Course Admin link.
2. Select Rubrics: From the Course Administration page, select Rubrics, located under the Assessment section.
3. Click New Rubric: Click the New Rubric button.
4. Name and Status: Fill in a Name for the rubric, and choose the status of the rubrics. To use the rubric immediately, select Published. Until you are ready to use a rubric, leave the status set as Draft.
Note: Once the rubric is Published and associated with a tool, such as an assignment or discussion topic, you can no longer delete the rubric. Once it has been used for grading, the rubric cannot be edited or deleted.
Add Description: After selecting the status of the rubric, enter a description of the rubric if desired.
5. Edit Rubric Settings: Select the Rubric Type (analytic or holistic), the number of levels and criteria for the rubric grid, the scoring method (points, text only, or custom points), and whether or not you want the scores to be hidden from students. The Advanced Ability section is optional.
6. Save All Changes: Once you have finished updating the levels and criteria, click Save.
7. Set Rubric Status to Published: When you have finished editing your rubric, be sure to set the Rubric Status to Published.
Editing a Rubric
You can only edit a rubric in the org unit where it was created. You cannot edit a rubric that is currently being used by an activity or item. You can edit rubric properties, levels, criterion, and criteria groups.
This tutorial will provide step-by-step instructions on editing a rubric.
1. Navigate to Course Admin: To begin the process of editing a rubric in eLC, from the Course Navbar, select the Course Admin link.
2. Select Rubrics: From the Course Administration page, select Rubrics, located under the Assessment section.
3. Choose the Desired Rubric: On the Rubrics page, click on the rubric you want to edit.
4. Make Select Changes. Make your changes. You can edit rubric properties, levels, criterion, and criteria groups.
5. Save Changes: Do one of the following:
- If you are in the Properties tab, click Save.
- If you are in the Levels and Criteria tab, click Close. Your edits save automatically.
Rubrics: New Experience
1. You may be prompted to use a new experience for creating rubrics in eLC if it is your first time using the rubrics tool.
2. If you choose to leave this on, you will enter an updated and simplified view of rubric creation. The new view looks like this:
3. The new experience lets a user create and edit a rubric in a view that looks like the final rubric, making it easier to understand levels and criteria. This view also uses analytic and holistic rubrics. Users may choose to have one out of three scoring methods for the rubric. You will notice the difference between the three types is how the scoring has been set up:
- No score: If you want to use the rubric with an assignment/discussion/quiz which does
not use points to score students. There is no option to score students on this rubric.
The overall score table below the rubric will indicate to a student their overall level of achievement. For the ’No score’ setting, it looks like this -
- Points: This rubric may be used if your rubric assigns equal weights to every criterion. In the
above figure, the rubric uses point system for scoring. You will observe that criteria 1 and 2 have
both been assigned 15 points each in the last column. This is because it is possible to achieve a maximum of 15 points in each criterion. When defining the levels in a rubric that uses points, it is also necessary to specify the maximum value of points a student
can achieve in a level. For instance, in the example shown below, proficient achievement can have scores in the range 11 - 15, acceptable achievement can have scores in the range 6 - 10, and Limited achievement is a score between 0 and 5 points.
The overall score table for the ’Points’ scheme looks like below. Please note that values specified in the table are values for the range that represents a level of achievement. For example, if Proficient achievement is indicated by a score greater than 10 with a maximum of 15, users will have to enter value 11 in the ’Overall Score’ table.
- Custom Points: This scoring system may be used if you want to assign different weights for individual criteria. When this scheme is used, you will not be able to assign an overall scoring scheme. You will notice that individual criteria have text-input boxes attached to them which
allow users to configure Maximum points for level achievement for individual criteria. An example of this has been provided below:
The overall score table in this scheme looks (and works) similar to the one that uses the ’Points’ scheme -
An ‘Options’ tab is available at the bottom of the page. It is collapsed by default. Once expanded, it provides the following options, details of which have been visited in the original rubric view. The new experience eliminates separate tabs and lets users access all options on one page.
Setting Up Rubrics for Assignment Submission Folders
This step-by-step tutorial will help you set up rubrics for use with the Assignments tool.
1. Navigate to Assignments: Select Assignments from the Tools dropdown menu on the Course Navbar.
2. Open Assignment Submission Folder Editor: Navigate to the assignment submission folder to which you would like to add a rubric, click the arrow beside its name, and select Edit Submission Folder from the drop-down menu.
3. Open Rubric Tool: Under Rubrics, select Add Rubric if you have already have a rubric made, or click Create Rubric in New Window to create one "on-the-fly."
4. Select a Rubric to be Added: Select the desired rubric and click Add Selected to add it to your assignment submission folder.
Note: Rubrics must have their status set to Published before they will be available for selection from the list. Once the rubric is Published and associated with a tool, such as an assignment or discussion topic, you can no longer delete the rubric. Once it has been used for grading, the rubric cannot be edited or deleted.
5. Save Changes: Click Save and Close to finalize setting up a rubric for your assignment submission folder.
Setting up Rubrics for Discussions Topics
This step-by-step tutorial will help you set up rubrics for use with the Discussions tool.
1. Navigate to Discussions: Select Discussions from the Tools drop-down menu on the Course Navbar.
2. Open Discussion Topic Editor: From the list of Discussion Forums and Topics, click the arrow next to the Topic that you would like to add a rubric, and select Edit Topic from the drop-down menu.
Note: You can only add rubrics to topics, not the whole discussion forum itself.
3. Click Assessment Tab: On the Edit Topic page, select the Assessment tab.
4. Add a Rubric: Under Rubrics, select Add Rubric if you already have a rubric made. Click Create Rubric in New Window to create one "on-the-fly."
5. Select a Rubric: Select the desired rubric from the list, and click Add Selected to associate the rubric with your discussion topic.
Note: Rubrics must have their status set to Published before they will be available for selection from the list. Once the rubric is published and associated with a tool, such as assignment or discussion topic, you can no longer delete the rubric. Once it has been used for grading, the rubric cannot be edited or deleted.
6. Copy Rubric Informaiton into Discussion Topic Description: Unfortunately, rubrics associated with Discussion Topics are not visible to student by default. To provide students access to the rubric information, copy and paste the rubric grading criteria into the Description field of the discussion topic.
7. Save Changes: Click Save and Close to finalize setting up a rubric for your assignment dropbox.
Setting Up Rubrics for Quizzes
This step-by-step tutorial will help you set up rubrics for use with the Quizzes tool.
1. Navigate to Quizzes: Select Quizzes from the Tools drop-down menu on the Course Navbar.
2. Open Quiz Editor: Click on the quiz you want to associate with a rubric.
3. Add a Rubric: Under Assessments, click Add Rubric if you already have a rubric made. Click Create Rubric in New Window to create one "on-the-fly."
4. Select a Rubric: Select the check box for the rubric you want to attach the quiz. Click Add Selected.
Note: Rubrics must have their status set to Published before they will be available for selection from the list. Once the rubric is published and associated with a tool, such as assignment or discussion topic, you can no longer delete the rubric. Once it has been used for grading, the rubric cannot be edited or deleted.
5. Save Changes: Click Save and Close.
Updated Rubrics Experience
In a recent update to eLC, the rubrics configuration got a new look:
The new creation experience for rubrics provides a more streamlined approach to authoring
rubric levels and criteria. Some highlights of this new experience include:
- Quickly create and edit rubric levels and criteria inline using an auto-save experience
- Easily reorder criteria via drag and drop or by using the keyboard
- Improved logic for point-based rubrics where new levels automatically follow existing point scoring sequences
- Individual criterion cells in custom point rubrics will dynamically scale when editing the criterion out-of value
- Overall score has now been visually separated from the rubric and appears in its own section
- Rubric scoring types can now be changed on-the-fly during rubric creation
- Rubric types can not be changed on-the-fly during rubric creation
Please note - all settings and explanations on this page have been retained. The new experience is merely a more logical, revamped experience.
Using the new Brightspace Editor in Rubrics
Brightspace D2L recently launched a new editor in most of its experiences. The new editor has more functionalities compared to the old one. This editor can be accessed within the following:
- Rubrics Creation and Edit experiences in the Description field
- Rubrics Creation and Edit experiences in the Feedback field
- Evaluation mode in the Feedback field
Additional Information about Rubric Tiles
Previously, it was only possible to see the overall score of the rubric when the rubric was expanded.
When a rubric is collapsed, instructors can now see if the rubric is complete. If the rubric is complete, the collapsed rubric shows the overall level of the rubric, and if the rubric is not complete, the number of unscored criteria appears on the tile.
In addition, customers using rubrics with the New Evaluation Experiences can see Rubrics Statistics from within the evaluation panel. Previous experience collapsed tile for partially scored text-only rubrics contained following information:
The New Experience collapsed tile for completed rubrics contains points-based and text-only rubrics information:
