Gradebook: Rubric-Based Grading

Within the Gradebook, it is possible to assess student work using a rubric. For instance, you may have a writing assignment in your course that you want to evaluate based on the research question, writing quality, topic focus, and citations. Enabling rubric-based grading for that assignment will allow you to apply a systematic approach to your grading, and students can understand the exact metrics they are being evaluated on.

When you set up your course Gradebook, you can attach a rubric to any Gradebook item that doesn’t already get its score from another source (the Quiz Generator, graded Discussion Forum posts, and Peer Assessments).

Once you enable rubric-based grading on an item in the Gradebook, you can use a simple, grid-based editor to create your rubric. Alternatively, you can choose from various example rubrics covering a broad range of scenarios, or copy a rubric from another course that you teach or where you are a teaching assistant.

Note: This feature replaces the former "Faculty/TA" peer assessment type for grading student work via a rubric.

How to Enable Rubric-Based Grading

1. Navigate to the Gradebook via Faculty Tools under Activities and Assignments.
2. Click Set Up Gradebook.
3. For a new graded item, click Create Graded Item. To edit an existing graded item, click Edit to the right of the item.
4. Click Enable rubric-based grading.
5. Click Save.

How to Edit the Rubric of a Graded Item

1. Click Edit Rubric to the right of the graded item.
2. Click inside the Click to add instructions box to add instructions regarding the specific rubric.
3. Click on any of the criteria, level titles, or levels to make changes as necessary. A further explanation the rubric editor can be found here.
4. Lastly, click Save Changes at the bottom of the rubric.

How to Copy a Rubric from Another Course

1. Click Edit Rubric to the right of the graded item.
2. Click Copy an Existing Rubric in the top blue bar.
3. Determine which course offering contains the rubric you would like to copy, which will then display below all of the rubrics that exist for that offering.
4. Click View if you would like to preview a rubric before selecting it.
5. Click Use next to the rubric to confirm that you want to copy it.

How to Use a Preexisting Example Rubric

1. Click Edit Rubric to the right of the graded item.
2. Click View Example Rubrics in the top blue bar.
3. Click View to right the of a rubric to see a preview.
4. Click Use next to the rubric to confirm that you want to copy it.

Note: The rubric used for a graded item is visible to students so that students can see their performance based on each criteria. This information is made available to students when the grades are made available to them by the faculty.