Effective Use of Rubrics to Assess Student Learning

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Effective Use of Rubrics to Assess Student
Learning

• Marta Colón de Toro, SPHR
• Assessment Coordinator
• College of Business Administration
• University of PR at Mayagüez
• February 2007

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What is a Rubric?

• A scoring tool that lists the criteria or 'what
  counts for a piece of work."
  Heidi Goodrich
• A scoring scale used to assess student
  performance along a task-specific set of criteria

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Rubrics

• Powerful communication tool
• When shared among constituents it communicates in
  concrete and observable terms what we value most.
• Provides a means to clarify our vision of
  excellence and conveys it to our students
• Provides a rationale for assigning grades to
  subjectively scored assessments.

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Sharing the rubric with students is vitaland
only fairif we expect them to do their best
possible work.
Think about it!
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Advantages of using rubrics

• For Students
• Help them define "quality
• Promote student awareness of about the criteria
  to use in assessing peer performance
• Help students judge and revise their own work
  before handing in their assignments.
• Clearly show the student how their work will be
  evaluated and what is expected

• For the Professor
• Allow evaluation and assessment to be more
  objective and consistent
• Help focus to clarify his/her criteria in
  specific terms
• Provide useful feedback regarding the
  effectiveness of the instruction
• Provide benchmarks against which to measure and
  document progress

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Types of Rubrics

• Analytical
• Holistic

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Analytic Rubric

• Describes levels of performance for each
  criterion to assess student performance on each
  of them.

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Analytical Rubric - Research
Levels of Performance Levels of Performance Levels of Performance
Criteria Weight 1 2 3
Number of Sources x1 1-4 5-9 10-12
Historical Accuracy x3 Lots of historical inaccuracies Few inaccuracies No apparent inaccuracies
Organization x1 Can not tell from which source information came Can tell with difficulty where information came from Can easily tell which sources info was drawn from
Bibliography x1 Bibliography contains very little information Bibliography contains most relevant information All relevant information is included
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Holistic Rubric

• Assigns a level of performance by assessing
  performance across multiple criteria as a whole.
• Does not list separate levels of performance for
  each criterion.

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Holistic Rubric - Research

• Rubric
• 3 - Excellent Researcher
• included 10-12 sources
• no apparent historical inaccuracies
• can easily tell which sources information was
  drawn from
• all relevant information is included
• 2 - Good Researcher
• included 5-9 sources
• few historical inaccuracies
• can tell with difficulty where information came
  from
• bibliography contains most relevant information
• 1 - Poor Researcher
• included 1-4 sources
• lots of historical inaccuracies
• cannot tell from which source information came
• bibliography contains very little information

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Main Components of Rubrics

• Dimensions, Criteria, Traits, Attributes
• Elements that characterize good performance of a
  task
• Definitions and Descriptors
• To specify and clarify the meaning of each
  dimension
• Scale of Values
• Numerical or Qualitative or Combination
• Optional
• Weights
• Value that represents the relative value of each
  dimension
• Examples or Models

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Scales

• Qualitative
• May include labels such as
• Not yet, developing, achieving
• Emerging, developing, achieving
• Novice, apprentice, proficient, distinguished
• No evidence, minimal evidence, partial evidence,
  complete evidence
• Exemplary, Acceptable, Unacceptable

• Quantitative
• Numbers representing
• 1 5
• 5 1
• 1 3
• 3 1
• Actual point value
• May be used to reflect relative weight

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Recommendations

• Criteria clearly aligned with the requirements of
  the task and the stated goals and objectives. 
• Criteria should be expressed in terms of
  observable behaviors or product characteristics.
• Scoring rubrics should be written in specific and
  clear language that the students understand. 

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Recommendations

• The number of points that are used in the scoring
  rubric should make sense. 
• The separation between score levels should be
  clear.  
• The statement of the criteria should be fair and
  free from bias. 

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Lets try it! Developing a Rubric

• Choose a learning goal or assignment
• Identify at least three (3) critical dimensions
  or elements of the task
• Design a scale of at least 3 levels
• For each dimension describe behaviors that
  represent each level of quality

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Some Home-made Examples

• Rubric for Scoring Project
• Rubric for Peer Evaluation of Group Project

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Rubrics Available Online

• Team work (2)
• Oral Communication skills (2)
• Writing skills (2)
• Leadership

• Critical thinking
• Ethical Considerations (2)
• Global Perspective
• Case Analysis

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Where to Begin

• Identify a learning goal
• Choose outcomes that may be measured with a
  rubric
• Develop or adopt (and adapt) an existing rubric
• Share it with students
• Assess / Grade
• Analyze and report results

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• Program Level Assessment
• Of Learning Outcomes
• Results
• Results Results
• Classroom-Level Assessment of Learning

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Assessment of Program Learning Goals

• Ethics
• Information Technology Skills
• Teamwork
• We will select a rubric and ask professors to use
  it and provide us with the results to conduct
  assessment at the program level.

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Some Links of Interest

• http//cnx.org/content/m14059/latest/
• http//faculty.css.edu/dswenson/web/Gradingrubrics
  /rubricethics.html
• http//www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/d/x/dxm12/n458
  /sample_case_rubric.htm
• http//faculty.css.edu/dsurges/ASSESSMENT/rubricet
  hics.html

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Some Links of Interest

• http//www.tcnj.edu/set/mw-steps.htm
• http//www.viterbo.edu/personalpages/faculty/WStob
  b/WAC20-20Pharm2.htm
• http//academic.scranton.edu/department/assessment
  /ksom/
• http//academic.scranton.edu/department/assessment
  /ksom/Ethical-Considerations-Rubric.pdf (ECR )

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Some Links of Interest

• http//www.winona.edu/AIR/rubrics.htm
• http//www4.nau.edu/assessment/main/degree/plans/B
  usinessAdminReport_Nov05.pdf
• http//www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?Benchma
  rkID6DocID61
• http//csethics.uis.edu/dolce/teachsoft.html
• http//school.discovery.com/schrockguide/assess.ht
  ml

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• Share your Rubrics

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• Office AE 163
• Extensions 5333 / 5334 / 5335
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