GRADING Creating and Using Rubrics Introduction to Rubrics

What are rubrics?

Rubrics are scales in which the criteria used for grading or assessment are clearly spelled out along a continuum.  Rubrics can be used to assess a wide range of assignments and activities in the classroom, from oral presentations to term papers to class participation.  There are two main types:

• Analytic Rubrics: Separate scales for each trait, or learning outcome, being assessed within the assignment (e.g., separate scales for "Argument,” “Organization,” “Use of Evidence,” etc.)
  
  
• Holistic Rubrics: One scale for the assignment considered as a whole.  (e.g., one scale describing the characteristics of an “A” paper, a “B” paper, or a “C” paper, etc.) 

Why are rubrics useful?

Increasingly, rubrics are being used in college classrooms to improve the effectiveness and the efficiency of grading.  By making our grading criteria more transparent, a well-thought-out rubric can both enhance student learning and save us time:

Rubrics enhance student learning by:

• Anchoring grading to specific learning objectives, rather than more subjective, distracting considerations of rank or effort
• Improving assignment design by clarifying desired learning outcomes
• Contributing to fairness and consistency across sections.
• Reducing student anxieties about the subjectivity of grading

Rubrics help you save time by:

• Narrowing the field of evaluation to desired learning outcomes
• Facilitating constructive written comments
• Reducing grade challenges
• Reducing graders’ anxieties about grade inflation and the subjectivity of grading