Creating & GradingCustom Rubrics

Rhonda Gregory

About the PresenterDirector of Instructional Technology

• 2 years as LMS Administrator• Responsible for training & support of 200+ full &

part time faculty• Oversee support & orientation for 1600+ traditional

undergrad, grad, and adult degree-completion students

Online Instructor• 3 years of graduate & undergraduate

teaching experience in technology, education, and literature

• Teach 5-7 courses per year• MA in Teaching, Greenville College• BS in Business Administration, DeVry

Using Rubrics in Desire2Learn

• Can be used just for grading alone or• Can be used as part of a Competency structure

– to determine if Learning Objectives are achieved• Enable you to evaluate:

– assignments, activities or – grade items – based on a predefined set of criteria

Advantages of Rubrics

• Expectations clear to students ahead of time Natural way to define what quality means

• Quick and easy way for instructors to provide feedback

• Consistency of evaluation by same grader or by multiple graders

• Lets students know exactly how to improve the quality of their work

Best Practices Using Rubrics

Students should be able to see the rubric BEFORE and AFTER submitting their work.

• Before grading, Dropbox and Discussion currently show rubric.

• After grading, rubrics will show in the following: Dropbox Grade Item User Progress Quiz

Create Rubrics at course level or higher• If shared down to a course, can’t edit• Can copy and then modify the copy• Access existing rubrics from navbar, Edit Course, or from

any assessment tool

Rubric Status• Rubric Status affects whether you can see and attach it

to assessments• Be sure to change the Rubric Status to Published once

it is complete.

Two Types of Rubrics in D2L

Analytic and Holistic

• Holistic• Single criteria • Multiple elements

means feedback is less clear

• Analytic• Multiple criteria• Easier for students to

know how to improve

Holistic vs. Analytic (Multidimensional)

Scoring Options in Analytic Rubrics

• Text only – does not associate any numerical value to your scoring levels.

• Points – each criterion is worth equal point values (can’t be customized)

• Custom Points – each criterion may be worth a different amount of points

Text only

Levels & Overall Score are purely descriptive

Points

Criteria are all equally “weighted” by Points at the top level

Overall Score levels can be adjusted 3

3

3

2

2

2

1

1

1

Custom PointsCriteria have different “weights” by Points

Overall Score levels can be adjusted still

8

4

6

3

4

24 3 2

Hands-On Activities

• View List of Shared Rubrics• Copy and Edit an Existing Custom Points

Rubric• Publish a Rubric• Attach a Rubric to a Discussion Topic and a

Dropbox• Practice Grading

Using Rubrics for Discussion Grading• Discussion activities can be evaluated using a rubric.• You can evaluate:

– user participation in group conversations,– reflections on course content, or – peer editing, critiques or mentoring.

• Improvements for Students in newest version– Students will see Rubric at top of Discussion Topic– Students will see Graded Rubric in User Progress & Grades

Student Discussion Grade View

Rubric is visible in the topic BEFORE posting

Rubric is visible in Grades AFTER assessed as “Assessment Details”

Instructor Discussion Grading View• Improvements for Instructors in newest version

– Instructor can see all of each student’s postings on the same screen as the rubric while grading

• Must still manually transfer the score since it doesn’t transfer automatically from the rubric.

Dropbox Rubric Actions After Grading• Rubric Score will transfer to Dropbox Score area• If value of assignment is greater than value of the

rubric, score will be automatically adjusted proportionally– If student had 80% on rubric, they will have

equivalent 80% points on dropbox score.• In this way, instructors can re-use the same rubric on

many assignments even if the value of the dropbox assignments differ.

• Keep rubric value low so scores always adjust UP, not down

Thanks for coming!

Suggestions or other ideas?Tips you use in your own classes?Feedback on the ideas presented?

Rhonda GregoryDirector of Instructional Technology

rhonda.gregory@greenville.edu