Create rubrics to establish specific criteria and performance expectations for assignments and discussions to make your grading expectations and criteria transparent and consistent. While rubrics require an investment to create and calibrate, the long-term savings in time, the improved quality of feedback and objectivity in grading makes them a valuable resource to include in your course.
Brightspace allows you to create rubrics that can be attached to an assignment, grade item or other assessed items such as discussion topics. There are many benefits of rubrics and a variety of types available in Brightspace. To develop a rubric, first determine the performance levels, criterion categories, a description each level and a grading structure. The following steps guide you through creating and attaching rubrics to your course assignments and discussions.
When creating your rubric, you have the flexibility to create multiple, varying rubrics, depending on your grading needs.
Within your course, you will have the option to create one or both types of rubrics:
While building your rubric, it can be beneficial to put its status in draft form. This is particularly important when the rubric will not be finished in one sitting and remains as a work in progress. When completed and ready, change the rubric status to "published." You can also archive previous rubrics you may want to revisit at a later point in time. Change the status within the rubric editor by selecting the Status dropdown in the upper righthand corner.
A rubric will automatically publish unless the status of the rubric is changed manually to Archived or Draft. To change the status, click on Status: Published in the right hand corner of the rubric interface, and select your preferred publication status.
Each rubric type has a unique scoring structure. Select your preferred point format under the Scoring drop down at the top of the rubric editor.
It is recommended that you first build the rubric within the Rubrics tab on the navigation bar under Course Tools. If you do not see it here, first select All Course Tools and click Rubrics. After the rubrics are built, they can easily be attached to assignments and discussions.
Once complete, it is helpful to review the rubric from the students’ perspective. To do this, return to the Rubrics tool homepage. Find the rubric listed and click the chevron icon [⌵] to the right of the rubric's name, select preview. You can also print a student friendly copy in this window. To make additional changes to the rubric, select view using the same process.
Before attaching a rubric, ensure that its status is set to published.
Assignments
To add a rubric to an existing assignment, select the corresponding item under the Assignments tab. Then complete the following steps:
Discussions
To add a rubric to an existing discussion, select the corresponding item in the Discussion tool.
Note: You cannot add an assessment to a forum. There must first be a topic added, then the rubric can be added to the discussion topic.
You may want to use the same rubric for various courses you are teaching or share your rubric with colleagues in your department. You can easily copy, delete or share a rubric following the guide below.
Once the rubric is attached to an assignment or discussion, it is easy to use as a grade tool.