Guide to Using Rubrics

Use rubrics to grade course assignments and discussions by measuring performance of your students.

Rubrics may be added to the following course materials:

Assessments (subjective questions only)
Assignments
Discussions
Tests/Quizzes (Short Answer/Essay Question only)

Create Rubrics

You can create a custom rubric in the Grade Setup area of a course, or you can create them directly from an assignment or graded discussion and save them in Grade Setup for reuse.

You may also create rubrics in your Resources and copy them to any course you administer, and you can copy individual rubrics between courses or to your Resources from the Grade Setup area of your courses.

You can add two types of criteria to a rubric:

Custom criteria that you add and update manually.
Criteria aligned to standardized learning objectives, such as Common Core or state standards.

To save a custom rubric to a course:

Select Grade Setup in the left menu of the Course Page.
In the upper-right corner of the page, click the Add menu in the Scales-Rubrics section and then select Rubric to open the Rubric Editor.
Add a Rubric Title.
To add custom criteria:
- Add titles and descriptions for each learning objective.
- To add additional rows of custom criteria, click +Criteria below the rubric.
To add standards-aligned criteria:
- Click Align Learning Objective below the rubric.
- Click through the standards browser levels to each desired objective, or type keywords in the search box.
- When you reach the desired learning objective, click to highlight it, and then click Add Learning Objective to add it as a criteria.
To replace the rubric’s grading scale with a custom scale from your course, click Apply Grading Scale in the upper-right corner and then select the desired point-based scale from the menu.

You can only apply point-based grading scales to rubrics. You cannot undo this action after completing it.
Use the menu items on the upper left to close, expand, or hide the rubric.
As you add rows and columns and adjust points scales, the total points available for the rubric update automatically in the Total Pts field.
Click Create to complete.

Further customize your rubric

To add additional columns to the scale, hover over the cell and click the + icon that appears to the left and right of each cell.
To change the points and descriptions for individual grading scale levels, click into their respective fields, and add new ones.
To remove a row or column, hover over the cell and click on the x icon that appears in the upper right.
To reorder the rows, click on the double bars to the left and drag it to the appropriate location.

To create a rubric directly from a course discussion or assignment:

Create the discussion or assignment, or click the gear icon to the right and select Edit in the menu to open an existing discussion or assignment.
Open the Scale/Rubric menu and select Create New to open the Rubric Editor.
Follow the above instructions to create a rubric, starting at step 4, to complete the rubric.

Adding Criteria, Learning Objectives, and Grading Scales to Rubrics

The first two rows in the Criteria column are standards-aligned criteria. Click +Learning Objectives to add standards-based criteria to your rubric, and track your students' progress on these criteria in Mastery.
The second two rows are custom criteria. Click +Criteria to create your own criteria to add to the rubric.

Alternatively, you may choose one of your grading scales from the menu to replace the rubric’s current grading scale. Click Apply Grading Scale in the upper-right corner of the rubric to apply your scale to your rubric.

Use Rubrics for Grading

Rubrics cannot be used to grade an entire Test/Quiz or Assessment. Rather, they can be used to evaluate a specific question on a test, such as a short answer question.
Only one rubric may be added to a course material or item. It is not possible to add multiple rubrics to one item.

To add rubrics to assignments or graded discussions:

Create an assignment or graded discussion, or click the gear icon
to the right of an existing material and select Edit.
Click on the Scale/Rubric menu.
Select an existing rubric, or create a new one specific to the graded item.

Changing the Overall Score of a Rubric-Graded Assignment

You can also change the overall score of the assignment in the rubric without changing any of the scores for the individual criteria — for example, if you need to lower the grade for a late submission, but don’t want student mastery reporting to inaccurately reflect a lack of understanding of a criterion in the rubric.

To change the overall score in the rubric, click in the Total Pts cell, and add the new score. After changing the score, a clear override link displays below the score — click this link to revert the score back to the total of the individual criterion scores.

Display Rubrics to Students

When you add a rubric to a graded item, you'll see the option to Show to students during the editing or creation process. Enable this checkbox to let members of the course view the rubric in the assignment or discussion profile.

When your students view the assignment description, the rubric is included with the description.

Edit, Copy, Delete, or Save to Resources

When you change an existing rubric, the change applies to the rubric in all the materials that use the rubric throughout the course. If you want to change a rubric for a specific item, we recommend that you create a new rubric instead of adjusting an existing one.

Changes made to a rubric do not affect copies of the rubric that you have added to other courses.

To edit a rubric:

Click the name of the rubric in Grade Setup or from the Edit option after clicking the gear icon
to the right of the graded item.

To add additional columns to the scale, hover over the cell and click on the + icon that displays to the left and right of each cell.
To change the points and descriptions for individual grading scale levels, click into their respective fields, and add new ones.
To remove a row or column, hover over the cell and click on the x icon that appears in the upper-right.
To reorder the rows, click on the double bars to the left and drag the criterion to the desired row.

Click Save to save your changes.

You can also copy a rubric you’ve created in one course and add it to any other courses in which you’re an Administrator.

To copy a rubric and add it to a different course in which you are an Administrator:

In Grade Setup, click Rubrics in the Scales/Rubrics area to display a list of all rubrics in your course.
Click the gear icon
next to the rubric you want to copy.
Select Copy to Course in the menu that displays.
In the Copy to menu, click the box next to each course to which you want to copy your rubric.
Click Add to add the rubric to each course you selected in the list.

To copy all rubrics and add to a different course in which you are an Administrator:

In Grade Setup, click Copy Settings on the top right of the page.
Under Select Settings to Copy, check the box next to Rubrics.
Select each course you wish the rubrics to be copied over to.
Click Copy to complete.

To delete a rubric:

In Grade Setup, click Rubrics in the Scales/Rubrics area to display a list of all rubrics in your course.
Click the gear icon
next to the rubric you want to delete and select Delete.
To delete a rubric, it cannot be associated with any graded items. The Delete option is grayed out on the menu for any rubric that is in use in the course. The number of graded items associated with the rubric displays below the rubric name. In the screenshot above, for example, Mixed Rubric is being used in one graded item and Discussion Rubric in two.
Once you have removed the rubric from all graded items, click Delete in the menu to remove the rubric from the course.

You cannot retrieve rubrics after deleting them from a course. Deleting a rubric is a permanent action.

To save a rubric to your Resources area:

In Grade Setup, click Rubrics in the Scales/Rubrics area to display a list of all rubrics in your course.
Click the gear icon
next to the rubric you want to copy.
Select Save to Resources in the menu that displays.
In the Save Rubric to Resources menu, select the Collection and the Folder in your Resources to which you want to add the Rubric.
Click Save Copy to add the rubric to the Resource area you selected.

Copy Gradebook Settings

You can copy grading categories, scales, and rubrics from one course to another course you administer.

To copy Gradebook settings:

In the upper-right of the course's Grade Setup area, click Copy Settings.
Select the options you'd like to copy to another course.
Click Copy to complete.