Rubrics | How to create a rubric

A rubric is a scoring guide to help students and lecturers evaluate following given criteria and achievement levels. For example, a student presentation can be reviewed with a rubric so that all students know the grading standards. Rubrics are a great way to evaluate an assignment and provide feedback consistently. A rubric is generally created to be associated with an existing assignment or discussion topic.

This article will show you  

Create a rubric

Open the course page where you want to create a rubric. Then:

1. Navigate to Assessment

2. Click Rubrics. This will open the Rubrics homepage

navigate to rubrics by clicking Assessment and then Rubrics

3. Click New Rubric to create a new rubric. The Edit Rubric page will open

Rubrics home page. Click New rubric

4. Write a title for the rubric under Name

5. Actions for criterion group

Clicking on the three dots, it is possible to copy or delete a criteria group on a rubric. The delete option is only available if there is more than one criteria group

Criteria group

6. Write the name of the criteria in the left column

7. Write the name of the levels

8. Enter the number of points associated with each level

9. Enter the evaluation description for each criterion and level

When clicking in the box, an Editor toolbar appears with additional formatting options

Formatting options

10. (Optional) Enter the Feedback that students will receive for each criterion and level

The number of characters for the name of the criteria is limited and can only support up to 256 characters. Abbreviate and/or use the evaluation description to add more details.

Edit rubric page

You can add more evaluation levels by clicking the + symbol at the left or right of the first row in the table.

Add more evaluation level

You can add more criteria elements by clicking the button + Add Criterion at the bottom of the table.

Add criteria from the bottom

Finally, you can copy or delete an already existing criterion by clicking on the three dots next to it.

Copy criterion

The system is saving... automatically every change in your rubric. You can close the rubric anytime by clicking the button Close at the bottom of the screen.

Setting Overall Score

On the rubrics editing page, you will see the section Overall Score under the previous table. Each submission is assigned a level of achievement based on its overall rubric score. For example, you can set two levels (passing and not passing) and calculate the number of points based on the passing percentage.

10. Give a name to each level

11. Set the points needed to reach each the overall score level

12. (Optional) Write a message or feedback for each level

Set the overall score settings by adding a name per level, minimum points needed and description

Example - A rubric has 4 criteria items and the maximum number of points for each criterion is 5 points. This means that the total amount of possible points in this rubric is 20 points (4*5). If the rubric is used for grading, you need to choose the minimum number of points needed to pass (the “cut-off point”). If you choose 55% as cut-off point, 11 points (0.55*20) or more will provide an overall passing level for the assignment. If the general passing grade is 5.5 out of 10 and the cut-off point is 55%, rubric scores are translated into grades as (5.5/10*(total amount of possible points)).

For general info on cut-off point and grading, see intranet.

Setting advanced options (optional)

Below the Overall Score section, you will find Options. Here you will be able to set advanced options to configure your rubric.

1. Click on Options to unfold the section.

2. Set the rubric visibility options. This will determine if/when students can see the rubric levels and points.

3. (Optional) If you do not want students to see the points received, then check the box Hide scores from students.

4. (Optional) Add a description of the rubric to better identify different versions. This is visible in the rubrics list but not visible for students.

5. (Optional) You can enable the possibility to associate this rubric to other tools in Brightspace.

set advanced options. Click the title Options, set the rubric visibility, the score visibility and the description for yourself.

Continue to the other articles about rubrics to learn how to associate your new rubric with assignments or discussion topics.

Now you have successfully created a rubric in Brightspace!