Assessment Instruments and Rubrics Workshop Series Part 1: What is a rubric? What are the required elements? What are VALUE rubrics? February 24, 2016 Drs. Summer DeProw and Topeka Small Guest Co-Presenter: Dr. Kristi Costello

Workshop Agenda  Quick Intros and Needs analysis  Rubrics  What are they  Assignments best suited for rubrics  Types of rubrics  Quantitative and qualitative data  “Step down” descriptions  Why  “VALUE” rubrics  History  Examples  Uses/modifications

Intros and Needs analysis Who are you? & Why are you here?

Rubrics: What are they? “The rubric is a format for expressing criteria and standards. The advantage of a rubric is that it disaggregates various qualities of the students’ work. Thus, it is diagnostic; it helps you see what to work on. Instead of ‘Students’ average on the capstone was B+,’ a rubric helps you say, ‘On the capstone project, students’ strengths were P and Q, and their weaknesses were X and Y’ ” (Walvoord, 2010, p. 18). Walvoord, B. E. (2010). Assessment clear and simple. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Rubrics: What kinds of assignments are best suited for rubrics?  “Scoring rubrics are descriptive scoring schemes developed to assess any students performance whether its written or oral, online or face to face. [They] are especially well-suited [for] evaluating complex tasks or assignments such as :  Written work (e.g. assignments, essay tests, papers, portfolios)  Presentations (e.g. debates, role plays)  Group work  Other types of work products or performances (e.g. artistic works, portfolios)” Office of Graduate Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (n.d.) Scoring rubrics. Retrieved from

Why Use Rubrics? Rubrics can help instructors:  Help faculty assess assignments consistently from student-to-student, and, when applicable, instructor-to- instructor  Save time in grading, both short-term and long-term  Clarify expectations and components of an assignment for students, instructors, and TAs  Refine teaching skills by evaluating rubric results  Encourage metacognition Rubrics can help students:  Understand expectations and components of an assignment  Become more aware of their learning process and progress  Improve work through timely and detailed feedback  Engage in metacognition.

Types of Rubrics Holistic  assign a specific point value to each attribute of a project  allow very detailed assessment of multi-faceted projects, but the more detailed they are, the longer they take to develop, fine-tune, and use. They can also overlook nuanced, but important assignment criteria  are more likely to elicit “bean- counting” responses and some dislike what can feel like a lack of flexibility in analytical assessment Analytic  focus on larger skill sets  often speed up the grading process, and many instructors feel holistic grades best reflect the inseparability of assignment components  can frustrate students, because they don’t convey “specific enough” information

Types of Rubrics cont. Hybrid Rubric  Focuses on larger skill sets, while also assigning a specific point value to each attribute of a project.  Faculty members and students new to holistic rubrics are often more comfortable with hybrid rubrics.

Describing performance levels  Words, Phrases, or Numbers without Step- Down Narratives (not recommended).  Step-Down Narratives will include words such as: Always, Generally, Rarely; Fully, adequately, partially, minimally; mastery, proficiency, developing, but they will also aim to describe what is meant by each. Step-Down Method: An indication of different levels or degrees of performance.

Types of Rubrics cont. General  Can be used throughout the semester for multiple assignments.  Can expose students and faculty to the discourse of the field so they can begin to better internalize the criteria. Specific  Instructors must create a new rubric for each assignment.  Students must learn to understand several different rubrics.

VALUE Rubrics History  Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education—VALUE (  Born from the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Liberal Education and America’s Promise, LEAP, initiative (  Faculty and other educational professionals from 100 postsecondary institutions developed 16 rubrics that aligned with the LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes  Widely used throughout the US to assess liberal arts education outcomes  Factoid: State Higher Education Executive Officer’s (SHEEO) using VALUE rubrics on 59 participating campuses to share student work, evaluate student learning, and create a comparison database. The results are available:

VALUE Rubrics cont. 16 Value Rubrics Civic Engagement Creative Thinking Critical Thinking Ethical Reasoning Global Learning Information Literacy Inquiry and Analysis Integrative Learning Intercultural Knowledge & Competence Foundations of Skills for Lifelong Learning Oral Communication Problem Solving Quantitative Literacy ReadingTeamwork Written Communication

VALUE Rubrics cont. uses/modifications  Entirety  Combining two or three VALUE rubrics  Example: One project or paper on ethics  Use Written Communication and Ethical Reasoning  Progressive assignments throughout a course, such as a research course  Information Literacy  Critical Thinking  Inquiry and Analysis  Using parts of a VALUE rubric and adding your authentic assessment nuances

Next Step  Homework: bring description of an assignment, the outcome (s) related to the assignment, and any other documentation needed to build a rubric for the assignment  Next session (3/9): How to build a customized rubric Thank you! Any questions? Thank you! Any questions?