1. Effective Use of Rubrics to Assess Student Learning
Marta Colón de Toro, SPHR
Assessment Coordinator
College of Business Administration
University of PR at Mayagüez
February 2007

2. What is a Rubric?
“A scoring tool that lists the criteria or 'what counts’ for a piece of work." Heidi Goodrich
A scoring scale used to assess student performance along a task-specific set of criteria

3. Rubrics Powerful communication tool
When shared among constituents it communicates in concrete and observable terms what we value most.
Provides a means to clarify our vision of excellence and conveys it to our students
Provides a rationale for assigning grades to subjectively scored assessments.

4. Think about it!
Sharing the rubric with students is vital—and only fair—if we expect them to do their best possible work.

5. Advantages of using rubrics
For Students
Help them define "quality“
Promote student awareness of about the criteria to use in assessing peer performance
Help students judge and revise their own work before handing in their assignments.
Clearly show the student how their work will be evaluated and what is expected
For the Professor
Allow evaluation and assessment to be more objective and consistent
Help focus to clarify his/her criteria in specific terms
Provide useful feedback regarding the effectiveness of the instruction
Provide benchmarks against which to measure and document progress

6. Types of Rubrics
Analytical
Holistic

7. Analytic Rubric
Describes levels of performance for each criterion to assess student performance on each of them.

8. Analytical Rubric - Research
Levels of Performance
Criteria
Weight 1 2 3
Number of Sources x1
1-4
5-9
10-12
Historical Accuracy x3
Lots of historical inaccuracies
Few
inaccuracies
No apparent inaccuracies
Organization
Can not tell from which source information came
Can tell with difficulty where information came from
Can easily tell which sources info was drawn from
Bibliography
Bibliography contains very little information
Bibliography contains most relevant information
All relevant information is included

9. Holistic Rubric
Assigns a level of performance by assessing performance across multiple criteria as a whole.
Does not list separate levels of performance for each criterion.

10. Holistic Rubric - Research
3 - Excellent Researcher
included sources
no apparent historical inaccuracies
can easily tell which sources information was drawn from
all relevant information is included
2 - Good Researcher
included 5-9 sources
few historical inaccuracies
can tell with difficulty where information came from
bibliography contains most relevant information
1 - Poor Researcher
included 1-4 sources
lots of historical inaccuracies
cannot tell from which source information came
bibliography contains very little information

11. Main Components of Rubrics
Dimensions, Criteria, Traits, Attributes
Elements that characterize good performance of a task
Definitions and Descriptors
To specify and clarify the meaning of each dimension
Scale of Values
Numerical or Qualitative or Combination
Optional
Weights
Value that represents the relative value of each dimension
Examples or Models

12. Scales Qualitative Quantitative May include labels such as:
Not yet, developing, achieving
Emerging, developing, achieving
Novice, apprentice, proficient, distinguished
No evidence, minimal evidence, partial evidence, complete evidence
Exemplary, Acceptable, Unacceptable
Quantitative
Numbers representing
1 – 5
5 – 1
1 – 3
3 – 1
Actual point value
May be used to reflect relative weight

13. Recommendations
Criteria clearly aligned with the requirements of the task and the stated goals and objectives. 
Criteria should be expressed in terms of observable behaviors or product characteristics.
Scoring rubrics should be written in specific and clear language that the students understand. 

14. Recommendations
The number of points that are used in the scoring rubric should make sense. 
The separation between score levels should be clear.  
The statement of the criteria should be fair and free from bias. 

15. Let’s try it! – Developing a Rubric
Choose a learning goal or assignment
Identify at least three (3) critical dimensions or elements of the task
Design a scale of at least 3 levels
For each dimension describe behaviors that represent each level of quality

16. Some Home-made Examples
Rubric for Scoring Project
Rubric for Peer Evaluation of Group Project

17. Rubrics Available Online
Team work (2)
Oral Communication skills (2)
Writing skills (2)
Leadership
Critical thinking
Ethical Considerations (2)
Global Perspective
Case Analysis

18. Where to Begin… Identify a learning goal
Choose outcomes that may be measured with a rubric
Develop or adopt (and adapt) an existing rubric
Share it with students
Assess / Grade
Analyze and report results

19. Program Level Assessment
Of Learning Outcomes
Results
Results Results
Classroom-Level Assessment of Learning

20. Assessment of Program Learning Goals
Ethics
Information Technology Skills
Teamwork
We will select a rubric and ask professors to use it and provide us with the results to conduct assessment at the program level.

21. Some Links of Interest http://cnx.org/content/m14059/latest/

22. Some Links of Interest http://www.tcnj.edu/~set/mw-steps.htm
(ECR ***)

23. Some Links of Interest http://www.winona.edu/AIR/rubrics.htm

24. Share your Rubrics

25. Thank you! You May Contact Us: Office – AE 163
Extensions 5333 / 5334 / 5335
Thank you!