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Rubrics: Transparency, Reliability, Efficiency

Definition

Rubrics are scoring guides or specific pre-established performance criteria in which each level of performance is described to contrast it with performance at other levels.

Uses

Rubrics:

  • Provide feedback and grade student work.
  • Help students understand the targets for their learning.
  • Help students learn standards of quality for a particular assignment.
  • Help students make dependable judgments about their own work that can inform improvement.

Types

There are two types of rubrics – analytic and holistic. An analytic rubric is used to assess more than one content area at different levels of performance. A holistic rubric targets a single area and is used to assess a whole work or product considering multiple factors. DePaul's Teaching Commons explaines these, as well as a subset of analytic rubrics called "developmental rubrics."

And this document provides even more detail on the subsets and guides construction of the two types.

PDF icon Utah Valley University types_of_rubrics.pdf

Features

Rubrics contain three essential features: evaluation criteria, quality definitions, and a scoring strategy. They generally exist as tables comprising a description of the task being evaluated, row headings outlining the criteria being evaluated, column headings identifying the different levels of performance, and a description of the level of performance in the boxes of the table.

Rubric from Development of an elective course in veterinary medicine with focus in communication.

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