Anne E. Belcher Director, Office for Teaching Excellence

Common sense questions If you do not know what is expected from you, how do you know how to perform? If you do not have criteria to use, on what did you base your evaluation? “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else” (Campbell, 1974).

What is a rubric? A scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work A list of “what counts” A document in which the evaluator specifies the level of performance expected—may be words (excellent, good, needs improvement) or numerical scores (1, 2, 3, 4)—the points are added up to form a total score which is then converted to a grade

Elements of a rubric Guidelines for the learner/evaluatee as to what is expected of him/her Evaluation criteria which will be used to evaluate the performance Description of points to be assigned, which should reflect the importance of each criterion

Important Rule for using rubrics Should be given to the student prior to his/their implementation of the assignment—can thus be viewed as an instructional guide and assessment tool This keeps the influence of extraneous factors such as writing ability, mechanics and rater subjectivity to a minimum

Types of rubrics (see handouts) Holistic – score based on how closely it matches the scorer’s description of the outcome/product Analytic – focuses on individual elements of an ideal response to a question; final score is a total of points assigned to each element; provides information about student’s strengths and weaknesses

Uses of rubrics Evaluation of written assignments Evaluation of group work Evaluation of classroom participation Evaluation of larger projects

References McDonald, M.E. (2007). The nurse educator’s guide to assessing learning outcomes. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, Publishers. Oermann, M.H. & Gaberson, K.B. (2009). Evaluation and testing in nursing education. New York: Springer Publishing Company. Tips for encouraging student participation in classroom instruction.