Steps for Creating a Rubric

How do I design a rubric?

Begin with reviewing your learning outcomes to determine which are being assessed in the current work. Consider what you are asking student to demonstrate in their work. This will help identify the criteria and descriptions of performance for each level.

Generally, a good rubric will have 3-5 performance levels; distinct, meaningful labels for criteria; and performance level descriptions that are observable and measurable. Refining the rubric may involve applying various iterations till the rubric accurately assesses how and what you asked students to do.

Step 1: determine the type of rubric to create

Think about assignment characteristics, how students will use the rubric for assignment completion, and if the assignment will require formative or summative feedback, or both.

Step 2: determine the criteria

Write a list of criteria that students can use during assignment completion and that you will use in assessing students’ work.

Step 3: describe the criteria

Depending on the type of rubric you are using, describe elements you are assessing for each criterion.

Step 4: determine performance levels and write appropriate descriptors

Depending on the type of rubric you are using, determine the number of performance levels and, starting with the highest level, describe the performance expectations for each criterion.

Step 5: create a rubric grid

Using the criteria, performance descriptions and levels create the rubric grid (table);

1. enter the criteria down the first column,
2. enter performance level headings across the first row, and
3. enter each criterion’s description for the highest level and make revisions for additional levels to complete the rubric.

Grading scale (level) options

Choosing a good list of words for the levels in a rubric can really help instructors and students as they use the rubric. Excellent, Good, Poor are often used to describe the levels, but there are many other options.

Levels
4	3	2	1	0
Exemplary	Excellent	Acceptable	Unacceptable	No evidence
Exceeds expectations	Meets expectations	Progressing	Not there yet	No evidence
Excellent	Good	Needs Improvement	Unacceptable	No evidence
Superior	Good	Fair	Needs work	No evidence
Sophisticated	Highly Competent	Fairly Competent	Not Yet Competent	No evidence
Distinguished	Proficient	Intermediate	Novice	No evidence
Mastering	Achieving	Developing	Emerging	No evidence
Always true	Often true	Sometimes true	Rarely true	Never true

Once you’ve used your rubric you may have noted some aspects that need refinement. Its common to continually revise a rubric each offering or modify aspects of it for other purposes. Over time, you may have a suite of rubrics for various purposes; assessing student work in discussion forums, presentations, papers, visual assignments, various assignments, etc.

The four basic elements of a rubric are:

1. Task (outside of the table) description of the assignment;
2. Scale (table columns) degree of proficiency observed – denoting levels of achievement (performance), 3 or 5, may also include column for comments;
3. Criteria (table rows) elements being measured – specify the knowledge or skills being assessed (also called dimensions); and
4. Descriptions (table cells) observable characteristics of performance – that indicate the level of performance for each criterion.

To this we can add Points and Comments.

These elements are often presented in tabular format for ease of scoring with the comments column being optional.

Task

Task is description (or summary of the description) of the assignment students were asked to complete, as outlined in syllabus or course. Specifying the task helps the grader focused on the purpose of the work submitted for assessment.

Scale (level)

The grading scale can be interpreted as the level (or degree) of performance, success or degree of completion assessed in the student’s work for each criteria.

The levels may be written in numerals or as labels, or a combination thereof. It is important for the user to understand what the levels represent. Choose terms that denote positive, active descriptions, e.g. mastering, achieving, developing, emerging. Or adopt terms that are perhaps less judgmental and competitive, such as very high, satisfactory, needs work.

Typically, scales are presented with highest level on the left, descending to the lowest level on the right. Include a column for indicating no evidence of criterion found. Here are a few examples of levels.

Criteria

The criteria denote the concepts and elements of the work being assessed while reflecting the learning outcomes and the underlying knowledge, skills or attitudes being assessed, as outlined in the task description (the assignment instructions). There should be at least 3 criteria; though some opt for more. The criteria should focus on important aspects of the work being assessed. The more in-depth your assessment the more criteria you may have. In some cases, the criteria may contain multiple dimensions with detailed aspects. For example, for a video presentation, you may have 3 criteria, one each for video production, communication, and content. Then these criterion may each have 3 or more specific criteria (or dimensions). Student learning outcomes are assessed by determining how students’ work compares to the descriptions (performance indicators).

Weighting criteria
Some rubrics place higher importance on some criteria by including a weighting or factor. Instead of all criteria having an equal weight of 1, some may be given a weight of 3 or 4, etc. In doing so, the overall value of the criterion is multiplied by the weight when calculating the total mark for the work.
For example a criterion with a weight of 3 on a five-point rubric would generate values of 15,12, 9, 6, and 3; representing the sum of 3×5, 3×4, 3×3, 3×2, and 3×1, respectively.

Descriptions

The descriptions, descriptors, in each cell (criterion – level matrix) indicate the quality of the performance level for each criterion. They should be of sufficient detail that differentiating between the levels is easy when assessing the work. They allow the grader to observe how student’s work aligns with the descriptions of performance. This leads to a judgement of the work’s quality. They should be written using observable and measurable terms (behavioral).

Start with writing the highest level of performance, then the lowest (before zero), the fill in the levels in between. Adjust the language to illustrate the decreasing or increasing degree of performance for each criterion tp ensure they are parallel. If using multiple criteria grouped together, be sure to include statements for each aspect being assessed. This will ensure the rubric is balanced.

Points

The points field denotes the grade assigned based on the performance level chosen for each criterion. Electronic rubrics may generate the points automatically and provide a total. In some cases, where weighting criteria is used, the points reflect the result of the weight multiplied by the performance level for each criterion. This feature is usually available in LMS rubric tools.

Comments

An additional column could be added to record comments relating to the criterion or in a separate comments field at the bottom of the rubric for more general comments on the work as a whole.

Resource created by: Jane C. and Denise C.

Originally Published: August 4, 2023

Last Updated: July 16, 2024