Rubrics Tool

What is Possible with ICON’s Rubrics Tool?

Rubrics are descriptive assessment tools that assign a specific level or category to a learner’s performance.  Each level or category includes a description of what kind of performance would be in that level. If these descriptions are constructed well, the rubric will provide consistent grades regardless of the rater. This method of assessment allows for simpler and more transparent qualitative assessment of performance.

Evaluators use a rubric’s levels and definitions to determine the degree to which a learner has mastered a specific criterion. Rubrics also may be used as a formative tool for learners, as they give learners clear descriptions of what constitutes mastery-level performance.

With ICON's Rubrics tool, you can:

• Define ranges of proficiency and associate with percentage score or text (e.g., "Excellent").
• Define the criteria graders look for when assessing how successfully a student completes an activity.
• Evaluate student performance in a quiz, survey, discussion topic, grade item, or Dropbox assignment.

15 July 2008

Link to Desire2Learn's Documentation

Click here to open the documentation (PDF).

22 August 2007

Rubrics

Rubrics are the criteria graders look for when assessing how successfully a student completes a learning activity (quiz, survey, discussion topic, grade item, or Dropbox assignment). You define the ranges of proficiency and associate them with a percentage score or text (e.g., "Excellent"). The Rubrics tool is a separate tool that can be added to the navigation bar. There are two kinds of rubrics: Text and Numeric, and Text Only. (Only rubrics with numeric scores can be automatically evaluated in quizzes.)

Creating Rubrics

1. If you haven't already done so, add the Rubrics tool to the NavBar (See the Online Help Section Changing the Navigation Bar.)
2. Click Rubrics in the NavBar.
3. Click New.
4. Give your Rubric a title and description (optional).
5. Leave the “Don’t allow new associations with Rubric” box unchecked.
6. Select the Rubric type.
   1. Text and Numeric allows you to fill in both quantitative and qualitative evaluation criteria. If you want a rubric level to be automatically assigned based on a student's quiz score or score in a grade item, you must choose text and numeric.
   2. Text Only allows you to fill in only qualitative evaluation criteria.
7. Click Save.
8. Click Add Level (bottom).
9. Enter the Level name, Criteria, and optional Feedback for the first level—this is the lowest level in the Rubric.
10. Click Save.
11. Repeat steps 8-10 to create additional levels to complete the Rubric. For Text and Numeric rubrics, you will need to fill in the minimum percentage to complete each level except the first (which is 0%).
12. Save your Rubric.

Associating Activities with Rubrics

If you wish, you can associate an Activity in in a Quiz, Survey, Grade Item, Discussion Topic, or Dropbox folder with a Rubric.

For a Quiz or Survey:

1. Click Quizzes or Surveys in the NavBar.
2. Click the linked title of the quiz or survey.
3. Click on the Activities tab.
4. Click Add Activity.
5. Enter a name for the Activity.
6. Select Rubric from the Evaluation Type dropdown menu.
7. Select the rubric from the Rubric dropdown menu..
8. Choose the Achievement Threshold (the lowest level a student must achieve to pass).
9. If you want to assess students manually using this rubric, or if you're using a Text Only rubric, select Manually Evaluate. If you want the rubric to be scored automatically based on the score students receive on the quiz, de-select Manually Evaluate. You must be using a Text and Numeric rubric if you want to use automatic evaluation.
10. Click Save Activity.

For a dropbox folder:

1. Click Dropbox in the NavBar.
2. Click the linked title of the folder you will add the rubric to.
3. Click Edit Folder (top).
4. Click the Activities tab.
5. Click Add Activity.
6. Enter a name for the Activity.
7. Select Rubric from the Evaluation Type dropdown menu.
8. Select the rubric from the Rubric dropdown menu.
9. Select the Achievement Threshold (the lowest level a student must achieve to pass).
10. Dropbox folders must be manually evaluated.
11. Click Save Activity.

For a grade item:

1. Click Grades in the NavBar.
2. Click Manage Grades.
3. Click the linked title of the grade item you will add the rubric to.
4. Click the Activities tab.
5. Click Add Activity.
6. Enter a name for the Activity.
7. Select Rubric from the Evaluation Type dropdown menu.
8. Select the rubric from the Rubric dropdown menu.
9. Choose the Achievement Threshold (the lowest level a student must achieve to pass).
10. If you want to assess students manually using this rubric, or if you're using a Text Only rubric, select Manually Evaluate. If you want the rubric to be scored automatically based on the score students receive in the grade item, de-select Manually Evaluate. You must be using a Text and Numeric rubric if you want to use automatic evaluation.
11. Click Save Activity.

For a discussion topic:

1. Click Discussions in the NavBar.
2. Click the Edit Topic button to the right of the discussion item you will add the rubric to.
3. Click the Activities tab.
4. Click Add Activity.
5. Enter a name for the Activity.
6. Select the rubric from the Rubric drop down list.
7. Choose the Achievement Threshold (the lowest level a student must achieve to pass).
8. Discussion topics must be manually evaluated.
9. Click Save Activity.

Evaluating Learning Activites with Rubrics

For a dropbox folder:

1. Click Dropbox in the NavBar.
2. Click the linked title of the folder you will be evaluating.
3. To the right the name of the student whose submission you will evaluate, click Leave Feedback.
4. To enter personal feedback for this student, write your comments in the Feedback box.
5. If this dropbox has an “out of” value, enter a grade in the Score textbox.
6. Click Expand Evaluation.
7. Select the radio button next to the level this student achieved in the rubric(s) associated with this dropbox folder.  The achievement threshold (the lowest level the student needs to achieve to pass) is in bold.
8. Click Save.
9. The date you enter the feedback and the date the student views it will both display to the right of the student's name.

For a grade item:

1. Click Grades in the NavBar.
2. Click Enter Grades (left).
3. Click the Enter Grades icon to the right of the grade item name.
4. Enter student grades into the Grade column.
5. Click Save.
6. Click the Activities icon to the right of the student’s name.
7. In the Evaluate Activities pop-up window, click Expand Evaluation.  If you chose for this activity to be manually evaluated, click the radio button to the left of the rubric level this student achieved.  If you chose for this activity to be automatically evaluated, you’ll see a green checkmark to the left of the level this student achieved based on the percent grade he received. 
8. Repeat step seven for each associated rubric.
9. Click Save.  The Evaluate Activities pop-up window will close.
10. Back in the main window, click Save again and confirm.

For a quiz:

1. Click Quizzes in the NavBar.
2. Click the Grade Quiz icon to the right of the quiz name.
3. Make sure that all students' quiz attempts have been scored and marked as graded (See the online help section Grading Quizzes).
4. Click the link Overall Grade below a student's list of quiz attempts.
5. Click Expand Evaluation.  If you chose for this activity to be manually evaluated, click the radio button to the left of the rubric level this student achieved.  If you chose for this activity to be automatically evaluated, you’ll see a green checkmark to the left of the level this student achieved based on the score he received on the quiz. 
6. Repeat step six for each associated rubric.
7. Click Save. 
8. Click the right-facing arrow above the Save button to evaluate the next student.

For a discussion topic:

1. Click Discussions in the NavBar.
2. Click the Assess Topic icon to the right of the discussion topic.
3. Below the name of the student you will evaluate, click the linked name of the activity.
4. A pop-up window will open containing the activity details and the student's messages from this discussion topic. Select the rubric level achieved by the student from the Topic Rubric Value drop down list.
5. Click Save.
6. Click Close.
7. The rubric level you selected will appear to the right of the student's name. Click the next student's name and repeat steps 4-6.

Creating Multi-Level Rubrics

The word “rubric” often refers to a matrix with several rows and columns.  In ICON, however, rubrics can only have one row.  In order to create a multi-level rubric, you must create multiple rubrics in ICON, one for each row of your original rubric. You'll then need to associate each rubric with the tool (dropbox folder, discussion topic, etc.) that you'll be evaluating by creating an activity for each rubric.

15 July 2008