Remove Rubric from assignment issue

[rachel_bachman]

I just did a little experiment. I created a rubric from the assignment page. When I went to delete the rubric (using the trash can icon) the rubric was completely removed from the course (I checked the manage rubric area).

I then created a rubric from the "Manage Rubric" area. I added it to the assignment (same assignment as above). And then I deleted the rubric from the assignment (using the trash can icon). This time when I went back to check the manage rubric area in outcomes, the rubric was still there. 

To me that is really weird behavior. It seems like no matter where I create the rubric, it should stay in the course even if I want to remove it from an assignment. 

I am curious if others have the same experience and I am curious as to why it behaves like this. Or, am I doing something weirdly wrong?

Any thoughts/comments would be appreciated.

[rachel_bachman]

ADDITION: I did a little more playing around with it and found if I make the rubric from the assignment and then go to "manage rubrics" in "outcomes", edit the rubric and then choose "Use this rubric for assignment grading" (even though I chose that at the assignment area) then if I delete the rubric from the assignment, the rubric will stay in the course. However, when I do that I get a weird pop up: "Change assignment point to match rubric". I don't understand why that pop up happens since I've not changed point values for anything when I am editing it.

[Robbie_Grant]

 @rachel_bachman ,

Were you able to find an answer to your question? I am going to go ahead and mark this question as answered because there hasn't been any more activity in a while so I assume that you have the information that you need. If you still have a question about this or if you have information that you would like to share with the community, by all means, please do come back and leave a comment.  Also, if this question has been answered by one of the previous replies, please feel free to mark that answer as correct.

Robbie

[adriennefan_arr]

Original poster ( @rachel_bachman ‌) stated below that she did not find a fix for her issue. Should this be changed back to "Unanswered"?

[sspeer]

Hi  @rachel_bachman ‌, 

We came across a similar issue when importing a Rubric, adding it to an assignment, and then deleting it, it deleted it from the course completely and not just the assignment. Did you ever come across a fix for you problem?

Thanks!

[rachel_bachman]

Hi Stephanie,

Unfortunately, I did not find a fix for this problem.

Rachel

[kcornwell]

Same issue, would love a solution

[christopher_hod]

Is there a way to remove a rubric from an assignment without deleting the rubric? If rubric A is used in the assignment and I want to switch to rubric B which already exists, how to I make the swap?

[kendall_hunter]

I just came across this problem. Another situation where Canvas handles things in an inefficient way. The solution is to allow even an assignment-made rubric be unassociated without complete removal. Make it happen!

[srandall3]

So, yes, had this issue recently. Fortunately, I keep my feathers numbers for just such an emergency (as Foghorn Leghorn used to say). What this means is I have all my rubrics built in a prior course or "sandbox course" and can import them back in at will. This is NOT a solution, but rather a work-around until there is a solution. Another work around is to keep master-copies of all your rubrics in Excel spreadsheets, to be imported with tools like this on:

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructional-Designer/Importing-Rubrics-from-a-Spreadsheet/ba-p/...

... and when you remove/delete a rubric from an assignment, just reload it back in from the local master-set.

In the best of all worlds, there would be an option to "detach rubric from assignment", and a separate option to "delete rubric".

I'm very disappointed (but not terribly surprised) this wasn't an option from day-one, and more disappointed it's still not an option after so much time.

[SteveCovello]

The solution is surprisingly simple.

Edit the settings for the assignment to make it a non-graded assignment, then save. No more rubric! 

If you still need to make a graded assignment, edit the settings again and make it graded, but don't add a rubric. If you need to attach a different rubric, edit the settings to make it graded again and then add a different rubric.

Note that this should only be done with assignments that do not already have student submissions!! You will likely wipe out their grades or worse.

[jawmedina]

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@rachel_bachman wrote:

I just did a little experiment. I created a rubric from the assignment page. When I went to delete the rubric (using the trash can icon) the rubric was completely removed from the course (I checked the manage rubric area).

I then created a rubric from the "Manage Rubric" area. I added it to the assignment (same assignment as above). And then I deleted the rubric from the assignment (using the trash can icon). This time when I went back to check the manage rubric area in outcomes, the rubric was still there. 

When created from the Assignment, a rubric is only attached to that assignment. If it is attached to other assignments, the rubric shouldn't get deleted from the Manage Rubric Area when it gets deleted from the original assignment.

When it is created in the Manage Rubric Area, it is not assignment dependent so it will stay there even if it is deleted from the assignments. 

[SteveCovello]

@jawmedina This is not the case. I experienced this exact problem where a preset rubric in the Rubric area was deleted from the course after I had trashcanned it from one of the assignments it was attached to (thus, deleting it from all the other similar assignments). I always create the rubric first, then attach it. The solution I proposed is, in my mind, the safest one to pursue.

[crapp1]

Try making sure the rubric you are deleting with the trash can is attached to another assignment. I duplicated the assignment and the rubric was now attached to two assignments. I deleted the rubric using the trash can on the original assignment and attached (or created) a new rubric. I left the other assignment unpublished to retain the other rubric. If you delete the assignment, you delete the rubric (unless it's attached to another assignment).

I hope that helps. 

Try this:

1. Duplicate Assignment
2. Delete Rubric and Attach New Rubric to the original assignment
3. Keep the copy with the rubric you want to save unpublished. 

I hope that helps. 

[60980756]

Hi all. I had this same problem and found another workaround that doesn't involve keeping duplicate assignments. 

1. In your course, go to Settings > Import Content > Copy a Canvas course
2. Look up your very same course and "Select specific content"
3. When the select content button appears, there is a "Rubrics" category. Find the rubrics you want,  check the associated boxes, and Import.
4. When the process is done the duplicate rubrics will appear tin the "Rubrics" area of your course with names like "Original Rubric (1)" But importantly, they will behave like rubrics added from the Rubrics section, not like Rubrics created in an assignment. 
5. Delete the original rubrics from the assignments.
6. Rename the duplicate rubrics to remove the (1)
7. Add the rubrics back to the assignments whenever you're ready for students to see them. 

[srandall3]

This sort of hints at a second level problem ... (at the risk of pulling the topic onto a tangent)

I really don't like the "trash can" icon. To me, it means "trash it", but to the programmer that could mean a lot of things: delete? disconnect? disassociate? make it smelly? disintegrate? burn it all?

If we are lucky, the app programmer was smart enough to include a mouse-over note, which this does. But it just says "Delete Rubric", which, as we've seen, is a little too vague for my comfort. Wiping things out of existence shouldn't be that easy, and every button should err on the side of the safe option ... lots of annoying "Are you sure?" messages, or better still: "You are about to completely delete this rubric from existence everywhere no matter what it's attached to. Are you good with that?  [] yes [] no"

For that matter, any button that's so ambiguous that you feel the need to go double check to see what it did, isn't designed very well.

Connecting a rubric to an assignment should only ever be about the connection, NOT the existence. Maybe the button shouldn't be a "trash can" at all, but rather a "broken link" symbol and ALL IT DOES is disconnect ... "No disintegrations!"

Engineering philosophy: Make it hard to break and easy to fix.

[Chris_Hofer]

@srandall3 …

This might be a great opportunity for you to create a Feature Idea here in the Community if you’d like to see the trash can icon changed for rubrics.  That way, if others would also like to see this change, they have the opportunity to provide their own feedback and give you idea a star rating.  Here are a few Guides on the process for you to look through:

• How do idea conversations work in the Instructure Community?
• What is the feature development process for Instructure products?
• How do I create a new idea conversation in the Instructure Community?

I hope these Guides will be of some help to you.  Sing out if you have any other questions about this.

[SteveCovello]

Well put. And if I may add to that, the trash can icon should NOT be used for BOTH "Remove" (in modules) and "Delete" (in Assignments).

[kylecage0]

Same problem! I just imported a rubric from another course. It was there in the Rubrics area. I attached it to an assignment. Then I realized I needed to edit the rubric and I didn't want to edit it from the assignment because that creates a duplicate. So I removed it from the assignment by clicking the trash can. Went to Rubrics and it was gone. 

[Chris_Hofer]

@kylecage0 ...

I could be wrong here, but I don't think editing the rubric that you had attached to your assignment would create a duplicate.  You should be able to edit your rubric (while it is attached to the assignment), and then save the changes you made.  When you removed the rubric from the assignment, it makes sense that you would not find it in the "Rubrics" screen...because it was no longer attached to any assignment.

If you wanted to try this, you could re-import that rubric into your course, create a new assignment (keep it unpublished), attach the rubric to it, and then make edits to the rubric.  This would be a good test on your end to see if a duplicate rubric was created...which shouldn't happen.

Hope this helps a bit.

[kylecage0]

@Chris_Hofer you're right except it does create a duplicate if it's a rubric that's used for multiple assignments. 

I think that we should be able to delete a rubric from an assignment (rubric attachment) without deleting it from the Rubrics page, which is what others have mentioned. Kinda like when you remove a page from a module but the page still exists under Pages. 

[Chris_Hofer]

@Chris_Hofer you're right except it does create a duplicate if it's a rubric that's used for multiple assignments. 

---

This hasn't always been my experience.  If I create a rubric on the "Rubrics" page and then attach it to multiple assignments, it does not create multiple rubrics.  The only different behavior I have seen in this example is that if you go back to the "Rubrics" screen, it will not allow you to edit the rubric from the course because it's being used by multiple assignments.  As soon as you remove the rubric from all assignments except one, then you can edit the rubric.  For example, here is a rubric called "USA" that I just created, and I attached it to two brand new assignments.  It did not create any duplicate "USA" rubrics.

I wonder if your course has some kind of invisible fragment of a course or something that it is remembering the name of your rubric and so it is then creating duplicates?  I've had something similar happen before, but I cannot say it's a constant thing...in my experience.

[kylecage0]

It only creates a duplicate if you edit the rubric from the assignment. 

The solution is like you said: remove the rubric from all but one of the assignments, then go to the Rubrics page, edit the rubric, then go back into each assignment and re-attach the rubric. This is a tedious and silly process. Canvas does a great job with so many things, but Rubrics is just not one of them. In Blackboard, I could manage a rubric that was attached to multiple assignments without all these unnecessary hoops. Discussion board rubrics could be updated in one spot - the Rubrics area - and it would automatically update the rubric in each discussion that was using it. 

[Chris_Hofer]

@kylecage0 

It only creates a duplicate if you edit the rubric from the assignment. 

---

I think we are on the same page.  In my testing of both scenarios...

Yes, if you are using the same rubric in multiple assignments, you will get the following message:

...which would create another rubric.  In my case, it created a new rubric called "USA (1)".

However, if a rubric is only attached to one assignment, you can edit the rubric while it is attached to the assignment, and it will not change the name of the rubric and will not create a duplicate.  🙂

[dmundorff]

I had two assignments using the same rubric. I wanted to change the rubrics on one of the assignments and add another one in the course. The only way to remove the rubric from the assignment I wanted to change was by deleting it, which would have deleted it from the course altogether.  So I renamed the rubric on the second assignment, which created a new rubric in the course. Then I deleted that one. Then I could attach the new rubric, and rubric 1 stayed intact. 

• Assignment 1: Rubric 1
• Assignment 2: Rubric 1 → Assignment 2: rename "Rubric 1" to "Rubric 1 temp" → Trash "Rubric 1 temp"
• Assignment 2: Rubric 2