Rubric with Point Ranges

[dcollier]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

Please add the ability to assign point ranges within a rubric rating. I came from Blackboard which supported this feature and it was very useful in distinguishing levels of proficiency.

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through Canvas Production Release Notes (2017-10-07) 

[garth]

This idea has been rolling around in my head.

It seems to me that the idea of a "criteria" with "ratings" is that it makes it easy for the instructor to determine how to grade the student based on the requirements, and makes it easy for the student to understand how they were graded and where they fell short.

If you allow for a range of points on a "rating", then doesn't that suggest that the rating itself should be a "criteria"?

It suggests to me that there are multiple scoreable requirements for that rating, making it a "criteria" with multiple ratings to define the possible points for each requirement.

If I am only given partial points for a "rating", which requirement in that rating did I miss?  Why did I get partial points?

By allowing for partial points, it would seem to be introducing grey area.

I'm not an expert by any means, please be patient as I try to wrap my head around this. 

Sometimes my brain is too rigid logically and I think too "black-and-white", sorry.

Learn me up : )

[Stef_retired]

 @garth , these are awesome questions that are part of my thought process when I create my rubrics (which I consider a work in progress, because I'm always tweaking them from semester to semester).  I assign 100 points to all of my assignments, so I want the rubric criteria rows to add up to 100--which means that I might have one row worth 45 (e.g. Content), another worth 20 (Structure) and a third worth 35 (Grammar & Mechanics). Within those rows, I've got probably five cells--my ratings--and within each of those cells, I not only use a range but also quantify what underlies the points possible in that range. For example, the highest score in Grammar would be "Perfect, no errors"  (e.g. Full Marks). The next cell would read "3-5 errors." (The numbers in those cells depend on the length of the assignment; I allow fewer errors for a 300-word essay than I would in a 2000-word paper, so I use different rubrics for those two assignments). And, when I grade the work, I actually mark the errors on the students' documents, so students can quickly count and see, "Yes, I had 4 grammatical errors, so I can see why I got a partial score for that cell." It's not always possible to quantify a criterion, but I will say that after five years and thousands of students, I haven't had a single question on the order of, "Why did I get partial points for that criterion?"

You can see the screenshots of some of my rubrics upthread. I'd find built-in support for ranges helpful in speeding up my grading workflow.

Does this help clarify it?

[garth]

stefaniesanders The additional perspective helped to clarify your screen shots in my mind.

Totally understand, thank you : )

[mcsmith]

Thank you so much for the additional information each of you provided. As mentioned there are some work arounds to accomplish point ranges. Thank you stefaniesanders for your input there! I loved reading the discussions on this post. We are looking into a variety of ways to enhance rubrics: feedback only (i.e. no points), weighted rubrics, rubrics with percents, and point ranges.  The team responsible for this work is already at capacity with the outcome alignment and quizzes work. We will be moving this idea to Product Radar, so don't forget to bookmark or follow it to receive updates.

[newbym]

I would be curious to know how this works for you when grading. When I setup a rubric and selected a cell with a point range and then manually changed the score down (but still in the range) the cell no longer stayed highlighted for students when viewing the graded rubric. What has your experience been?

[Stef_retired]

 @newbym ‌, yes, what you've described is indeed the case. I sidestep that by adjusting the total points (in the grade field at the top), not the points in each row of the rubric. If you adopt this workflow, the cells you have highlighted in the rubric remain highlighted. Students won't be able to see exactly what they received for each row of the rubric--but as long as the total points is higher than the sum of the points in each of the rows, students will not complain. I can vouch for that. I've used this approach to grade literally thousands of submissions, and have never received a single complaint or question about the discrepancy. 🙂

[newbym]

Thanks Stephanie. I worked through this again but I guess I am not clear on how students don’t see the scores in each row. For my test student I saw the manual score I adjusted. When showing the rubric the cell I highlighted stayed as selected. However the Point cell to the right still displays the max points involved. Can you clarify?

[Stef_retired]

 @newbym ‌, to be honest, I'm not sure what you're doing or seeing, or how you've created the rubric ranges. I suggest you post a question in the https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers?sr=search&searchId=f5afdb18-c454-4c00-8507-8d4e2cb...‌ space with a screencast so we can help you out.

[joealkus]

I too am a recent convert to canvas (because my university unilaterally changed LMS systems).  I think Canvas' current rubric is insufficient and I would love to see a sliding scale similar to Blackboard.  Has anyone used a rubric in lieu of the online Canvas rubric that has a sliding scale?

[erinhmcmillan]

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through Canvas Production Release Notes (2017-10-07)