[Rubrics] Editing Capabilities for Rubrics

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas LMS

I would like to see some additional options for Rubrics.  Specifically, it would be nice to be able to:

 

  • Insert a new rubric row anywhere within an existing rubric.
  • Drag and drop an existing rubric row to another location in the same rubric.

 

Use case: I was building a rubric with 40+ rows for an instructor.  After about the 40th row of the rubric, I realized I had forgotten to add a criterion around row 20.  So, I had to delete rows 21 and beyond...insert the row I missed, and then re-add the rows I had initially added.  I soon learned you have to be really careful when building rubrics with lots of rows.

303 Comments
jhalpert
Community Novice

My co-teacher and I are using a new feature called Harmonize for students to submit videos and be able to comment on each other's. We grade those videos using a rubric in Canvas. But now the rubric won't show up because we're using an external tool. It would be great if there would be a solution to this that would allow the rubric to be attached to the assignment so students can see it even though we're using an external tool.

phillcam
Community Explorer

Chiming in that multiple language instructors at the University of Michigan would also like to see this improved workflow.

kas200
Community Participant

Yes, please, we need this! It would be so handy to be able to make edits without having to redo a bunch of work.

christiand
Community Explorer

It would be great to be able to insert a row in an existing rubric.

Can some of the code that works with Tables within the Rich Content Editor, be used to insert a row in an existing rubric? Delete a row? Etc.

Thanks,
Daniel Christian
Dir. of Instructional Services at the WMU-Cooley Law School | Author of the Learning Ecosystems blog

 

peg-employease
Community Explorer

We're new to Canvas and just coming up against this issue. 

It's quite obvious that the design functionality for rubrics is completely out of step with other areas of Canvas, despite this being flagged as an ongoing issue. The amount of time absorbed in this one rather small area of the course is mind boggling. 

Would love to know where this is in terms of getting onto the development road map for feature improvements.

physicslabmanag
Community Participant

I agree! This would be really useful!

deloris_foxwort
Community Member

I agree that this adjustment would make rubrics more accessible and user-friendly to instructors. It reduces the amount of work by preventing users from having to delete and recreate criteria for the rubric so it displays in the proper order. 

evansall
Community Explorer

This would be wonderful!  I would use this for Turn-it-in assignments!

Owen13
Community Novice

I agree with many here. Fixing this would be a real benefit. It looks like students can now view the rubric, though instructors can't see it without going into student view or removing the external tool. But the real worry to me is that the workaround of temporarily removing the external tool will affect students who've already submitted some work, or are in the process of submitting.

Instructors can still choose to have the same workflow as before if given this option. It's just they aren't so highly constrained to have a perfect rubric in place. Just adding details or comments to a rubric after you see common answers is really helpful, and those comments don't necessarily need to be viewed by all students ahead of time. We can and should anticipate some common answers, but that's not realistic to expect it all of the time. In which case, this workflow constraint reduces the time-saving usefulness of rubrics. I only assume others have asked this rhetorical question: if the workflow is so critical with external tools in place, as evidenced by this constraint, why is it less important without external tools in place, as evidenced by no constraint being there when not using external tools? It seems like either way, we should be able to add, fix, or tweak a rubric without such worry or difficulty, and just be mindful of what students can see when they submit.

tom_anfinson
Community Member

I totally agree. Being able to move and adjust rubrics is super helpful to teachers.