[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.

304 Comments
themidiman
Community Champion

Users at our institution have had a VERY difficult time transitioning away from the legacy Turnitin API for this very reason. I've been telling them that assessment tools often exist in the external 3rd party assignment tool (in this case Turnitin) and may conflict with the ideologies that Canvas was created by. However the rubrics in the online submission type clearly outweigh the ones that may exist in Turnitin (according to those who have been using the legacy API up until now).

My hope is that Instructure and Turnitin can work something out that will allow the Online submission type to be used along with the LTI API version of their tool in a more seamless fashion so that it matches the user experience that is had via the legacy API.

While the Canvas and Turnitin blog posting by Dallas Hulsey is awesome, it cannot overcome the perceived limitations of the new way of working with the LTI API version. Lack of the ability for Canvas to conveniently display rubrics to the student is an absolutely huge disappointment thus far.

lvm55
Community Novice

I would love to see this workflow improvement as well!

I wanted to add that it appears that you can do the workaround starting from an existing LTI assignment:

- Change the submission type to something else (like Online submission)

- Re-save the assignment settings

- Attach a Rubric per the usual instructions

- Go back in and switch the submission type back to LTI.

In my limited testing, this allowed me to see the Rubric in the Speedgrader, without permanently affecting the hookup to the LTI tool and without messing with the existing submissions.

This workflow (understandably) makes everyone nervous, especially when students have already made submissions to the LTI assignment, so it would be great to be able to add the Rubric without changing the assignment settings.

emily
Community Champion

We are hoping to do a fair bit of LTI development for assignments that need to be graded by rubrics in Canvas. This would be a huge help!

buddyhall
Community Champion

Just because we need something from an external tool, doesn't mean we want to entirely leave the Canvas interface and workflow!

cgaudreau
Community Contributor

Smiley Happy

And another reason why I love this community! Thank you for posting your workflows and suggestions. And of course I came here to late, but voted up because this is a good discussion to have.

jsparks
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

Hello Canvas Family,

This discussion is great and a process we are thinking about at the moment. We are looking to adapt the workflow to allow for rubrics on all sorts of assignments. I don't have a timeline for this particular feature, but know this is something are currently investigating. There will be more to come in a short while.

Jason

brueckert
Community Champion

Thank you Deactivated user

Many have contributed their two cents on the importance of adapting Canvas to the new Turnitin LTI workflow, but to emphasize this further, I've had many conversations with former heavy Turnitin users at my school who are literally starting to lobby for us to migrate to a different LMS based on this messy user experience. Some of this is end of the school year stress messing with emotions, but the frustration is real. I'm hoping that a solution can be in place sometime prior to the new school year, if not this Summer to allow us trainers to be familiar prior to the return of faculty.

Again, thanks for the update.

Jeff_F
Community Coach
Community Coach

May I opine that Turnitin is but the cherry on the cake or ice cream?  For me, if TII stopped working altogether it still wouldn't be a reason to change the LMS. But yes, the workflow is begging for improvement.

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kkarnani
Community Novice

I'd like this feature request to go through so it makes it easier for faculty to go in and copy rows through a rubric instead of having to go in and add 5 ratings over and over again, they could just copy and past the rating section.

LEASUSAN
Community Champion

This wasn't on the plan for development for "the next 6 months" as of 12 months ago. Any word on whether this MUCH-NEEDED feature will get some attention soon?

I've been working so much with rubrics and outcomes (as you will have the opportunity to hear at InstructureCon 2016), but these two features are SO INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING. What is the use of measuring if they're impossible for faculty to use?