[ARCHIVED] Default scoring rubrics for outcomes

eric_orton
Community Contributor

I went looking for information about how Canvas calculates outcome mastery, and in this post learned the following:

If a student's outcome score ends up to be a decimal, the score levels are calculated based on half of the outcome mastery threshold. For example, if the mastery threshold is 3 points, half of 3 is 1.5. Scores between 1.6 and 2.9 are counted near mastery, while scores less than 1.5 are considered remedial.

My understanding of this is that the range of near mastery is roughly half the distance from the bottom of the scale to mastery. To me, this seems like too wide a range. I'd like near mastery to mean "You're almost there," not "You're as close to ignorance as you are to mastery." In other words, if I have the following scale, I'd rather near mastery was more like 2.3 or so to 2.9.

1 = You've made at least some effort, but demonstrate little to no competence (no zeros in my rubrics; if any reasonable attempt was submitted you get at least one point)

2 = You've got some understanding, but you're still below expectations

3 = Basic competence that meets expectations (this level is set as "mastery" for the outcome)

4 = Performance/competence that exceeds expectations

Is there any way of changing the calculation of "near mastery" to achieve this? Or, barring that, what would be the pros and cons of setting the four points of the scale at something like 0, 1, 3, and 4 (with 3 still being mastery) so that, mathematically, the bottom end of near mastery would fall somewhere between the second and third points on the scale, not between the first and second points? Or, am I not understanding how this works?

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