Rubric comments

[jmerriam]

Is there any way to add a comments section at the bottom of a rubric? I don't want to use the free-form comments, because I want students to see that...but I'd like to add my own general comments.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi there, @jmerriam ...

Unfortunately, there isn't an area to add your own comments.  What is your use case scenario for wanting something like this?  Are the comments more general in nature that are directed toward everyone and should be seen as they are working on the assignment ... and *before* you start grading the assignment?  Or, are the comments directed to individual students after the assignment has been submitted to you?  If you want to add comments after the assignment has been submitted, you could do this a couple ways via the SpeedGrader.

• How do I use a rubric to grade submissions in Spee... - Canvas Community (check out the section on "Complete Rubric" and the illustration with label #6 where you can leave comments for a specific criterion)
• How do I leave feedback comments for student submi... - Canvas Community

I'm not sure if this has completely answered your question, and maybe I've completely missed the boat here...so if I'm not understanding your question, my apologies.  Hopefully, though, this will be of help.  Looking forward to hearing back from you...thanks!  Take care...be well.

[jmerriam]

Yes, your 2nd idea is correct, Chris: to comment for that particular student.

May I paint you a scenario? I have students record their speeches and post their videos on the Discussion Board. So, if I've attached the rubric to the speech assignment, does it automatically come up when I click on the student's video? Or do I access it another way so I can fill it out?  Also, someone else mentioned the illustration with the #6 comment box...but my rubric doesn't have that. Does it only appear after I've filled out the rubric with the points? (Sorry to sound so dense, but I've never used rubrics with Canvas before!)

Joan

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi @jmerriam ...

Thanks for the additional information/explanation.  No matter if you have a graded discussion or a graded assignment that you are using for students to submit the work to you, the process to grade the assignment using a rubric should be relatively the same.  For example, when I go to the SpeedGrader for either a graded discussion or a graded assignment, I can go to a specific student (even a student who has not yet submitted anything), click on the "View Rubric" button to look at the rubric that was attached to the graded discussion or graded assignment, and I could enter in scores or comments.  You don't need to put a score in for any of the criteria before you can comment.  Also, it's quite possible that your rubric has more columns than what your screen can show inside the SpeedGrader...so you have a couple options:

• You should see a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the rubric within the SpeedGrader.  If you scroll all the way over to the right, you should see a column labeled "Pts", and that is where you'll see the little chat bubble icons that you can click on to add comments for a particular criterion.
• There is also a vertical gray bar that separates the main portion of the SpeedGrader from the right side which displays the rubric and other grading information.  You'll see three dots in that gray bar.  You can click and drag that gray bar as far out to the left as you want to expand the view of your rubric from within the SpeedGrader.

I think this short video tutorial will help, Joan.  Rubrics Overview (Instructors) - Canvas Community  Check out the 3:29 mark of this video which shows how you can grade an assignment with a rubric via the SpeedGrader.  This video tutorial may also help...starting at the 1:45 mark.  SpeedGrader Overview (Instructors) - Canvas Community

Hope this helps!  Take care...

[jmerriam]

This is  HUGE help, Chris...thanks so much!!

[Ron_Bowman]

@jmerriam 

Here is some more information you may want to use.  When I create a rubric for my programming class, I put in as a last line a criteria that has 0 points listed for the two required values.  There is a comment box for it as @Chris_Hofer  mentioned in his example.  You can use that comment box to put in generic comments regarding the assignment that may not be covered by the rubric.  and if you want to subtract points from their score you can put a negative score in the far right box (above the comment box).  I do this in my programming class because I create a rubric for what I want the students to do and then they go off on wild tangents and do things not covered by the rubric.  An example is below - this is in the view rubric during grading - I have already clicked on the comment box to add it:

Furthermore, I suggest that you look into canvancements - especially the ones for rubrics (rubric sorter) and Quiz-Wiz(auto expands the comment box horizontally when you start typing) under the quizzes link.  Once you use them you will never want to go back to the old way.

Here is the link: https://github.com/jamesjonesmath/canvancement  These are "Perfectly Safe" (meaning use at your own risk, but myself and several others have had no ill effects from them) to use and are made by @James who is a long time member on this forum.  

[Chris_Hofer]

@Ron_Bowman ...

Thanks for chiming in!  Very helpful information.  A couple notes about your comments:

• I've found that if you have zeros for both your "Full Marks" and "No Marks" boxes ... even if you don't use those when grading, it seems like if you click on either one of them when grading via the SpeedGrader, they both get selected because they are both set to equal (zero) points.  Have you found this to be the case, too?
• I'm sure you've seen this page, but @kona has a page with all of @James' "Canvancements" (Canvas Enhancements) all in one spot: Canvancements - Canvas Enhancements.  That GitHub link is a great resource, too.  Thanks for sharing that!

[Ron_Bowman]

@Chris_Hofer 

I do not select the 0 points for that criteria.  I just enter in the negative points based on the comments.  I just use it for putting in the special grading comments for the assignment.

As for canvancements - I have seen Kona's page. I like that it links to all of the forum questions related to the topics (although I just checked and there is at least one broken link on there - it is the sorting rubrics link) James' Canvancement page though is where all the enhancements are listed.

[mcamann]

A student informed me just now that although she is able to view the rubric for her graded assignment in my course, she cannot see the additional comments that I typed for her inside this rubric.  She says that she had the same problem in another course, and that instructor couldn't find a way to make the comments visible to her.

Of course my purpose in typing specific comments into the rubric is so that students can view this additional feedback.  Has anyone else noticed this problem of students being unable to view comments that the instructor typed into the rubric?  Is there another place where I need to report the problem?

[Ron_Bowman]

@mcamann 

I just checked this out with my dummy student, and if I put comments in for the rubric parts, I can see the comments.

I can also see the comments submitted overall for the assignment.  So, I am not sure what is happening with your environment.

I will state that I did find out that if the grades are not posted, then obviously they cannot see their score or the comments.   The student said they could view the rubric, but is that just the rubric which they can see.  Or is it the rubric with the scores?  If it is the rubric with the scores and just the grades are showing but not the comments, then there is an issue somewhere.  I would check to make sure that posting method is automatic and that all grades are posted.

[ckhead]

Can students see the chat bubble comments (the ones you circled in yellow). I just want comments for my own records of how i scored a rubric item rather than something that will be emailed to students. thanks. 

[Chris_Hofer]

@ckhead ...

Yes, when a student clicks on the "Grades" course navigation menu, he/she can then navigate to the name of the assignment.  Assuming that the instructor has added comments to the rubric, there will be an icon to click on (red arrow).  That will display the rubric on the "Grades" page for the assignment.  The comments (in the red circle) will be shown under the appropriate rubric row.

I hope this will be of some help to you.

[ckhead]

Thanks very much. Just to complete my understanding, the text I put in comment boxes outside (below) the rubric is sent by email to the students. Correct?  Does it get sent only after I release their grade to be viewable or do they get the comment as soon as i submit it? thanks in advance. 

[Chris_Hofer]

@ckhead ...

Notifications about any kind of grading are configured per user.  Check out the "Account" >> "Notifications" screen in your Canvas environment.  Students can set up their notifications how they want...including via e-mail...or maybe they don't want to be notified via e-mail.  It's entirely up to them.  On the "Notifications" screen, take a lok at items like:

• Grading
• All Submissions
• Late Grading
• Submission Comments

If you hover your mouse over these words on the "Notifications" screen, you'll see a little pop-up description about what the notification does.  Notifications can be set up to be sent immediately, daily, weekly, or completely off.

• How do I manage my Canvas notification settings as a student?
• How do I manage my Canvas notification settings as an instructor?

(These Guides are essentially the same...just for the two different roles.)

Does this help to answer your question?

[jmerriam]

Wow, fellas...you've BOTH given me some terrific information, so thank you for going so far above & beyond in answering my question.

I also sent the "Canvancements" link to one of my tech guru colleagues who's groused about the improvements he thinks Canvas needs to make...I think he too will find it really helpful!

Thanks again!

Warmly,
Joan

[mcamann]

Please disregard my message.  It turns out that I had been looking at a rubric for a different student.  Of course students can't see comments intended for someone else!