Enhanced Rubrics in Canvas: Phase 1 Released and Future Enhancements

[RaviKoll]

Enhanced Rubrics: Reflecting on the Journey and the Road Ahead

Dear Canvas Community,

We’re excited to announce that the first phase of the enhanced rubrics in Canvas has been released. This is just the beginning, as we’ll be rolling out ongoing improvements and additional features incrementally as part of our continued work on this feature. Your dedication to education and commitment to continuous improvement inspire us every day. This journey has been shaped by your invaluable feedback, and we’re eager to update you on what has been released and what’s on the horizon.

A Journey Driven by Your Feedback

The rollout of the first phase of the new rubric experience marks a significant milestone in our ongoing mission to enhance assessment and feedback tools within Canvas. We want to extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who has shared their insights, whether it’s through detailed feedback, constructive criticism, or words of encouragement. Your input is the backbone of enhancements, and we are listening closely.

What’s Been Released: The New Rubric Experience

With the initial phase release of the enhanced rubrics, we aimed to create a more intuitive, user-friendly, and powerful tool for educators. Here are some key features that have been rolled out:

• Enhanced Rubric Creation and Management: The new Rubric Criteria Builder allows for a more streamlined process, including features like drag-and-drop functionality, rating order customization, and the ability to save rubrics as drafts, allowing you to work on them in stages and complete the creation process at a later time, or archive it to temporarily restrict its use until you choose to unarchive it.
  
  
• Improved Responsive Views in SpeedGrader: The SpeedGrader interface has been refined to offer vertical, horizontal, and traditional views, enhancing the grading experience on smaller devices. This update reflects our commitment to accessibility across all devices.
  
  
• Sub-Account and Course-Level Feature Option: Based on your feedback, we’ve implemented the ability to enable the new rubric experience at both the sub-account and course levels. This change provides admins and instructors with greater flexibility, allowing them to manage and test the feature with granular control across different sub-accounts or individual courses and experience the enhanced rubrics on a micro level. This will be available on production on 8/28. 

Challenges and Feedback: We’re Listening

While the new rubric experience has introduced several enhancements, we recognize that as a phased and ongoing development, it has raised some challenges. Since this is a feature preview, we expected and welcomed user feedback, which has been invaluable in identifying key concerns. We also acknowledge that some challenges may have stemmed from communication that didn’t fully convey that this is a rolling release still in progress.

• SpeedGrader Usability: We are aware of the issues with the rubric tray’s fixed width and the fixed height of rows in the traditional view. These elements can obscure content and require unnecessary scrolling, especially on narrower screens. We are actively working on improvements to ensure a smoother experience, especially when working with rubrics that have more than five ratings. To enhance usability, we are removing the Tray and placing the new Enhanced Rubrics UI back within the sidebar. Additionally, we are eliminating limitations around different Rubric views, ensuring that the traditional rubric assessment view is always available. These changes will help maintain a seamless experience, even with more complex rubrics.
• Performance Issues: Some users have experienced lag and slow performance in SpeedGrader, particularly when filling out rubrics. Our team is actively investigating these issues, and we are committed to optimizing performance for a smoother grading experience.
  
• Vertical and Horizontal Views: While these views were introduced to enhance mobile responsiveness, we recognize that their current implementation can be confusing. We are reviewing feedback and exploring ways to make these views more intuitive. 

Upcoming Enhancements: What’s Next?

We are not resting on our laurels. Here’s what you can expect in the near future:

• Import and Export Rubrics: By October, we will introduce new functionality for managing rubrics. First, you will be able to upload a CSV file to create one or more rubrics simultaneously on the rubrics home page. Additionally, you can download existing rubrics from the rubrics home page to a CSV file. For assignments, instructors can download rubrics based on specific criteria, selecting all rubrics, those that are currently scored or unscored, or filtering by submission date range, and then upload them back as needed.
  
  
• Copy To / Rubric Sharing: In addition to import and export functionality, we are implementing a "Copy To" feature, which will allow instructors to share rubrics across different courses seamlessly. This will make it easier for educators to maintain consistency in their grading criteria across multiple courses. The existing functionality to add rubrics from any course within the assignment section will remain available.
  
  
• New experience on Assignments: The enhanced rubric experience will be accessible when adding or creating a new rubric from the assignment. This is existing functionality, and the new experience will replace the old interface, providing a more cohesive and streamlined workflow when you have enhanced rubrics enabled.
  
  
• Student Self-Assessments: While this feature is not included in the phase 1 release, it is scheduled for a December rollout. Once available, it will enable students to self-assess their work, promoting greater self-reflection and personal growth.

And this is not all—we have more exciting features planned for the future! We will continue to provide updates as these enhancements are developed and released.

A Continued Commitment to Excellence

As we continue to refine and enhance the rubric experience, we want to express our deep appreciation for your ongoing support. Your feedback is instrumental in driving these improvements, and we are committed to delivering a tool that meets and exceeds your expectations.

Please keep sharing your thoughts, concerns, and suggestions. Together, we are shaping the future of Canvas, ensuring that it remains a powerful and flexible platform that supports your educational goals.

Thank you for being an essential part of this journey. We look forward to your continued engagement and to delivering even more enhancements in the months to come.

Warm Regards,

Ravi Koll