Additional Points Earned Box in Rubrics

[lindsayhaney]

Give Instructors the option to add a few extra points at the bottom of the rubric calculated into the total score if the instructor feels it's necessary. Maybe your student needed just a little bit of help to get to the next letter grade, and they deserved it. Give it to them. Instructors have the option to add additional points as they see appropriate in order to meet student needs.   

[lindsayhaney]

Also, why don't the points automatically load in in the speed grader after the rubric calculates it? 

[Stef_retired]

Thanks for sharing this idea, @lindsayhaney . Could you elaborate on the grading process you're using and how your rubric is designed? Instructors can create their own rubrics to allow as many criteria as they'd like, use point ranges for each criterion, and add points to the score as necessary before saving it, so we'd like to know more about how you're using rubrics to grade in Speedgrader.

[Stef_retired]

In response to your question under the idea, @lindsayhaney , rubric scores will load automatically in the grade field as long as the instructor has enabled the "Use this rubric for assignment grading" setting on the rubric. See the Select Rubric Settings section of  How do I add a rubric to an assignment? for details.

[lindsayhaney]

@Stef_retired Nice tip. Thank you. XOXO

[lindsayhaney]

@Stef_retired About 3 years ago...

I was able to use a rubric and add buffer points or extra points at the bottom of the rubric after totaling out the grade. Adding a few points at the end of the rubric sometimes is beneficial when the point range just barely misses a letter grade. Another example might be that you know your student has improved on their quality of work but you want to be fair according to the rubric on the area of improvement.  Sometimes students might need a few extra buffer points to keep them motivated or to show improvement but still show the student where the area of improvement should be.  I'm not sure what happened to that feature. I want to motivate a student that is trying but still needs to know where their project needs improvement. 

[Stef_retired]

You're welcome, @lindsayhaney ; it's a tremendous time-saver!

We're going to archive this idea, as it is likely that the problem statement you've proposed can be addressed with existing Canvas rubric and grading tools. If you need additional assistance in creating rubrics with ranges and using them for grading in Speedgrader, please post them to the Question Forum.

Thanks!

[lindsayhaney]

No. It can't fit every student and enable confidence or curve a kid that tried but still needed improvement. Don't kill the student's confidence when they try as hard as they can. I understand rubrics just fine but when you have 150 + students, some things can be subjective or need a few extra points to keep them trying. It's not always black and white.  

[Stef_retired]

And regarding "3 years ago," I've used Canvas rubrics for a long time for grading, and although I don't remember a box at the bottom of the rubric that allows the addition of extra points, I might have overlooked it. When I was grading, if I wanted to give a student extra points for a criterion, I added it to the score box in the criterion row and used the comment box to explain the points. Depending on the use case, I would sometimes add the points in the total score field above the rubric. 

[Stef_retired]

@lindsayhaney  Thanks for elaborating on the problem statement—yet I'm not clear on how this isn't possible with existing rubric tools, as teachers can easily give students extra points over and beyond what is specified in the rubric.

[lindsayhaney]

Yes you can do that but then the student adds it up and then the score doesn't make sense and your students think you just can't add. 🙂 If there was a box that said curve points or buffer points... It would make sense. 

[lindsayhaney]

I was a teacher for 14 years. Now I'm an Instructional coach and I just taught my district teachers how to use rubrics yesterday in Canvas. Take it from a veteran teacher. Put yourself back into the classroom and students talk about their scores and compare. They need a reason for everything or they think you made a mistake. Hey, it's just an idea. take it or leave it but if people had the option they would like it. I did when it was there. 

[Stef_retired]

I understand what you're saying, @lindsayhaney . We'll happily move this forward for further discussion as a request for an enhancement to rubrics that adds a separate field for "buffer points" or something similar.

In the meantime, I strongly suggest using the workflow I described above: I graded literally thousands of college students' assignments using this exact workflow over the course of five years, and did not receive a single comment from a student that the points didn't add up, especially when the points were greater than the sum of the rows—because students typically don't complain about getting more points. 🙂

[lindsayhaney]

High school students are different than college students. Maybe they don't complain but their neighbor sure does. Next thing you know your in a parent conference about how you are not a fair teacher because little Johnny got a higher grade than my kid but they missed the same criteria areas. 14 years... It takes 5 years to even know how to teach. Every K-12 teacher knows that rule. Having an extra points box at the bottom for improved effort would justify the why. Let the people vote. 

[Stef_retired]

Thanks, @lindsayhaney . The conversation is open for discussion and rating, but it's not vote-based; How do idea conversations work in the Canvas Community? explains the process.

(And I take your point about "5 years"; to clarify, that's how many years I taught courses in Canvas before joining Instructure, not how many years I had been teaching.)

[ProductPanda]

Comments from Instructure

As part of the new Ideas & Themes process, all ideas in Idea Conversations were reviewed by the Product Team. Any Idea that was associated with an identified theme was moved to the new Idea & Themes space. Any Idea that was not part of the move is being marked as Archived. This will preserve the history of the conversations while also letting Community members know that Instructure will not explore the request at this time.