Make a functional distinction between a learning outcome and a criterium in the rubric

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In Canvas, there are learning outcomes (coming from a subaccount) and criteria. Canvas makes a distinction between the two but does not treat them differently when you use them both in a rubric. 

This is very confusing but also it hampers the ability of a teacher and a study program to have a learning dashboard with all the learning outcomes of a study program and students' progression towards those learning outcomes. 

Educationally, learning outcomes are stepping stones towards the end-goal (the professional's degree), the criteria are used to specify a particular learning outcome and give thus specific feedback to a student. 

Ideally, it should be possible to (a) add a learning outcome to a rubric and (b) to specify this learning outcome by a set of criteria so that (c) a teacher's score on the criteria gets translated into a learning-outcome score in the rubric. This hierarchy is lacking and we are really missing this. It is the main bottle-neck for us to really work with the learning outcomes in Canvas. 

7 Comments
Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
Status changed to: Moderating

@griet_lust 

Thanks for sharing this feedback. Criteria and outcomes are added to a rubric via different processes, and the results populate in different areas of Canvas. Instructors can choose whether or not to have outcomes contribute points to the assignment itself; if they choose not to do so, the ratings will still populate the Learning Mastery Gradebook.

Could you clarify what you're trying to accomplish?

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
Status changed to: Moderating
 
griet_lust
Community Explorer

@Stef_retired 

 Thanks for your reply and your suggestion. Your suggestion is to import outcomes and to set it up that the outcome-grade in the rubric does not count towards the assignment-grade but does count for the dashboard. In the attached picture you will see that we already tried this work-around in the past in multiple courses and in multiple study programs. 

This approach is however no solution for the following reasons: 

- as a teacher it means that you have to take a calculator to calculate manually  the outcome-score based on your criteria-scores since they are not linked in the rubric. As you can see in the picture, often a teacher specifies a learning outcome by a set of criteria (in order to provide specific feedback). This is actually too much extra work which hampers the benefit of working with Canvas rubrics. 

- as a student, the rubric is very confusing in this way. Students see a rubric with outcomes and criteria however some outcome-scores do not count towards the assignment-scores while the criteria do..... This approach is thus not beneficial for providing clear feedback. 

After trying this approach for a year, we came to the conclusion that this is not beneficial for teachers and for students. Therefore, we launch this idea in the community. To us this is a real and practical bottleneck for working with outcomes on a course level and eventually on a program level. Also it seems unlogic that Canvas makes a distinction between a learning outcome and a criterium (which is from an educational viewpoint correct) but treats them similarly in the rubrics. Therefore, we launch this idea. According to our users, a teacher should be able to:

  • Import a learning outcome in a rubric
  • Specify this learning outcome by a set of criteria in such a way that those two are linked. Linked = the criteria-scores result in an average score on the outcome

In this way, teachers are able to use the rubrics as a time-saver in evaluating assignments, as a clear feedback-tool to students and as an instrument to built on a competence dashboard. In the past, we saw a similar functionality in the Portfolium-rubrics (during a Portfolium-demo). 

 

RUBRIC CANVAS.jpg

NBenenati
Community Member

I agree!  I have a handful of crosscutting concepts and a handful of practices that thread throughout the course.  I'd love to have these as mastery outcomes that I attach to assignment specific rubrics.  (I love using rubrics specific to each assignment and speedgrader.  Kids know what I am looking for and my grading is streamlined.  Note - my rubrics are simply proficient, almost proficient, learning, initiating learning, and unable to assess for one or two learning targets per assignment.)

Since these concepts and practices thread throughout the year and students are learning as the year goes it is reasonable to expect low performance at the beginning of the year.  I don't want these ratings part of the assignment specific grade.  I want them just as a tool, not as part of the grade.  Unfortunately, adding them brings points!  This shouldn't be the case!

 

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
Status changed to: Open
 
Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

@griet_lust Thank you for providing the details of your organization's use case! We have moved this idea forward for broader discussion.

ProductPanda
Instructure
Instructure
Status changed to: Archived
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