Rubric without points

[mark_soole]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

Hello

We would like to use rubric without having to put in points against each line.

One of the more difficult issues we have is that rubrics in Canvas need a mark against them, even if they are not tied directly to the final mark and do not have a total. In my university, academics use rubrics only as an overall indicator of the strengths and weaknesses of work. If we put marks against them, we find the student may focus on the score rather than the on what is being communicated, and in any case the mark on the rubric has no meaning.

Attached is a description of the simple change we would like

see in Canvas

Mark

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-14928 .

[mcsmith]

HI Gideon,

Thanks for your contribution to the rubric without points topic. I am a

product manager at Canvas and work on the rubrics. Can you elaborate on

what the end goal of using the informative rubric? Is it solely to give

students feedback? Are you using the criteria from the rubric to give the

student an over "grade" for the artifact?

I really appreciate your time in advance!

On Thu, Apr 6, 2017 at 12:21 AM, Gideon.Williams@britishschool.nl <

[kmartin4]

I know this question is not directed at me, but here are my thoughts: I used to use (when I actually used Turnitin separately) the rubrics just to inform students on what they need to work on. For example, my top row (and I am sure there is a formal name for this, but I teach English, not math) includes the following: Superior (A Level); Satisfactory (B-Level); Improvement Needed (C-level); Major Problems (D/F-level).

Then of course I have specific criteria, i.e., topic sentences, thesis statement, grammar, development, etc.

Because grading essays is not so black-and-white, I prefer to assign my own overall grade, but I do use the rubric to help determine the grade. If I mark mostly "Satisfactory" for the criteria, then I usually give the student a B.

Hope this provides some clarity,

Kelly

[Amanda_L_Albrig]

I’ll chime in. Many of our assignments are Pass/Fail so Points don’t really matter. For the purpose of providing students with feedback, it would be nice to have rubrics that that allow the instructor to select the performance category for each criteria without assigning points.

It would be great if the performance ratings allowed for the input of a description as well.

Here is an example (minus the Ratings Description)

Criteria

Ratings

To what degree was the overall presentation organized, clear, and creative .

Completely

Mostly

Somewhat

Minimally

Not at all

To what degree does the background explain the challenge? (The needs assessment identification of a broad goal and SMART objective, references to support the importance of making a change.)

Completely

Mostly

Somewhat

Minimally

Not at all

To what degree are the methods clearly described?

Completely

Mostly

Somewhat

Minimally

Not at all

To what degree are the results visually displayed in a clear manner?

Completely

Mostly

Somewhat

Minimally

Not at all

To what degree is the discussion thoughtful, reflective and insightful? (Description of challenges, and lessons learned, what went well and should be implemented/ sustained and what still needs improvement.)

Completely

Mostly

Somewhat

Minimally

Not at all

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi Deactivated user‌...

First, I would like to re-reference the https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1099 Feature Idea that I referenced above...as I provided a use case there.

Second, here's another similar example of a rubric I just finished building this week for an up-coming Math course.  Here's part of the Scoring Guide (a.k.a. rubric) from the curriculum:

When making this into a Canvas rubric for the assignment, it looks something like this:

The first and fourth rows don't really need point values...as they are really just heading for the respective rows under them.  The second, third, and fifth rows only have "Yes" and "No" values (no points), and the only reason that I assigned 1 point to "Yes" and 0 points to "No" is so when the instructor uses the SpeedGrader to grade, they won't run into any issues (refer to https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1099#comment-8654 when you set two ratings to the same values...zero in this case).  The work-around I've used in some courses is to build some of the criterion first using "Outcomes" and then telling Canvas not to use them for grading once inserted into the rubrics.  That way, the 1 and 0 points still show up in the "Ratings" column, but then it shows "--" in the "Pts" column and doesn't add any additional points to the rubric (a trick I learned from stefaniesanders‌).  Also, in the case of the example rubric above, I've had to set the "Display Grade as" dropdown option to "Complete/Incomplete" so that it's not putting an actual score in the Gradebook...but rather a checkmark.

[pcallil]

Hi a Gideon,

We looked at Turnitin as part of a solution that integrates with Canvas and has an attractive rubric creation package (and without points as an option). Unfortunately, until Turnitin improves its iPad integration with the Canvas app, we simply will not not deploy it,

[GideonWilliams]

That's good to know Phil. Our staff use iPads but have access to a PC. Have not deployed the integration yet but thanks for the heads-up

[GideonWilliams]

Hi McCall

I work in a British International School. As you may be aware we have a large number of different examination boards that set qualifications for students at 16, 17 and 18.

Pretty much every single Exam Board now uses rubrics as guides for assessment. I have included examples from across different areas. We are also finding that teachers are creating their own rubrics which can be used for internal assessment, reviewing progress and moderation!

Examples of Rubrics linked here

You will see from the attachment that the rubrics are banded. In other words, teachers decide what is a ‘best fit’ approach in a certain mark range.

I recently posted an example from Turnitin which has a similar (but not quite the same) model.

Our teachers enjoy using rubrics for assessment/coursework submissions as it allows them to do both summative feedback and feedforward through comments. They cannot however proceed with using them for examination classes. If Canvas could create these banded/non graded rubrics then we would see even greater traction with the product.

You also mentioned in your mail about self-assessment. For assignments we have teacher and peer assessment but no self-assessment. I am amazed that this is missing as the 3 features together again make for a HUGELY POWERFUL tool for student reflection and feedback. We would love to see a set up whereby the student has to self-assess on their work. I wonder if it could not be included with the peer assessment but have the student themselves assess? The next step could then be to have weighted marking for each assessment group?

[tbunag]

I love the self-assessment idea!  I've used self-assessment, but had to have students complete a separate, document rubric or similar when submitting an assignment, but being able to use the built in rubrics would be so much easier.

[denise_lombardo]

Well said, Gideon…I like your thinking! We haven’t explored this too much because of the point allocations.

Kind regards,

Denise Lombardo

[joel_mills]

Yes, we have known this for a long time as users of Turnitin for many years.

We must see Canvas Rubrics perform in a similar way as Turnitin Rubrics for them to be acceptable in UK Higher Education.

Currently there are many issues with rubrics in Canvas some of which I have listed below. All of which have been raised at the Canvas UK HE usergroup meetings and directly with Instructure product development teams. I believe Deactivated user‌ is working on this with her team.

• Rubrics as used for qualitative feedback (non-scored) to give an indication of the students expertise in a region scale of assessment criteria. Scoring them is not what is required when we wish to give formative feedback on how the well the student has done or where they need to improve before the summative assessment.
• Adding multiple rows with significant text in each box breaks the rubric creation tool to the point you cannot save/edit/continue with the rubric. I have recorded a screencast of this breaking here. Rubric breaking - YouTube 
• You cannot easily duplicate rows in a rubric to copy/paste/amend and build a rubric. For example you split 1 row in to 10 columns, and then create another row, you have to split that row again in to 10 columns. Rinse and repeat for each row. Why can't we simply click a button at the end of each created row that duplicates the row? 
• You cannot rearrange rows easily. We need to be able to drag and drop the order of rubric rows.
• Rubric column alignment. Even when you create a multi-row rubric with equal column numbers, the rubric columns still don't align.
• Lastly, if you choose "External tool" as your submission method (eg. Turnitin LTI integration) you cannot then add a Canvas Rubric as the Rubric feature is then not available... You have to hash it by first selecting the rubric, selecting another submission method like Online submission, Save the assignment but don't publish it, then go back and edit it again switching to the external tool.

I don't have too much more to say at this point other than we have been promised changes and updates to the rubrics tool since October 2016 but have not seen this materialise yet.

Back to you Instructure.