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When a rubric contains criteria ratings with equivalent point values, selecting one highlights all

Question asked by Jill Nissen on Mar 26, 2016
Latest reply on Apr 1, 2016 by chofer@morainepark.edu
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I use Canvas rubrics for most graded discussions and assignments in my course. Some of my criteria ratings have equivalent points value (for example, 2 on time comments = +2, 4 late comments = +2). However, when there are multiple criteria ratings with equivalent point values, selecting one highlights all. Is there any way around this?

 

Secondly, I would like to be able to assign bonus points to assignments, but if I choose to use the rubric for grading, it automatically adjusts the points value for the assignment (e.g. a 10 point assignment with a +2 bonus becomes a 12 point assignment).  As a workaround, I created a Criteria line for the bonus worth 0 points and the Ratings descriptions might read "Excellent +2", "Good =+1", and "None +0", but again, because all the selections are worth zero points it highlights all of them.

 

Also, if I try to adjust the individual rubric line grade (changing the 0 to a 2), it deselects all criteria ratings, and when I Save the rubric, the grade for that line has reverted to a zero.

 

Can anyone offer help, or a better solution? Thanks!

 

In the first image below you can see the example of the criteria "BONUS: Response posts" which designed to be worth extra credit, and I intended to use the "Follow up" and "Proofreading" lines to comment on the assignment (similar to Turnitin's grademark and quick mark function). For this particular student, on the BONUS line I selected "2 or more responses", on the Follow up line, I selected "You should return..." and in the Proofreading line I selected "Very few grammatical errors..." but as you can see, all items in those lines are highlighted. In the second image you can see that the graded rubric for the student shows all the comments for that line. Normally at that point, I would manually adjust the Grade to 7 out of 5 points and Add a comment to type in the actual comment I had intended for the rubric to convey to the student.

 

Image 1: Rubric during grading process

 

Rubric zero.jpg

 

Image 2: Same rubric after saving

Rubric graded.jpg

chofer@morainepark.edu
chofer@morainepark.edu Champion Mar 26, 2016 5:53 PM
Correct Answer

Hi Jill Nissen...

 

The reason that all your cells in the same row are highlighting (even though you are only clicking on one of them) is because all the point values (zero) are the same.  Canvas can't distinguish between the first cell of text with zero points compared to the next cell (or the next cell, or the next) because the wording in those cells can be whatever you want.  Canvas doesn't really need to know what text you have in there, but it does need to know what point value should be there...so it can calculate the points properly.  Luckily, there is a work-around that Stefanie Sanders taught me quite a while back.  It involves Outcomes.  So, instead of adding each of those criterion as rows in your rubric, you would create a brand new Outcome for that row, and then you can tell the rubric to use that outcome but not use it as a graded row in your rubric.

 

  1. Click on "Outcomes" in your course.
  2. Click on "New Outcome" where you will put in the info about the criterion.  For example, type "Proofreading" in the "Name this outcome" field and the large text box under it (or if you want to put more descriptive text in there, that's fine, too.)
  3. In the "Criterion ratings" section, add in your four values from your rubric...giving each of them a value (say 3, 2, 1, and 0).  Don't really worry about the points...they won't be used for grading.
  4. You can set the "mastery" to whatever you want...I just set it at the highest total.  Again, this won't really matter.  Also, the "Calculation Method" can be left at "Decaying Average".
  5. Save the "Outcome", and repeat for additional criterion where you have a zero for more than one rating.

 

Once you have the Outcome created, return to your rubric.  Here is where you'll be adding the Outcome to your rubric.

 

  1. When adding rows to your rubric, click on "Find Outcome".
  2. Find and click on the Outcome you just created.
  3. Before you click on the "Import" button at the bottom of your screen, uncheck the option to "Use this criterion for scoring".  This will add the Outcome to your rubric, but it will show up as a row that won't be scored...but you'll be able to click on a cell in the SpeedGrader indicating what the student achieved for that criterion...without affecting the total score of the assignment.

 

I'm not sure that I've answered all of your questions...and someone else may need to help in my limited knowledge of grading (since I'm only an admin for our Canvas instance), but hopefully this information is helpful to you in some way.  Please let me know if you have questions about the above.  Thanks!

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