Rubric Grading: 2010 Awards

A top award for 2010 from the Sloan-C organization has high value for assessment, especially when compared to the 2010 CHEA award. Sloan-C recognized Metropolitan State University (MN) for Automatic gradesheets: A Holy Grail for simultaneously improving faculty and student satisfaction. Using familiar tools of Word and Excel, the institution has set about systematically converting grading to "automatic" rubrics to speed grading and reduce students' wait for feedback. Besides utilizing a rubric structure, the gradesheets provide for efficient entry of a professor's most common remarks. The gradesheets are customizable, besides.

With standardization of rubrics and scoring styles, this type of support by an institution is win-win-win for student learning, professor grading, and institutional effectiveness. When the rubric is part of an LMS, ease of use can include point-and-click (using a mouse click to select a cell in a rubric) and conversion of rubric scoring to the LMS gradebook. Embedded rubrics reduce the number of clicks (and file transfers) needed to review student papers. I like BrainHoney's LMS structure for grading. Very similar: eportfolio software such as TaskStream that provides automated rubrics as well as "on the fly" mark-up and/or track-changes to student works without having to download the file.

As previously described in this blog, CHEA's 2010 award went to Capella University for its demonstration of outcomes assessment. The Capella grading system utilizes embedded and automated rubrics that not only speed up grading but also populate the gradebook automatically and report on outcomes across multiple sections of a course and even across courses for program outcomes.

© 2010 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. Email contact: bold[AT]marybold.com. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (http://www.marybold.com/, http://www.boldproductions.com/, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as legal or professional advice. Bold is the co-author of Reflections: Preparing for your Practicum or Internship, geared to college interns in the child, education, and family fields. She is a consultant and speaker on assessment, distance learning, and technology.