Questions & Answers

Yes! And if you search #SinglePointRubric on twitter there's a gold mine of examples.

The Cult of Pedagogy article took me on a fun journey this morning. I can sure relate to this Your Rubric is a Hot Mess article! Dreaming up ways to say someone is doing sloppy, shallow work is not fun. And anyway, why are we doing that?

Thanks for sharing this, Tara. I'm busy adding these resources to our compilation of Tools & Resources.

Now... your first year rubric example is fascinating. I need to spend more time on it, and want to also give others an opportunity to chime in. My quick question is, should 'standard' outline what it looks like to be proficient?

Thanks for sharing this great resource! I often struggle with finding those 'polite' ways to tell a student they are not quite meeting the outcome or expectation, especially on an assignment. When explaining how to use or follow rubrics to the students I always find myself saying to them focus only on this 'meeting expectations' column. It never occurred to me to only give them that! Definitely something I am going to try out.     

Thanks for sharing the idea of a single point rubric -- it is already getting me thinking!  I've been working on feedback for peer tutor journal entries, and finding that I'm generally highlighting the "meets expectations" column -- which tends to leave our very highly achieving tutors feeling like they've earned a 2/3, rather than resting confident in the fact that what they're doing is hitting the standard, though they're always free to grow.

I'm thinking of trying out a single point rubric for this course.

Hello Tara, 

I also find assessments that merely provide judgements are not very motivating and encourages students to focus on grades and the mechanics of getting through a course,  rather than learning the joys of learning and improving oneself.

As a learner (and life?), don't we all want respect in our assessments? To know which parts of the assignment we managed well, and to receive constructive feedback on the other areas. 

In my studies, I found rubrics and assessments that explicitly link the learning goals of the course with the performance I have accomplished and reasons why to be extremely valuable. I think that is the key to creating assessments that students feel are fair and respected.

As we move into creating our rubrics, I would like to suggest thinking of getting into the mindset of providing feedback that is valuable and motivates the learner.

I find find this video extremely valuable when I think about creating rubrics.

https://livestream.com/royalroads/SETpresents/videos/168786916

I haven't heard much about a single point Rubric or even if it is possible, so thank you for sharing this idea.

Doug 

I LOVE this.  What a genius idea.  Can't wait to try it.  Thank you!

I'm seeing a trend. I posted three single point rubric links to the google doc earlier today. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OMQOSQZh-EzFTWeBI8CxU-Y2gEXMQsmDGvnVEpK-H9I/edit

I'll be using a single point rubric for my learner-centered rubric for lifelong adult learners.

http://markcorbettwilson.com/wp/my-college-degree-as-an-open-digital-humanities-project/

Thank you, Tara, for sharing this comment. I didn't want to be the first to say how useless I think such 'mushy' rubrics are. The descriptors you listed reminded me of high school computer generated report card comments such as 'good work' and 'improvement needed' (not to be confused, of course, with 'some improvement needed'). 

For me the 2 key criteria for judging the effectiveness of a rubric are: (1) [from John Hattie] whether it provides 'actionable' guidance to the learner, i.e. specifies what or how to improve, and (2) [from Bonnie Mullinex] reliability of scoring by other insructors or by students (either or their own work or that of peers). 

I think this Alberta rubric for assessing online course quality fulfills both of the above. Courses are judged as meeting all 'Essential' requirements, 'Excellent', or 'Exemplary'. Most standards offer criteria at all 3 levels. A few such as Mechanics of Writing (p.10), have only 1 level, the implication being that a course which does not have the Essential elements is not ready for release. 

The biggest problem with the Alberta model and alternatives shared in this forum is that they can be very challenging to write if you have not previously made yourself spell out in detail the measures by which you differentiate between success, the lack of it, and whatever stages you've put in between. On the other hand, the potential to transform assessment 'of' into assessment 'for' and 'as' learning is enormous. Using this kind of rubric puts the onus on students to make the improvements required to elevate the their standard of work and relieves instructors of the need to dedicate hours to correcting papers and making hand written comments. I think a powerful use would be create checklist and have students submit self-evaluations with their work. Comparing student to instructor assessments would give the instructor useful feedback about where the students need more help. The students would gain insight from discovering the differences between how they vs. their teachers see their work.

Hi Tara, 

Cool rubric! The single point format does make it appear easy for students to understand the standard expectations. I love how you got us all going in thinking about this format.

If the Standard column represents Proficient, I wonder if it would make sense to call it that rather than standard? I also wonder if it would be helpful for students and graders to specify what each level of the growth mindset looks like - i.e. difference between beginning, emerging, developing...?  - while staying with the single point format...

I find your descriptors especially in row 10-12 super clear. A few of descriptive words 9 could probably be made slightly more specific (i.e. what does appropriate and acceptable look like). In 13 (English Language Conventions), is this perhaps the "developing" level?

Bettina

Thanks for this post, Tara. 

You've inspired some great discussion!

I really liked the article by Jarlene Fluckinger in our Compilation of Resources.   (Or go directly here https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1004&context=tedfacpub)

One idea that really stood out for me is how to get students involved in it. I like the idea of students not only rating themselves as either proficient or not yet proficient but also finding evidence of why they rated themselves like that. It's a great example of teaching students to be self-regulated. I can't wait to try this!