Doug's Rubric

Doug's Rubric

by Doug Strable -
Number of replies: 13

I am developing a prototype for an on-demand training program for learning professional software. The students have the necessary software and equipment but not familiar with the basic theory to analyze the results correctly.   Students learn from a video as well as some short papers on colour management.

As a competency-based training program, all students are expected to pass so I chose a single criteria holistic rubric. Do you feel this approach, the levels I describe,  and the badge concept provides the necessary motivation to reach level 4?   That is the goal to have everyone at level 3 or 4. 

I look forward to receiving your thoughts, 

Doug 

In reply to Doug Strable

Re: Doug's Rubric

by Jacquie Harrison -

I like the badges, Doug! And, I think the holistic rubric was a good choice.

I was thinking about your question of motivation to move through the levels. In addition to the badges, I was wondering if a real world application would also be motivating. For example, in level 4, something like, This is a gold standard performance. Or "The client has all information needed" Level 3 - The client may have not have all needed information" Does that make sense? 

In reply to Jacquie Harrison

Re: Doug's Rubric

by Doug Strable -

Hello Jacquie, 

That is an excellent suggestion! 

Virtual stickers or badges are used to reward players of in video games and other apps these days and in sports like karate with students receiving different coloured belts on the performance levels, so I feel the concept would work in online training too. The students are engineers from various countries in Asia where real learning is regarded as being "not fun."   I want to challenge this mindset and add some "fun" into the learning. This is the reason I thought of TopGun badges. Your comment made me recognize I need to careful of using military connotations and apply more neutral concepts such, a Gold Standard or Golden Dragon would be better.  

There are other short training assignments, so at the end of the training series, the idea is to collect as many TopGun Badges as possible. I don't want to provide any financial reward like air miles but will explain students receive a certificate after the completion of the course and will mention obtaining the "Gold Standard".  Receiving a gold certificate over a silver certificate should be enough motivation for students at least in Asia. The design of the stickers may be influential to add more prestige to the motivation.  

Thanks for sharing this insight! 

Doug 



In reply to Doug Strable

Re: Doug's Rubric

by Sue Hellman -

Hi Doug. 

I like the level of detail you've included. I'm not familiar with your technology but could still understand the requirements. 

What I'm wondering about is where the pass/fail cutoff is. I found a rubric  for wrining online courses that has 3 levels of proficiency -- essential (must be present/mastered for the project to be accepted), excellent, and exemplary. An exemplary course has all qualities in all 3 categories.  

If you decided which skills were essential, then not demonstrating even one of those would mean that the student has to do more work and submit another report, even if some of the excellent or exemplary standards were met. That would be your pass level (sticker). If the student wanted a badge, he/she would have to fulfill the requirements at the next level. For example, to pass (earn a sticker) the writing standard might not be a critical factor. For a silver badge, the 150 word count & correct spelling might be the standard & for a gold, no mechanics errors. 

The rubric could be set up checkist style. Then a student would see exactly what was missing in order to complete the requirements for a pass (sticker), or a silver or gold badge. Setting up a rubric this way means you don't have to figure out how many errors are acceptable at any level. The student becomes responsible for meeting the badge criteria kind of like in the boy scouts. 

Hope this is helpful,

-SueH

In reply to Sue Hellman

Re: Doug's Rubric

by Doug Strable -

Excellent idea!  I like the concept of only rewarding one sticker as the pass level and everyone working to obtain this level. That is the idea of the training to reach the top proficiency level.   I can see how a checklist style would help clarify the performance as well but thought it would be better outside the rubric as part of the assignment. Would you mind sharing the link to the 3-level rubric with the checklist style you found? 

I do want the student to be responsible for meeting the criteria like in the boy scouts. 

Thank you, 

Doug 

In reply to Doug Strable

Re: Doug's Rubric

by Sue Hellman -

Sure, Doug. Here's the link --https://bit.ly/2NUIsGu It's available on the BCcampus website as well. 

It's not checklist style, but would be easy to rearrange as such to make very obvious which requirements have been met & which have not. 

This used to be called 'criterion referenced' assessment, but it's fallen out of favour. I'll leave it to you to speculate about why.

http://www.teaching-learning.utas.edu.au/assessment/criterion-referenced-assessment

In reply to Sue Hellman

Re: Doug's Rubric

by Doug Strable -

Thank you for the links,  I will take a look now, 

Doug 

In reply to Doug Strable

Re: Doug's Rubric

by Sue Hellman -

I just had a look at the rubric for providing feedback in the instructions for this forum. It doesn't list criteria, but it separates out 3 levels of performance in a way that tells anyone who didn't get a top score in a caregory what their work was missing. 

In reply to Doug Strable

Re: Doug's Rubric

by Tara Vanderveer -

Looks great Doug! 

I think a wholistic approach is perfect for this type of assessment. I also love the Badge system. I SO want to start a badge system for Anatomy and Physiology...even just to design the stickers for each system! But beyond the fun of it, badges are a great way to get at the intangible components of competencies like effort and professionalism.

One note - you have misspelled spelling! Students will be WAY too happy to point that out to you... :)

Thanks for sharing!

In reply to Tara Vanderveer

Re: Doug's Rubric

by Doug Strable -

Oops, thanks for pointing out the spelling mistake -- it was a mistake and not intentional this time. 

This instance reminds me of the story of an English teacher I met who travelled with an oversized watch or funny bag. I asked why she had such a watch and she that was the reason - to instigate conversations with her students. 

I agree with you, introducing a  badge system for learning about anatomy and physiology would be great.  

Here some articles I also would like to share about using a badge system and games.... 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28817476

https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10170/920/trimblett_shelley.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

  

Exciting topics indeed, and thank you for your comments, 

Doug 

In reply to Doug Strable

Re: Doug's Rubric

by Janna van Kessel -

Hi Doug,

I appreciate your use of a holistic rubric and I too am already thinking about how I could use a badge-type approach.

I agree with a checklist approach for students to self-evaluate each component. You could maintain the narrative approach by using an open bullet front of each statement.

One question is if the student would be confused by have a level and a badge. A link with the practical client needs could help.

Thanks for sharing!

Janna


In reply to Janna van Kessel

Re: Doug's Rubric

by Doug Strable -

Hello Janna, 

Agreed! Some link to a practical example is necessary and I will develop this idea. Thank you. 

The idea of using badges is very interesting and I will continue to search out ideas. 

I posted in my reply above to Tara,  two links to journal articles that may be of interest to you as well. 

Thank you sharing your ideas, 

Doug

In reply to Doug Strable

Re: Doug's Rubric

by Mark Wilson -

Hi Doug

I love the simplicity of your holistic rubric. This is most helpful to students as they try to understand what is required. Your situation seems to be the opposite of mine and seeing rubrics applied in different settings has really opened my eyes to their many possibilities. And thanks for your feedback on my rubric, it is very helpful. Going forward, achievement level two needs a little copyediting.

Best Regards

Mark

In reply to Mark Wilson

Re: Doug's Rubric

by Doug Strable -

Hi Mark, 

Yes, I wanted to keep the rubrics simple so that students could devise their strategies. The task is for each student to be able to do the procedure well.   I will investigate a checklist approach as others have suggested for guidance but thought that the steps would be in the assignment. 

I am happy to hear my feedback was helpful, and I made spelling correction in level and check the text again before resubmitting an update. 

Doug