1. Quicker and impartiality – Do you find that your grading standards change when grading paper twenty as opposed to paper number one on the pile? If your answer to this questions is no, an honest no, then maybe you don’t need a rubric. If your answer is no than rubrics can keep you on task, grade equally, and speed up the process.
2. Provides feedback – Rubrics provide examples, guides, and feedback before and after completing assignments. How often do your students come back to you after receiving a grade and ask “why did you take points off for…”. A well-structured rubric requires very little additional explanation. In the LMS, such as Blackboard, students can view rubrics before and after completing an assignment. This also gives you more time to provide personal feedback to each student.
3. Bloom’s Taxonomy – rubrics can be aligned to student learning outcomes based on the theories of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Here is a link to an article from Educational Technology and Mobile Learning by Med Kharbach mentioning two examples of Andrew Church. This article provides examples of how to integrate Bloom’s into your grading rubrics by Church. Here is a link to Andrew Church’s full list of 20 rubrics that can be downloaded.

Donna Simiele, eLearning Technology Support Coordinator

Other Resources:

“Creating and Using Rubrics – Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation – Carnegie Mellon University.” Creating and Using Rubrics – Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation – Carnegie Mellon University. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2014. <http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/assesslearning/rubrics.html>.

“Rubrics – Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation – Carnegie Mellon University.” Rubrics – Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation – Carnegie Mellon University. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2014. <http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/rubrics.html>.