If we think about our own experiences as student the answers to engagement will be clear. Those schools that we have the most affinity to were those where we found a peer community, comfortable and inviting environment and professors that we knew cared about us. Applying those to the environment we are creating witll have that same impact. 

Creating rubrics is a dynamic process which likely will never end for. Using current student's work as well as colleague's input is helpful in fine-tuning your rubric.

The success of using rubrics depends on the thought and planning that goes into creating them. Consider the student, the subject as well as the desired outcomes. 

Rubrics can give both instructor and students the parameters for successful completion of the assisgment. Trouble is that it may limit responses that only respond to the letter of the rubric.

Actually, I use my errors at teaching moments. For example, i am teaching a leadership and performance class now and one student found an error. This gave me the opportunity to demonstrate a principle that I was teaching that week. 

I find that class members are so busy that they don't take much time to really get to know each other. What suggestions do you have for causing that to happen as an integral part of each course?

I am just testing this part of the system. I hope everyone enjoys the class.