Culinary rubrics can be very difficult to write. How do you take the subjectivity out of certain rubrics?

In one of my course I had to create my own rubics. I find it was time consuming but worth it. Actually the rubics is a great feedback for students and how they learn the material.

Each term, I have students who provide evaluations based on quality information that is aimed at helping develop the course. However, I also have students who provide evaluations are that do not yield much relevance in regards to making needed or relevant modifications in the course. Typically, the evaluations by the latter are from those students who chose to avoid taking responsibility in the course although every effort was made by me to help the student. I found that instructors cannot be swayed by such evaluations because it will cause the quality of your course to diminish. Doing so does not help the student or instructor develop in the course. We must take these types of evaluations with a grain on salt and move on. However, I found that the students who truly engaged the course have provide quality and constructive criticism through the formative and summative evaluations that helped me make needful and beneficial changes in the class. Over time, I have seen how these changes help future students, and certain modifications are made each term. This may include adding a particular technological tools in the learning process or making modifications to what is already included the class. Student evaluations are absolutely beneficial and are a vital part of the educational process.

This area is of particular interest to me based on my experiences. It seems that there are many students who have trouble in the area of grammar (proper sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, etc.). It seems that the students must first master the skills in English / Language Arts before matriculating into core major courses. Without this, the student's ability to perform at the expected (and reasonable) level will not be satisfied, and the student's grade will suffer, not to mention the onset of frustration by the student and instructor. A few other instructors have shared the same issue, and we find ourselves having to perform some type of remedial training based on those informal formative assessments that occur during the term. The entire teaching team or institution should make an effort to ensure that every student is indeed prepared to move into more demanding work unique to their chosen field of study by first covering the basics and ensuring that the student has mastered those basics. Otherwise, we are left to handling those issues ourselves for the sake of the student's pending success in the class.

I firmly believe that objective and subjective evaluations are necessary in every class because each offers a level of assessment that gives the instructor a final and accurate picture of the class generally and each student specifically. However, subjective evaluation is important for reasons beyond regular assessments. I found that many students lack the ability to think critically, express themselves in writing, properly structure and organize thoughts, and use proper grammar. While not every instructor teaches English, part of our duty is to ensure that each student is prepared to function in and beyond the class for their overall success. By using the subjective evaluations (i.e. essays, etc.), we are able to help the students develop in these areas so they perform well in the class, absorb the learning objectives, and can be successful in their chosen field of employment.

I have found rubrics to be very beneficial in the classroom. Although they are indeed time consuming to create, the outcomes are well worth it. I find they really help the students better understand what is expected of them. It also helps me when grading to ensure I am fair as well as provide appropriate and benefical feedback.

Online Instructors have the same task as other professionals. We will always encounter change. This includes change in technology. We must adapt to these changes and make sure that we are informed and educated and utilize these changes to our advantage.

I prefer a hybrid rubric that includes some of the same criteria each time, but has one or two areas that are specific to the assigned task. I also may change the weight of criteria depending on what my teaching has emphasized before a particular assignment.

There are a few points that I consider regarding assessment. The rubrics are a wonderful function in LMS. This provides for consistency in the grading process, and gives a level of equity for each student to make the learning and assessment methods cohesive. However, we must ensure that the rubric point allocations are appropriate. I would recommend that the point spread is even rather than having a large gap in the allocation in order to provide the best assessment. Finally, the course content or subject matter has a great deal to do with which assessment is appropriate. Virtual simulations, for example, are a wonderful tool for mathematics, whereas essay tests are wonderful tools for English.

I create addition task specific rubrics for my students. I beleive that providing a task specific rubric provides supplmental information for the student to complete the assginment. When I'm grading papers, it will refer a struggling student to the rubric I created for that specific assignment. It's a challenge sometimes to present the rubric and not induce the feeling of information overload for the student.

Rubrics are wonderful tools to let students know what measures to take in order to get the grade they want.

I believe that assessing students is important so that you can help them in areas they are struggling with.

As an instructor that is in her 40's, I'm wondering if the new technology will become too much for older teachers.

As I read through the responses, a thought popped into my head. I will admit that I teach for a couple of universities and some of our rubrics we can not change. This makes me wonder how evaluating a rubric will work if you do not have the authority to change them. Would you pass the information along to the university for them to change and would they actually change it?

I have used rubrics in the majority of my classes, at several universities, for discussion questions and written assignments. Even though I have provided feedback that expands upon the criteria, it sometimes seems as if the students still do not completely understand their grade or the reason why points were taken off. As grading a written assignments is subjective, how can we get students to have a better understanding of what is missing in their assignment? To be honest, is there anything that we can do if we are providing comments and feedback to support the rubric already?

I am a professor at a Career College and I am a HUGE proponent of using rubrics in the classroom. In fact, I refuse to teach a class unless the class is properly equipped and outlined with rubrics to help keep the students on track. I look to these documents and actually refer to them to my students as my 'contract' with them for every assignment. I try to impress on them that the rubric should be used as a checklist for them to complete before turning in an assignment. It usually takes one set of project grading and feedback for them to become familiar with my style of grading and offering feedback on their projects, but I have found that the rubrics have played a significant role in the success of students in my classroom.

Authentic assessment are assessment where the students are ask to perform real world task to demonstrate how well they can apply the knowledge and skills they have learn in the classroom. I teach “Payroll Accounting” and one of my “authentic assessments” is to have student prepare an employee payroll given the number of hours work, the rate of pay, the number of dependents and the marital status. Students have to calculate gross pay, all the taxes associated, net pay and then file the necessary forms with governmental agencies as well as writing a check to the employees with the Net Pay showing all the deductions. They find it very interesting and meaningful.

According to materials read in chapter 2, “Summative assessment occurs at the conclusion of a lesson, project, unit, or course.” It is an evaluative measure design to measure students’ learning relative to the objective/outcome of the course. If the objective(s) of the course are not met then a correction process is worthwhile. Formative assessment is to monitor students’ learning to provide ongoing feedback. It is a tool to determine students’ strengths and weaknesses and to make immediate correction where necessary. Formative assessment has no point value as compare to summative assessment, thus formative assessment are intermediate goals to reach the overall objective/outcome measure by the summative assessment.

We live in a world where the impact of technology is an integral part of our lives. We learn with technology, pay bills, communicate and entertain ourselves. The younger generation is heavily influenced by technology in a manner that changes the way they retain information. Easy access to the internet via computer or smart phones redefines how we learn stuff. I teach “on ground” and many times when I ask a question the student just access the internet to get the answer. I think that the younger generation knows how easy it is to access up-to-date information, thus it kinds of defeat the idea of retaining knowledge through learning. Apart from the smart phones, most of my student comes with an IPAD or TABLET on which they do their class work. In conclusion, in addition to the way we learn, technology impacts “how much” and “what” we learn.

As an online professor how do you go about involving your students in giving feedback to your rubrics? I know sometimes I have trouble getting feedback just on the live chats.