The Components of a Rubric
I construct a rubric that enforces the online institution policies, contains a quantitative aspect and contains a statement of a substantive response.
How do you establish a balance between quantity and quality?
Albert,
I use a rubric for discussion board posts. I give it up to the students up front and they do not earn ful credit unless their posting adds to the conversation.
My question concerned the balance between quantity and quality. I do not prepare the assignments. I am not allowed to "add" or "subtract" from the assignment.
Example: two posts are required as stated in the assignment.
A student posts twice with the same question directed at two different students. I reply to this student to request their reasoning for asking the question. In short I am challenging the contribution of the second posting of the same question.
Some of my colleagues argue that the tasks has been addressed but I argue that the quality for the second post is very low. Do you see my point?
My grading rubrics must be consistent with the assignment tasks and I am never permitted to offer extra credit. I am not allowed to give everyone a score of 95% for addressing each task so that I can issue 100% to the "best" post. (I cannot set up my own personal curve.)
Albert,
Yes, when you have quantity as your assessment, you typically don't get quality. Provide examples of quality posts and use a rubric to assess their quality.
I attempt to set quality standards by providing examples of what I will not accept as a substantive post.
I admit that judging if a post is substantive post is subjective. If I do remove points, I provide formative feedback validate my evaluation.
Albert,
Excellent. Set your standards high, explain what is expected of students and hold them to your high standards. Thanks.
I post a rubric at the start of each week. The rubric gives the student specific topics that must be discussed in their main post. I also give then an example of a relevant post so they will know not to just post "I agree" or "Great post". They do know that a minimum of three posts (one main post and two response posts) are needed.
LaFanya ,
You are getting your students in a routine to check each week for the rubric. That's awesome. Providing them with good examples is key as well. Thanks for your input.
Albert,
When you can't change the grading rubric that is based on quantity only, you can only encourage quality participation. I do this by making an initial post that gets them to think beyond the main question. My involvement in the subsequent posts keep them coming back for more of the picture as I provide teases to the next level. It doesn't always work, but it has increased the quality of participation overall.
Melissa
Melissa,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's good that you are involved and work toward increasing quality participation.
Nice job.
We use rubrics for our forum posts. I provide this to the students prior so they know what the expectations are. Having this information allows them to be more successful with the posts and the conversations become more informative and in many cases influential.
Jennifer,
Me too. Using a rubric for the forum posts helps students understand it's depth you're looking for not just lengthy. Glad this has worked for you.
