Question
When do Rubrics become too cumbersome?
Hannah,
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In my opinion, when the project/assignment is too cumbersome. I have many times started to create a rubric and thought WOW - this is too much. But, really it wasn't the rubric, it was the project. So, it helped me see what all I was asking the students to do in one project and I was able to break it down into two projects and they did better and saw the total connection between the projects and the learning outcomes.
Sometimes the assignments given in the course can have to many parts. Makes keeping track of the rubric difficult.
Aaron,
Maybe the assignment can be broken down into segments and not be one great big project?
Hannah,
For the most part I find that rubrics help to build consistency across the sections that I am teaching. However, in certain instances they can become cumbersome when the instructions for the assignment are vague. When this occurs, the categories can be too general to allow the instructor to adequately student mastery of a particular area. Other times the rubric may be limited in evaluating the variety of student responses.
Lee and Hannah,
Rubrics differ depending on the course, criteria, and learning outcomes. The key is to effectively develop rubrics that measure the learning outcomes and meet your/your students' needs.
In my experience, rubrics become cumbersome when the instructor attempts to capture the key elements of the assignment in too much detail. The broader the topics, the easier it is to include many factors of an assignment. So I always try to make my rubrics as general as possible. Then I can apply my feedback to whatever broad catetogy it applies to.
I have found that rubrics often help students focus on what the submission needs to achieve in order to maximize demostration of competentcy. Sometimes, though, students lose sight of their learning in order to achieve the standards set forth by the rubric. For students than discuss the matter with me, I am often able to help them find common ground between the objective(s) of the assignment and the rubric compared to their desire to to explore topics that may (or may not) have relevence to the topic. For students that do not discuss with me, or review the material presented to contextualize rubrics, it is often a result of learners exploring tangents that do not align with the competencies being assessed. Thus rubrics help students focus, but can also create the sense of supressing learning for the student that does not have context for how their research relates to the assignment. It goes to the comparision of trying to use rubrics for an artistic work. In the area I teach for general education, many times students try to incorporate personal experience in conjunction with the topic of learning. While their expereince is important, it often is antedoctal, thus rubrics are may not capture their persoanl learning and context compared to the assignment objective.
Trena,
There is a fine line in being too broad and too specific. The criteria are the key elements and the connection to the learning outcomes are essential.
Lewis,
Criteria, relevance and rubrics are key words you included in this post. Thanks for your input
I am new to online instruction and this is the first time that I have experienced the Rubric. I tend to believe it is a great tool for streamlining the expectation of the student and focusing the instructor on the same points for everyone equally in the grading process. That being said, I do find that if the criteria is too general it makes the deducting of points more difficult. It narrows the window of how many points are too many and how many are too much, especially when the project it is assigned to is not skilled based but "reply" base. i.e. Do you agree or disagree that Sally should report the conflict? Why? Could I be over analyizing this in my first session? Am I trying too hard?
Berrie,
As a first time online instructor, you will kearn so much from the other in this course and your peers. You'll fine a good balance and as you get more experience, it will all come together. Keep up the good work.
I find that starting a rubric can be overwhelming, but that initial investment of time is invaluable. I fine-tune or, at the very least, review my rubrics after each course. I am careful, however, not to get too specific or breakdown the work too much to make sure that the students are writing in their own voices and not mine. Rubrics should demonstrate how to fulfill the assignment's requirements, not how I would fulfill the assignment's requirements.
Elizabeth,
You are right. At first it may seem like a daunting task, but so worth it. Sometimes we try to put too much in a rubric and get to critical with the criteria. We learn as we go. Keep up the good work and tie the rubrics to the learning objectives.
When creating them from scratch for highly technical Information Technology courses
Steven ,
When you say "from scratch" do you mean you make them up when you need them or at the end of a course or when?
Thanks!
Irun across problems when the evaluative criteria is linked only to the specific elements in a particular performance test that it becomes totally task specific and therefore essentially worthless from my stand point. The main thing i try to remember is to make my criteria evaluate essential components of a skill being measured and not a particular display of skill applied in a specific task.
Thank You
LSingleton
LaShanta ,
Yes, the criteria are the key. If you are given the rubrics from instructional designers or others, please make sure they are measuring what you need them to measure. Thanks.
That is a question I hope to answer as I move through this course. I teach accounting and for the most part, an answer is right or wrong. There are seldom levels of correctness. As I take this class I am trying to determine their usefulness. I am getting some ideas early on and hope to see other ways they can be used.
At this point, I think when a rubric adds another level of complexity to the assignment or to the grading process, it may be too cumbersome to use.
John,
You are right, with right/wrong answers, there is no need for a rubric. But, what is in come class students are expected to do a research project about a career in Accounting. Then, the rubric would be valuable. Thanks!
