Involving Students
Should involving students in the development of rubrics be a consistent activity or can you decide based on the class whether to involve students or not?
Hannah,
I've done both - create my own and involve students. I do think it depends on the assignment/project, level of course, etc. Thanks!
If using student centered learning, one might have each student develop a rubric for their own learning.
Aaron,
Yes, and involving the students helps bring another perspective to the table.
Aaron,
I definitely think that individual rubrics would be a good means to provide formative feedback. However, there needs to be one rubric that contain common criteria in which to evaluate the work of the class. Perhpas one criterion of the rubric could include a personalized component.
Lee,
Good idea. Keep sharing your ideas and building off of each others' thoughts. Thank you.
In my experience, whether or not students should be involved in creating the rubric depends on both the students themselves and the assignment and time frame. Many older new and returning students are new to the concept of rubrics, and if not managed correctly, it can take more time to develop the rubric than what the class allows for to complete the actual assignment.
These past few lessons have gotten me thinking about using www.surveymonkey.com to gauge student feedback on the rubrics in a more organized fashion rather than just welcoming feedback via comments in the virtual office and by email. Thoughts?
Alaina,
Right. There are various circumstances where you may or may not want student to be a part of helping develop rubrics. Thanks for your input
Time is a factor as well. Courses in accelerated programs may not have sufficient time to afford discussion with students for how to effectively create a student-driven rubric for learning, particularly students (and faculty) who are new to such concepts. However, it may be that such programs could integrate the concept within the curriculum. The result is that students are introduced to the concept in one phase, shown examples in another phase, then work on their actual rubrics in a different phase. Using scaffolding, the program is able to drive the student-centered focus for learning in a consistent manner without requiring students to take a special course or repurposing large time blocks for accelerated courses that could impact the content focus of said course.
Lewis,
Time and course content "rule" a lot of things. However, scaffolding should work across all timeframes and course content. Thanks!
I really never considered adding the students in on building a rubric. However, I would consider a creative group project, and together we could brainstorm ideas on what is needed for the project. The ideas that we generate can be beneficial in building the rubric. This ways it will be much easier to hold students to its standards.
Darcel,
Thanks for considering it. We learn a lot by trying different things. The group project would be a good time to involve student's in the process.
I think its a great idea to involve students in the development of some of the rubrics. They, actually, are sometimes tougher on themselves than is the instructor. Involving them gives them a sense of ownership, and a sense of competition sometimes. The competition comes into play when they want to do show the class that they can perform the tasks better than their classmates.
Eleanor,
Students can enhance the process if you give them guidelines and the time to put to the process. Thanks for your input.
I agree with you here. All of this is dependent on the class and project type. Involving students each assignment each term would take a significant chunk out of in-class time, which makes me hesitant. It seems as we build a portfolio of good rubrics, using early classes as guinea pigs to build and test them, simply introducing them to the class and have a brief discussion of them would suffice. Maybe introduce and use an old one and then create one together for one assignment, so they understand the process. Seems this'd have to be an institutional adoption, no?
Alas, I digress...
-jv
Jenifer,
I see your point about using classt time and I like the idea of using one you already have an tweaking it or creating a new one. That may work. And. . .it's OK to digress. ;-p
As with many processes, it is likely that student involvement in activities such as the creation of rubrics would t times be more appropriate than at other times. Rubrics can be created to measure a variety of things, and an instructor may want to design a rubric using terminology to be learned in a lesson which students may not be aware of prior to the lesson. Overall, I would think interest might be maintained in the process of student involvement in rubric creation if it were not a constant activity.
It also might be that in some classes, students will like the activity of aiding in the creation of rubrics, and in some classes students may be less enthusiastic. If a rubric is based on an overarching element such as a metarubric, it may be easier and more valid for an instructor to incorporate necessary elements in a specific rubric. Educational terminology may need to be identified or broken down for students to apply, which may not be activities related to the class being taught.
Marcia,
You bring up some very good points. There are times when student involvement will be more appropriate. Using rubrics to provide clear guidelines and also provide for more consistent evaluation is excellent. Thank you .
I never thought about using www.surveymonkey.com for this purpose. This is something that I will think about, and perhaps implement. Thanks!
Melissa,
My LMS also has a survey creator within it. I use that a lot as well. Thanks for your input.
