As one of my emerging tools, I decided to evaluate Quick Rubric
I wanted to see if I could create something that was easier for my students to follow. I had just completed grading their consequence assignments – which is the 4th in a series of 7 assignments to generate a risk analysis about a target with hazards and threats that they have selected. Even though I continue to update my assignments based on how students interpret the instructions, I always find additional opportunities to improve them after the student interactions.
I had added a simple table to all of my assignments after I did my initial Quality Matters assessment that looks like this:
| Grading Criteria | Value | Earned |
| Timeliness | 10 | |
| Grammar/completeness/formatting/credibility | 10 | |
| Table 1 – Target Data | 10 | |
| Table 2 – Consequence Assessment | 60 | |
| Wrap up Questions | 10 | |
| Total | 100 pts |
While this was an improvement to what had existed before, I’ve realized in taking my own classes is that I don’t offer students an understanding of the gradation of what “good” really looks like. Using a rubric like this allows me to implement a consistent approach, as well as rewarding the students that are going the extra mile over those that are taking more of a “check the box” approach.
The problem I don’t think I’ve solved yet (and I’d love to hear your insights” is how to reward timeliness. I’ve been much more discretionary this semester about late submittals because I’m finding that it penalizes students who are working hard but have multiple challenges in their lives – students who got COVID or who are tending to children taking classes during COVID or single parents. Mostly, I’m just amazed that many of my students are taking multiple classes during a semester. So I continue to look for ways that help them understand the material as well as make progress so they don’t feel “beaten down” by the course.
I created this rubric using Quick Rubric in about an hour, leveraging the material that I already had as well as some of the “lessons learned” that I had from just grading this set of assignments.
Key advantages:
- Free
- Provides guidance on how to build a good rubric
- Easy to implement
- Can add/subtract/edit materials easily
- Allows for easy viewing/printing/saving/copying
- Has options for advanced formatting
- Doesn’t seem to involve heavy marketing after you sign up for an account
- Links to other products by the same company
Potential barriers:
- I could imagine it to be a bit excessive for simple assignments and not applicable to assignments that have more of a “quiz-like” nature
- I can save it as a PDF only and then I have to manipulate it to get a picture for my blog post. Fortunately, I had splurged on a teacher discounted subscription to Adobe earlier this year, which makes that exercise a tad easier. And when I did that, it printed as two separate pages. So formatting took a bit of time as I had to export the PDF to jpg and then edit for sizing. That worked when I was creating my Google Doc before my post, but the blog post doesn’t take that so I just inserted the link to the PDF – a bit of extra work, but good practice as I consider the platform in which I need to share this.
Perceived usefulness:
- I could definitely see myself using this for the decision brief project series in my class. I think it could provide better guidance that is useful in an asynchronous class
- I think it makes it easier for me to grade papers without having to count individual cells – did they meet the criteria or not. E.g. a potential time saver – Eureka!
- I think it will be easier to reward students who have invested extra effort and create more of a normal distribution without punishing folks on timeliness.
I definitely see myself integrating this into the next iteration of this series to test it out! Cool beans!
Rubric making is not my forte, so I am very excited about this tool. I mentioned it in your emerging tools post, but as my unit is going to be for students K-12 (knowing that not all students / grades will participate), this is a tool that I could see myself using as a starting point to make rubrics for each content area level. Timeliness is a big question mark we are all experiencing this year isn’t it – like you said with COVID and everything that changed because of the pandemic. I haven’t rewarded turning things on time, I have just been flexible when it comes to those who can’t meet the deadline, which is similar to what Melissa said. Though in a time like this, it is important to show appreciation for meeting deadlines as even that has become difficult to do these days. I know that with work and school there was just one point where it was difficult to balance the two, and I’m sure a lot of people are experiencing that. If you think of anything, I’d love to hear your ideas.
I usually just make my own rubric in word or excel so I really like this. I don’t think you necessarily have to reward timeliness because it is an expectation. I would be more inclined to say be flexible with students who have reached out to you. I know it it a simple comparison, but I don’t reward the students who complete their work in class. I just accommodate those who I know struggle and those who I see are being silly instead of working have to finish while the others get free time.
It was helpful to hear how you and Morgan are addressing timeliness. Given my own lack of timeliness this semester, I have developed a new level of compassion for how much we can handle at the moment and I think the timeliness was more for my benefit than my students so I could manage my workload. It’s one of my tasks over the winter break to see how I can change that for next semester’s class!