Rubrics

What is it?

A Rubric is an evaluation matrix. You can use this matrix to evaluate a student’s skills based on a number of clearly specified criteria. Each criterium has a number of levels, from good to insufficient or beginner to expert, etc. The description of each level shows well that level meets the final requirements.

Rubrics can be used to evaluate skills and assignments by the teacher, fellow students (peer assessment) or the student him- or herself (self-assessment).

Why would I want to use Rubrics?

Do any or several of the following points apply? Then Rubrics may be an interesting solution for you!

  • I want to evaluate my students’ skills
  • I want more reliability in evaluations
  • I want an evaluation tool that is clear about the evaluation criteria per skill
  • I want a tool that allows students to evaluate their own or each other’s skills
  • I want to create consistency in evaluations between evaluators
  • I want a tool for peer evaluation (collaboration)

How to I effectively employ Rubrics?

Of course, you want Rubrics to help you achieve your goal. Below, you will find some tips to use Rubrics effectively.

  1. Discuss the criteria with students in advance. This will prepare students for their task and allow them to better complete their assignments independently. In addition, they will have a better idea of the expectations and final terms of their assignment.
  2. Share the Rubric with fellow teachers and students and ask for feedback about its content. Do the criteria cover the skill? Are the levels distinct enough?
  3. Rubrics are not just useful for a final evaluation by teachers and students but can also be used by students for intermediate evaluations and self-evaluation.
  4. When you offer three or five levels, students have a tendency to choose the middle one. You prevent this by offering four levels.
  5. Place the expert column to the left and the beginner column to the right. After students read the criteria, they will immediately see the final demands or expectations.
  6. You can add examples of how the Rubric is used. This will show students how the Rubric is used.
  7. If multiple people do the evaluation, you can guarantee inter-evaluator reliability by letting each evaluator judge the same report or product before doing the real evaluations. By discussing the scores, you can create uniformity in how results are attributed to a certain