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Brightspace: Rubrics

Rubrics are a great tool to clearly document grading criteria for both students and instructors. Students can view Brightspace rubrics associated with activities in the course. Instructors can grade using rubrics with real-time scoring on the rubric elements and the ability to leave detailed feedback for students on each aspect of the rubric criteria.

Building a New Rubric

Name, Type, and Scoring

Go to Other Course Tools in the course navigation bar and select Rubrics.
Click New Rubric.
Enter a name for the rubric.
In the top right, you can control the Status of your rubric.
Below the Name box, you can set the type of rubric. There are two types:
1. Analytic: which gives the ability to add multiple criteria groups/rows and provide feedback to each column.
2. Holistic: which gives one row and no ability to give feedback for each column.
To the right of that, set the scoring. Choose between No Score, Points, or Custom Points. Custom Points allows your points to not be incremental i.e. two columns can be worth the same amount of points.
Use reverse level order if you want the columns to be switched from high- to-low to low-to-high.

Screenshot of the Brightspace Rubrics page. Specifically, this screenshot show the Status options available for Rubrics. In the top right, there is a light blue dropdown button. The text in the button is darker blue and says Status: Published. There is an arrow icon to the right of that. Below the button is a vertical list of options. They are Published (there is a checkmark to the left), Archived, or Draft.

Screenshot of the Brightspace Rubrics page. There is a thin white horizontal text filed with black text at the top that says Rubric 1. Below that, there are three separate options. The first is text that reads Type: Analytic (and an arrow pointing down to the right of it). There is a pink square around this. The second is text that says Scoring: Points (with an arrow pointing down to the right of it). There is a pink square around this. The last is an icon with an arrow pointing left and an arrow pointing right. To the right of that there is text that says Reverse Level Order. There is a pink box around this.

What's in a Rubric?

Rubrics are made up of two things: Rows and Columns.

- Rows are made up of...
  - Criterion usually represents a specific outcome or goal that you're measuring against.
  - Criterion Group are groups of criterions that are measured in conjunction with one another.
- Columns are made up of the level of achievement, sometimes called scale. The level of achievement allows you to add levels as well as points to the rubric.

Screenshot of the Brightspace Rubric creation page. There are two rows with six columns. Both rows have the exact same thing. The first cell has text in the upper left that says New Criterion. There are three dots to the right of that in the cell. To the right of that, there are four white cells. Half way down the cells, there is a merged row with text inside that says Initial Feedback. The last column has text in the upper-center that says (slash) four.

Filling in the Details

Add in a name for your criterian group, if you're using it.

2. Adjust your level of achievement and points associated with each level (if necessary). You can add more levels by clicking on the plus icons to the left of Level 4 or to the right of Level 1.

3. Add the name of your first criterion to the first row.

4. Fill in the details for each level of achievement. Repeat steps one through four above as needed to build your rubric. The Inital Feedback allows you to add feedback that will be universally applicable to those who are scored at each level.

Overall Score

The Overall Score box, is derived from total points (standard or custom) and shows if learners meet your criteria. You can manually override both the total points and the Overall Score as needed.

Setting Options

Below the Overall Score box, open up the Options menu.
Set the Rubric Visibility:
- Rubric is visible to students.
- Rubric is hidden from students (you can decide if just the feedback in the rubric is viewable to students).
- Rubric is hidden from students until feedback is published.
Score Visibility allows for scores to be hidden from students.
The description box can be used to add a description that isn't shared with students.
Advanced Availability: Do not uncheck the Competencies box. This box is required to associate a rubric an assignment/discussion etc.
- If you want to associate a rubric with formal Competencies as a means of assessment, please reach out to the DePeters Family Center for a tutorial.
Click Close.

Adding a Rubric to an Assignment or Discussion

You can do this during the setup of an Assignment or Discussions. You may also add a rubric by editing an existing Assignment or Discussion Topic.
Click Evaluation & Feedback.
Click Add Rubric and then choose one of the following:
- For an existing Rubric:
  1. Click Add Existing.
  2. Click the checkbox to the left to insert your rubric. You can also click the icon to the right (magnifying glass) to preview the rubric in a new window.
  3. Click Add Selected.
- For a new Rubric:
  1. Click Create New.
  2. Follow the steps under Building a New Rubric to create your new rubric.
  3. Click Attach Rubric to add the rubric to your assignment.

Similar instructions can be used for written response questions in a Quiz and Grade Items in the Gradebook.

Screenshot of the Brightspace Assignment creation page. There is text across the top that says Evaluation & Feedback. Below that, there is a thin vertical black line. Below that, there is a pink box. Inside it, to the left, there is bolded text that says Rubrics. Below that, there is blue text that says Add Rubric. There is an arrow pointing down to the right of it.

Screenshot of the Brightspace Assignment creation page. At the top, to the left, there is bolded header text that says Evaluation & Feedback. Below that is a thin, vertical black line. Below that, there is bolded text that says Rubrics. Below that is a horizontal rectangle. Inside the rectangle and to the left is an icon of a table with four rows and four columns. To the right of that, there is text that says Rubric One. To the right of this and still in the rectangle is a pink outlined square around a triangle pointing right.

"Grade with Simplified Rubric" pointing towards a Carrot. "Grade with Detailed Rubric" is pointing towards a box with an arrow coming out of the corner. "Overwrite Score" is pointing to the 2.5/3 points.

Grade with Rubric

Start by viewing the Submission of an Assignment or Assess a Discussion Topic.
Grade student work with the rubric by:
1. Clicking the carrot to drop down a simplified view of the rubric.
2. Clicking the pop-up to open a detailed view of the rubric.
The Total Score and Overall Score will populate based on how many points were received.

Note: You can always override a score for a criterion or Total Score by clicking on the number and typing in a new score.

When using educational technology tools, be FERPA aware. To learn more, visit the Registrar's FERPA Guidelines site.

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