Desire Learn Overview

Quickguide: Rubrics

In Desire2Learn, Rubrics allow you to grade your students based on set criteria. Students will be able to see the Rubric before they submit their assignment and how many points they were awarded in each criterion after you have graded it.

In This Guide
Creating a Rubric Editing a Rubric Associating a Rubric to a Grade or Dropbox Assessing with a Rubric

How to Access
You can access the Rubrics tool while you are creating or editing a Dropbox Folder or a Grade Item (see the quickguides for the Dropbox and Grades areas for more information). You can also add Rubrics to your course navbar (see the Navbars quickguide for more information). These instructions will follow the process for using the Dropbox or Grades area.

Creating a Rubric
Rubrics can be created when you are creating or editing a Dropbox Folder or Grade Item.

Create a Rubric
1. Click Create Rubric in New Window (Figure 1). If you are creating or editing a Dropbox Folder, this link will be in the Properties tab under the Folder Properties heading. If you are creating a Grade Item, this link will be in the Properties tab under the Grading heading. 2. Enter a name for the Rubric. 3. In the Initial # of levels field, enter the number of grading levels for each criterion. For example if you wanted options for Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, and Poor, you would enter 4.
Figure 1

Desire2Learn Quickguide: Rubrics (Page 2 of 6)

4. In the Initial # of criteria field, enter the number of criteria you will you use. Criteria can be things like coverage of content or organization. 5. Select a Scoring Method from the dropdown menu. If you want the Rubric to calculate a score, which can be used to grade a Dropbox assignment, select Points. If you are not using this Rubric to calculate a score and you only want to give text feedback for each level of each criterion, you can select Text Only. 6. Click Save.

Figure 2

Set Scoring Criteria

1. From the Edit Rubric page, click the Levels and Criteria tab (Figure 2). 2. Click the down arrow next to Criterion 1 to bring up a drop-down menu and select Edit Criterion (Figure 3). 3. In the Criterion Name field, enter a descriptive name like Organization or Quality of Information. 4. For each level, enter a description of what characteristics the assignment must have in order to attain that levels score. These descriptions will be available to students before they submit their assignments (Figure 4). 5. Optionally, enter generic feedback for each level. After you score your students, they will see the feedback for their level on each criterion. 6. Click Save. 7. Repeat this process for the rest of the criteria. 8. Optionally, click the down arrow next to Overall Score to edit the names of the levels (for example, Excellent instead of Level 4). You can also enter descriptions and feedback for the overall
Figure 3

Figure 4

Desire2Learn Quickguide: Rubrics (Page 3 of 6)

score and change how many points must be accumulated in all criteria to reach that level.

Set the Rubric as Published

Once youre done creating the Rubric, the status of the Rubric needs to be changed from Draft to Published before it can be linked to a Dropbox Folder or Grade Item. 1. On the Edit Rubric page, click the Properties tab (Figure 5). 2. In the Status drop-down menu, select Published (Figure 6). 3. Click Save.
Figure 5

Editing a Rubric
This section provides instructions for accessing and editing a Rubric you have created without having to add a link to the Rubrics tool on your course navbar. Note: A Rubric cannot be edited after it has been associated with a Dropbox Folder or Grade Item. You can, however, create a copy and edit the copy.

Figure 6

Edit a Rubric

1. Go to the Edit page for the Dropbox Folder or Grade Item the Rubric is for. For a Grade Item, click the name of the item from the Manage Grades page. For a Dropbox Folder, click the edit icon next to the name of the folder. 2. Click Create Rubric in New Window (Figure 7). 3. At the top of the screen, click Rubric List (Figure 8). 4. Click the name of the Rubric you want to edit. 5. Make your desired changes in either the Properties tab or the Levels and Criteria tab and click Save.
Figure 8 Figure 7

Desire2Learn Quickguide: Rubrics (Page 4 of 6)

Copy a Rubric
1. Go to the Edit page for the Dropbox Folder or Grade Item the Rubric is for. For a Grade Item, click the name of the item from the Manage Grades page. For a Dropbox Folder, click the edit icon next to the name of the folder. 2. Click Create Rubric in New Window (Figure 7). 3. At the top of the screen, click Rubric List (Figure 8). 4. Click the down arrow next the name of the rubric you wish to copy and select Copy (Figure 9).

Figure 9

Associating a Rubric with a Dropbox Folder or Grade Item

After you have finished creating your Rubric, you must associate it with the appropriate Dropbox Folder or Grade Item. If you followed the above instructions on creating a Rubric, you may still have the edit page for the Dropbox Folder or Grade Item still open in another browser tab or window. Note: A rubric cannot be edited after it has been associated with a Dropbox Folder or Grade Item. 1. Click Add Rubric (Figure 10). The Select Rubric dialogue box will open. If you are creating or editing a Dropbox Folder, this link will be in the Properties tab under the Folder Properties heading. If you are creating a Grade Item, this link will be in the Properties tab under the Grading heading. 2. Select the radio button next to the Rubric you wish to associate with this Dropbox Folder or Grade Item (Figure 11).
Figure 10

Figure 11

Desire2Learn Quickguide: Rubrics (Page 5 of 6)

Note: Clicking the name of the Rubric will allow you to preview it. 3. At the bottom, click Add Selected.

Assessing with a Rubric

Assess a Dropbox Folder
1. After your students have submitted their assignments, click the name of the Dropbox Folder, as you normally would. 2. Click Leave Feedback next to the name of the student you want to grade. 3. For each criterion, click the radio button for the level of achievement you judge the student to have achieved (Figure 12). Note: If you want to add custom feedback for the criterion, click the edit icon for the criteria under the Score and Feedback column. Enter your comments in the Feedback field and click Save. When you have selected a score for each criterion, the Rubric will automatically calculate and select the overall score. 4. Click Transfer Score to transfer the Rubric score to the Score field under the Assessment heading (Figure 13). Note: If the points possible in the Dropbox assignment is not the same as the points possible in the Rubric, this process will convert the score using the percentage of points the student earned. 5. Click Append Feedback if you entered feedback for the Overall Score you want transferred to the assignment feedback. 6. Click Save. 7. Repeat this process for all of your students. Students will be able to see their Rubric score, grade, and feedback by clicking on the name of the Dropbox Folder.
Figure 13

Figure 12

Desire2Learn Quickguide: Rubrics (Page 6 of 6)

Assess a Grade Item

Note: When using a Rubric in the Grades area, there is no function to transfer the Rubric score to be the actual points grade. You must enter it manually. For this reason, it is strongly recommended that the Grade Item points total be the same as the Rubric point total; otherwise, you will have to convert the score. 1. In the Grades area, click the enter grades icon for the Grade Item you wish to assess (Figure 14). 2. Under the Assessment column, click the evaluate icon for the student you wish to assess (Figure 15). 3. For each criterion, click the radio button for the level of achievement you judge the student to have achieved. Note: If you want to add custom feedback for the criterion, click the edit icon for the criterion under the Score and Feedback column. Enter your comments in the Feedback field and click Save. When you have selected a score for each criterion, the Rubric will automatically calculate and select the overall score. 4. Click Save. 5. Note how many points are awarded in the overall score. 6. Click the close icon to close the Rubric dialog (Figure 16). 7. Enter the score for the student in the Grade column (Figure 17). 8. Repeat this process for all students. 9. At the top or bottom of the page, click Save. Students will be able to see both their Rubric as you have filled it out and their points grade.
Figure 17 Figure 16 Figure 15

Figure 14

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