In VIULearn, you can make and use rubrics to create a set of criteria for grading assignments. Rubrics help students understand expectations so they can self-assess their learning. Rubrics provide a standard set of expectations. This can help prevent confusion and grade disputes.
We recommend drafting your rubric before starting to build in VIULearn. Think about what criteria you want to measure and the levels of achievement you want to use. To get started with creating a rubric, check out designing and using rubrics or contact us at learnsupport@viu.ca.
Rubric terms and definitions
To help you make your rubric within VIULearn, here are some of the key terms used by the Rubric tool in VIULearn.
Levels: Short for levels of achievement, rubric levels are success ranges for a criterion.
When grading you assign a level for each criterion and then end up with an overall achievement level for all criteria in the rubric. You will be able to add a text description to each level for each criterion to explain to students what they need to do to acheive that level.
Criterion: These are the skills or elements you are measuring. Good criteria are specific and measurable.
Overall score: This is the cumulative result of the levels students achieve across all criteria on the rubric. For points-based analytic rubrics, the level can be calculated based on points earned across criteria. On rubrics where you are not assigning points, you will be able to manually select the final level students' have achieved.
- In the course homepage, select Faculty Tools in the course navigation bar. From the drop-down menu, select Course Admin.
- Under the Assessment category, select Rubrics.
- Click the blue New Rubric button.
- In the Name input field, give your new rubric a name.
- Choose your preferred Rubric Type:
- Analytic: Analytic rubrics allow you to insert multiple assessment criteria (Thesis Statement/Main Idea, Grammar and Errors, etc) and will allow you to insert levels that students have achieved on those assessment criteria (Exceeds Expectations, Meets Expectations, etc.). Students will then be given an overall score and/or an overall level of achievement based on their performance on those assessment criteria.
- Holistic: Holistic rubrics contain only one assessment criteria and are used to assess students' overall achievement on the assignment.
- Choose your preferred Scoring method:
- No Score (analytic and holistic): With this setting, the rubric will not assign a score to each level and no overall score will be assigned to the rubric. This setting is best used for rubrics that are not being used to provide a numerical grade on an assignment.
- Points (analytic): With this setting, a score will be assigned to every criterion within the rubric. This setting is best used when all criterion within the rubric will be worth the same amount of points.
- Custom points (analytic): With this setting, each level can be customized to assign a particular score to each individual Criterion within a rubric. This setting is best used when you wish for a particular criterion to be worth more or less then the other criterion in the rubric.
- Percentage (Holistic): With this setting, a percentage will be assigned to each level within the rubric. Students will need to achieve that percentage or higher on the assignment in order to achieve that level in the rubric.
- Begin creating your rubric by typing into the input fields provided.
- If you are creating an Analytic rubric, your rubric will have 4 achievement levels and 3 criterion by default. For a Holistic rubric, your rubric will have 4 achievement levels by default.
- If you wish to have more levels, select the white plus button that is located on either side of the first or last level. If you would like to add a new level to the left side of the rubric, click the left plus button. If you would like to add a new level to the right side of the rubric, click the right plus button.
- To add a new criterion to your rubric, click the blue + Add Criterion text at the bottom of your rubric. This will add a new criterion at the bottom of the list. You can then move this criterion level to the appropriate location by clicking and dragging the dotted icon on the leftmost side of the criterion. Drag and drop the criterion where you would like it to be located. Release the mouse button to place the criterion in it's new location.
- You can also delete any levels or criterion in your rubric.
- To delete a level in your rubric, click the trashcan icon underneath the level. Click the blue Delete button to confirm.
- To delete a criterion in your rubric, click the ellipses icon (...) next to the criterion. Select Delete Row from the dropdown menu. Click the blue Delete button to confirm.
- The rubric will automatically save every time you make a change on it. Once you have finished customizing your rubric, click the Close button at the bottom of the screen.
Publication status
In VIULearn, Rubrics can be set to have the following publication statuses:
Published: You can connect a published rubric to activities and grade items in VIULearn. You can continue to edit a published rubric until you grade any activity with it. Once you have used the rubric to assess a student, you will no longer be able to edit that rubric.
Draft: You can't attach a draft rubric to an activyt in VIULearn. This status is useful if you want to ensure you don't accidentally attach an incomplete or in-progress rubric to an activity.
Archived: This is the option to choose if you want to hide a rubric that you have used. Rubrics used for assessment are locked and cannot be deleted. Archiving a rubric hides it from view without deleting it.
- In the course homepage, select Faculty Tools in the course navigation bar. From the drop-down menu, select Course Admin.
- Under the Assessment category, select Rubrics.
- Click on the rubric you wish to edit.
- Click the Status text in the upper right hand corner. Choose your preferred publication status.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Close button.
Attach a rubrics to activities in VIULearn
To use a rubric for assessment in VIULearn, you first need to connect the rubric to an activity or grade item.
For Assignments, students will see the rubric on the submission page so they can review the criteria before submitting their work. Students can also view the rubric connected to a grade item or discussion topic in those tools. Rubrics attached to Written Response quiz questions will be accessible while the student writes the quiz. There will be a link to the rubric directly underneath the text entry box for the quesiton.
- Select Assessment and then Assignments in the course navigation bar.
- Find the Assignment Submission folder you would like to add a rubric to and click the downward arrow beside it. Select Edit Assignment from the drop-down menu. Alternatively, click the New Assignment button to create a new Assignment Submission folder.
- Click the Evaluation & Feedback tab.
- Click the blue Add Rubric text. Select Add Existing from the drop-down menu.
- Click the checkbox next to the rubric you wish to attach.
- Click the blue Add Selected button.
- Click the blue Save and Close button.
- Select Communication and then Discussions in the course navigation bar.
- Click the downward arrow beside the Discussion Topic you would like to add a rubric to. Select Edit Topic from the drop-down menu. Alternately, click the New button and select New Topic to create a new Discussion Topic.
- Click the Evaluation & Feedback tab.
- Click the blue Add Rubric text. Select Add Existing from the dropdown menu.
- Click the checkbox next to the rubric you wish to attach.
- Click the blue Add Selected button.
- Click the blue Save and Close button.
- Select Assessment and then Grades in the course navigation bar.
- Click on the Grade Item you wish to add a rubric to.
- Scroll down. Underneath the Rubrics heading, click the Add Rubric button.
- Click the checkbox next to the rubric you wish to attach.
- Click the blue Add Selected button.
- Click the blue Save and Close button.