Browser Recommendation: Use Firefox or Chrome on both Macintosh and Windows computers. There are known issues with Safari and Internet Explorer. Please let your students know the recommended browsers. Vocabulary: Bb Control Panel Criteria Level of Achievement Grade Center My Grades Abbreviation for Blackboard Group of instructor tools located in the lower-left of the course A defined part of the student s work being assessed One of several standards of performance linked to the grading criteria The Action Link contains options to change, modify or interact. If the Action Link is not available, make sure Edit Mode is on and place your mouse next to the link or title. The Submit button saves any work or changes made on the screen. The Cancel button disregards any work and all changes made on the screen. Instructor s view of all grades in a course. Student view of their grades in a course. What are Rubrics? A scoring rubric is a set of criteria with defined performance levels designed to give students meaningful feedback. They are useful both as a method to inform students how to perform well and as a method to take guessing out of grading for instructors. The rubric tool available in Blackboard can be based on points, percentages or text. Any scores entered into a rubric will be totaled and recorded as the student s grade. Once a rubric has been used for grading it cannot be edited, but may be copied. Best Practices Be sure to fully explain the rubric, criteria and levels of achievement to your students. Communicate high expectations. Give detailed feedback when grading students crave it, especially online students. Good and poor examples of an assignment paired with a rubric help students better understand what you expect of them. Division of Online and Distance Education 1
Creating a Blackboard Rubric 1. Click COURSE TOOLS from the Control Panel of your Blackboard course and select RUBRICS. 2. Click CREATE RUBRIC. Click COURSE TOOLS Click CREATE RUBRIC 3. Enter a name for the rubric, then scroll down to section two Rubric Detail. 4. Choose your rubric type. No Points text feedback only Points or Point Range assign point values or ranges to the Levels of Achievement Percent or Percent Range assign percentages or percent ranges to the Levels of Achievement and the Criteria. Choose Rubric type Change title Add rows and columns Enter values Enter descriptions 5. Modify the number of rows and columns if necessary and label them appropriately. 6. Enter information for each criteria-level of achievement pair. 7. Choose the percentage or point values for each row and column, depending on the rubric type you chose. 8. Click SUBMIT. Division of Online and Distance Education 2
Attaching a Rubric to a Blackboard Assignment, Discussion Board, Blog, Journal or Wiki 1. Scroll down to the Grading section while editing or creating the Assignment, Blog, Journal or Wiki. 2. Choose SELECT A RUBRIC, select your rubric from the new window and click SUBMIT. Choose your Rubric Best Practice 3. After your rubric is attached, choose how your students view the rubric information. Your choices are: No Students cannot view the rubric Yes (With Rubric Scores) **BEST PRACTICE** Yes (Without Rubric Scores) After Grading 4. Click SUBMIT to save your changes. Always allow students to see the rubric before submitting their work. Students want to know how to excel. Choose student view Grading with a Rubric After assigning a rubric to an assessment, all grading is done through the Grade Center as usual. The rubric appears as an option during the grading process. Grading a Blackboard Assessment with Attempts 1. Find the assessment in the Grade Center that needs to be graded. 2. Choose GRADE ATTEMPTS from the column s action link to grade all attempts for the assessment. Click GRADE ATTEMPTS Division of Online and Distance Education 3
3. Under section 3. Grade Current Attempt click the VIEW RUBRIC button. Click to VIEW RUBRIC 4. Fill out the rubric according to how the student performed. Be sure to save the rubric before submitting the grade changes. Grading Tip If your rubric type is Points, Point Range or Percent, completing the rubric will automatically enter the student s score into the Grade Center. Grading a Blackboard Assessment without Attempts Manually created Grade Center columns behave slightly different from auto-created Assignment or Blog columns. Here are the steps below: 1. Instead of grading attempts, choose VIEW GRADE DETAILS for a single student in the column. Click VIEW GRADE DETAILS Mouse-over to see action link Click VIEW RUBRIC 2. The View Rubric button is now accessible to grade with the rubric. 3. After filling out and saving the rubric information, use the navigation buttons at the top of the screen to assess the next student. Next student Next column Division of Online and Distance Education 4
Other Scenarios Attaching a Rubric to a Grade Center Column The grading options to attach a rubric do not appear for Blackboard SafeAssignments, Tests and Surveys. Fortunately we can attach rubrics through their Grade Center columns. 1. Find your column in the Grade Center and click EDIT COLUMN INFORMATION from the action link. 2. Select a rubric for this assessment from the Column Information area. It is below the Points Possible entry. 3. Click SUBMIT to save your changes. Click the action link Add a Rubric Exporting and Importing Rubrics You may export a rubric from one course and import it into another or share it with a colleague. Import 1. Click COURSE TOOLS from the Control Panel of your Blackboard course and select RUBRICS. 2. Select the checkbox(es) for the rubric(s) you want to download and click EXPORT. 3. Select EXPORT TO LOCAL COMPUTER and click SUBMIT. 4. Click DOWNLOAD to save the rubric(s) to your computer. Export To import a Blackboard rubric into your course: 1. Click IMPORT RUBRIC from the Rubrics screen. 2. Click BROWSE MY COMPUTER to find the zipped file containing your Blackboard rubric. 3. Click SUBMIT. Division of Online and Distance Education 5
Student View There are two ways students can view rubrics before submitting their work. The most common method is to Students access their grades and your feedback through the My Grades tool. Below is an example of what students see when submitting a Blackboard Assignment. Student clicks to view rubric If the View Rubric button is not available, Discussion Forums for example, students may also view the rubric from the My Grades tool. Below is an example. Student clicks to view rubric Add new menu item Blackboard Tip The My Grades tool should be easy to find in your course. Use Tool Links to create a button in your course menu. Click TOOL LINK Division of Online and Distance Education 6