Mastering Rubrics in Drexel Blackboard Learn: A Comprehensive Guide for Educators

Rubrics are invaluable tools in education, acting as clear and consistent evaluation systems that benefit both instructors and students alike. For students, rubrics demystify assignment expectations, ensure grading fairness, and highlight areas for improvement. Instructors, on the other hand, find rubrics streamline communication of these expectations, promote grading consistency across submissions, and ultimately save valuable time during the assessment process. If you’re an educator at Drexel University using Blackboard Learn, understanding how to effectively create and utilize rubrics within the platform is essential. This guide provides a comprehensive walkthrough, ensuring you can leverage rubrics to enhance your teaching and grading workflows in Drexel Blackboard Learn.

Creating a Rubric within Drexel Blackboard Learn

Drexel Blackboard Learn offers a user-friendly interface for building rubrics tailored to your specific assignment needs. Follow these steps to create your own rubric:

1. Access the Rubrics Tool: Begin by navigating to the Course Tools section within your Drexel Blackboard Learn course’s left-hand navigation menu. From there, select Rubrics.

2. Initiate Rubric Creation: On the Rubrics page, click on the Create Rubric button to start building a new rubric from scratch.

3. Name and Describe Your Rubric: Provide a clear and descriptive name for your rubric in the designated field. Adding an optional description can further clarify the rubric’s purpose, especially if you plan to reuse or share it.

4. Understand the Rubric Grid: Blackboard Learn presents a pre-populated rubric grid as a starting point. This grid includes default columns representing levels of achievement (Novice, Competent, Proficient) and rows representing criteria for written papers (Formatting, Organization, Grammar).

5. Customize Levels of Achievement and Criteria:

   • Edit Existing Labels: To modify the default names for criteria or achievement levels, click the down-arrow icon next to the label you wish to change and select Edit. This allows you to rename them to be more specific to your assignment and discipline.
   • Add More Criteria and Levels: Enhance the rubric’s granularity by adding more rows for specific criteria using the Add Row button. Similarly, expand the levels of achievement by clicking Add Column.
   • Reorder Metrics: To reorganize the order of criteria or achievement levels for better flow, select either the Criteria or Levels of Achievement headings. A new panel will appear, enabling you to drag and drop the metrics into your desired sequence.

6. Remove Unnecessary Rows or Columns: If you need to simplify your rubric, you can delete criteria rows or achievement level columns by clicking the down-arrow next to the row or column name and choosing Delete this row/column from the dropdown menu.

7. Choose Your Rubric Type: Blackboard Learn offers various rubric types to suit different grading preferences. Access the Rubric Type dropdown menu to select your preferred format:

   • No Points: Ideal for providing qualitative feedback without assigning numerical scores.
   • Points: Assigns a fixed point value to each cell in the rubric grid, offering structured scoring.
   • Point Range: Allows for a range of points for each cell, providing flexibility within each criterion level.
   • Percent: Uses percentages for each metric, where the total weight of all criteria must equal 100%. The highest achievement level must be set to 100%.
   • Percent Range: Similar to Point Range, but uses percentages instead of point values.

8. Define Point/Percentage Values and Descriptions: For each cell in the rubric grid, enter the corresponding point or percentage value based on your chosen rubric type. Crucially, in the text box below each cell, provide a detailed description of what performance at that specific criterion and achievement level looks like. Be explicit and descriptive, as these descriptions are vital for student understanding and grading consistency. Each description box has a 1,000-character limit.

9. Finalize and Save: Once you have customized your rubric to your satisfaction, click Submit to save your newly created rubric in Drexel Blackboard Learn.

Editing Existing Rubrics in Drexel Blackboard Learn

Need to tweak a rubric you’ve already created? Drexel Blackboard Learn makes editing straightforward, as long as the rubric hasn’t been used for grading yet.

1. Locate the Rubric: Navigate back to Course Tools > Rubrics in your Drexel Blackboard Learn course.
2. Access Edit Mode: Find the rubric you wish to modify. Click the down-arrow to the right of the rubric’s name and select Edit from the dropdown menu.
3. Make Your Changes: You can now adjust any aspect of the rubric, including criteria, levels of achievement, descriptions, and point/percentage values, following the same steps as in the rubric creation process.
4. Save Your Edits: Click Submit to save your changes.

Important Note: Once a rubric has been used to grade student submissions in Drexel Blackboard Learn, it becomes locked for editing to maintain grading integrity. If you need to revise a rubric that has already been used, you must create a copy of it. To do this, click the down-arrow next to the rubric name and select Copy. Then, you can freely edit the copied version without affecting past grading records.

Applying Rubrics to Assignments in Drexel Blackboard Learn

To utilize your rubrics for grading, you need to associate them with assignments in Drexel Blackboard Learn. Here’s how:

1. Access Assignment Settings: Navigate to the specific assignment you want to grade with a rubric. Access the assignment’s settings, usually through an “Edit” or “Modify” option.
2. Locate Grading Options: Within the assignment settings, scroll down to find the Grading options section.
3. Add Your Rubric: Click on Add Rubric and then Select Rubric.
4. Choose Your Rubric: A window will appear listing your created rubrics. Check the box next to the rubric you want to apply to the assignment and click Submit.

Controlling Rubric Visibility for Students:

By default, rubrics in Drexel Blackboard Learn are only visible to instructors. However, you can control student access using the Show Rubric to Students dropdown menu in the assignment settings:

• No: Students will not be able to see the rubric at any point.
• Yes (With Rubric Scores): Students can view the rubric from the moment the assignment is available. They will see the criteria, achievement levels, and the possible points or percentages associated with each level. After grading, they will also see their scores for each criterion. This option promotes full transparency.
• Yes (Without Rubric Scores): Students can see the rubric structure and descriptions when the assignment is available, but the point or percentage values are hidden until after grading. After grading, students will see their overall assignment score but not the breakdown per criterion.
• After Grading: Students can only view the rubric after all submissions have been graded and scores released. This option delays rubric access until the grading process is complete.

Choose the visibility setting that best aligns with your pedagogical approach and desired level of student transparency in Drexel Blackboard Learn.

Using Rubrics for Test Questions in Drexel Blackboard Learn

Rubrics aren’t limited to assignments; you can also apply them to essay-style questions within tests in Drexel Blackboard Learn. This ensures consistent and criterion-based grading for subjective test items.

1. Access Tests, Surveys, and Pools: Go to Course Tools > Tests, Surveys, and Pools in your Drexel Blackboard Learn course.
2. Edit Your Test: Locate the test containing the essay question you want to assess with a rubric and edit the test.
3. Find or Create the Essay Question: Either locate an existing essay question or create a new one.
4. Access Question Settings: Open the settings for the specific essay question you are working with.
5. Add a Rubric: Scroll down to the Rubrics section within the question settings. Click Add Rubric > Select Rubric.
6. Choose Your Rubric: Select the desired rubric from the list and click Submit.

Drexel Blackboard Learn will automatically adjust point and percentage calculations for rubrics applied to test questions based on the question’s point value. You’ll see a rubric icon next to the points field for any test question associated with a rubric, visually indicating its grading method:

Need Further Assistance?

For more in-depth information and advanced techniques regarding rubrics, consult Blackboard’s official Help site (https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Instructor/Original/Grade/Rubrics) and the LeBow Knowledge Base (https://www.lebow.drexel.edu/about/support-services/knowledge-base).

The LeBow Instructional Technology team at Drexel is dedicated to supporting faculty in effectively using educational technologies like Blackboard Learn. Don’t hesitate to reach out for personalized assistance with designing, modifying, or applying rubrics. Contact them at 215-895-2314 or [email protected] to ask questions or schedule a consultation to optimize your use of rubrics in Drexel Blackboard Learn.