IRubric Building Tips

How to build an effective rubric with iRubric? There are two aspects of rubric building to consider, creating an effective rubric in general, and using iRubric as the platform to streamline the process.

What makes a good rubric?

This rubric can help you evaluate your rubric: Rubric on rubrics.

Best practices with iRubric

• Use the gallery: to build a rubric, first search our extensive gallery of user-generated rubric. Find one that's close enough, copy it to your rubrics, and modify.

• Don't add an extra column for scores or comments. iRubric will calculate scores automatically. It also provides room to enter comments when grading online.

• Similarly, don't add an extra row for comments. iRubric print tool adds that automatically. Online grading allows commenting as well, per criteria, and per grade item. You can also engage in a confidential teacher-student discussion per grade item.

• Keep column and row weights easy to understand.

• • Column weights 1, 2, 3, 4 or 4, 3, 2, 1 are nice and familiar series.

• • Column weights 2, 4, 6, 8 is effectively identical to 1,2,3,4 but more confusing.

• Don't enable criteria weight and make them all 1 points. That won't change the calculation.*

• • Columns weights such as 4, 5.6, 7.2, 9.1 could really confuse students. Make sure they understand it.

• • iRubric allows a complex weighing system. Should you take advantage of this feature, please ask students to use "test run" to self-assess prior to submitting their work.

• • Note: Should you need a minimum score, start your column weights at a higher point. E.g. set weights to 5,6,7,8 to start the grading at 50%

• Online grading does not equate to online students. Just use iRubric to grade online and print a copy for students.