Rubrics and General Education

1. Rubrics and General Education Molly Herman Baker, Ph.D. Director, Teaching/Learning Center Black Hawk College

2. What is a rubric? • Classroom rubrics: • Communication tool for communicating instructor expectations • A scoring guide for individual student performance • An effective method to provide feedback to students • Program rubrics: • Method for recording a range of learning levels tied to particular quality standards • Communication tool for describing curricular sequencing/progress over time • Planning tool for curricular alignment • Tool for identifying gaps and potential areas of shared responsibility with other departments

3. Why use a program rubric? • Assess the general level of learning provided by a program (e.g., 2-year degree in nursing, general education sequence). • Provide program faculty with information about where improvement is needed in the program’s curriculum

4. Why use a program rubric? • Much learning does not involve “right answers,” but applying it to “authentic” problems • Tests may or may not be the best way to measure success in achieving a particular standard • Much learning is about process rather than what knowledge one knows at a particular point in time. • Do we want to document progress over time, providing feedback along the way?

5. Two Types of Rubrics • Holistic rubrics assess student work or curricular accomplishments as a whole. • Analytic rubrics identify and assess components of a finished product or program curriculum.

6. Holistic Rubric Example

7. Analytic Rubric Example

8. Options for Artifacts and Evidence • Performance over time (e.g., projects, collection of essays, diverse artifacts) • Culminating performance/exhibition (e.g., play, athletic competition, poetry reading, science fair) • Products/portfolios • Process (e.g., logs, drafts of papers, math problems showing all work) shows learning & progress • Best works showcase accomplishments (e.g., collection of writings, art work, critical analyses of current events, lesson plans and materials, snapshots, videoclips, performance reviews by peers/boss, etc.)

9. More Artifact Options

10. Steps to Develop Program-level Rubrics • Develop programmatic goals (e.g., general education strands) • Articulate indicators of successful completion of those goals (e.g., see BHC core curriculum document) • Clearly identify the scoring criteria (see example programmatic rubric rating scale & “current practice” descriptors) • Select artifacts/evidence that will be collected to document learning progress • Develop a curricular alignment plan and assessment timeline.

11. Key Resources • http://www.tensigma.org/rightbars/rubrics_rb1.html#Anchor-44867 (good overview of rubrics & a few examples) • http://www.iccb.state.il.us/pt3/res/link.html (scroll down to “Information on Rubrics” or http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php )

12. Let’s Try One!