Create and Manage Rubrics

A rubric sets criteria for grading and helps an educator evaluate the quality of students’ work.

With Interactive Assignment Rubrics, faculty can create clear grading standards for assessments, projects, or assignments. For students, this adds transparency to the grading process.

New rubric templates can be created from scratch by faculty and academic managers, though using a manager-built template might be a good idea for schools that require a common standard.

Note: This help topic covers rubric settings within Academics. For more information on rubrics for faculty, see Interactive Assignment Rubrics .

To get started:

  1. In Academics, go to Grades and select Grading setup.

  2. Open the Rubric bank tab.

Tip: For a tutorial on setting up grading at your school, see The Guide to Grading Setup.

  1. In the Rubric bank, select + to create a new rubric.

  2. Enter a Rubric name. Optionally, add a Description.

  3. Under Evaluate by, select whether students will be evaluated by Points, Point range, or Comment only. Depending on your selection here, you will see different menu options when adding skills to evaluate.

  4. Optionally, you can choose to Associate with Grade level(s) and Associate with department(s). Associations will be searchable within the Rubric bank.

  5. Under Skill to evaluate, enter the name of a skill (for example: Grammar, Comprehension, Critical Thinking, or Lab Safety). Each skill is an area where students will be graded or receive comments.

  6. Add Proficiency levels for the skill (for example: Exemplary, Adequate, Developing, Needs Improvement). If prompted, enter the Points or Point Range for each Proficiency level.

    Select + Add a level if needed, or select X to delete a blank level.

    Note: For faculty members who plan to associate a point-based rubric with an assignment using Gradebook, the Points value in the rubric automatically becomes the Max Points for the assignment.

  7. After the skill is created, select Done adding this skill.

    Note: We recommend selecting Save to rubric bank after you set up each skill. This will prevent losing work from the system timing out before you are able to save your work.

  8. If additional skills are needed, select + Add another skill and follow Steps 5 and 6 again. Any added skill sections you add retain the previously created Point totals and Proficiency names by default, but you can change them if you want.

  9. When you are finished, select Save to rubric bank.

Use Find in list to search the Rubric bank. This tool searches every column of the list. For example, you can enter the name of a department, the name of a rubric's creator, or a word from the Description to search the list.

Select Columns to modify which columns appear in the list. Select Filters to apply filters according to a specific column.

  1. Find the rubric you would like to edit using Find in list, Columns, or Filters.

  2. Select the triple-dot icon (...) beside the rubric name.

  3. Select Edit rubric to open the editing dialog.

  4. Select Save to rubric bank when you are finished.

  1. Find the rubric you would like to copy using Find in list, Columns, or Filters.

  2. Select the triple-dot icon (...) beside the rubric name.

  3. Select Duplicate. This opens the Create a new rubric dialog with all of the existing rubric's information filled in.

  4. Enter a Rubric name. By default the new rubric is called "Copy of [name of existing rubric]." Make any changes you need to make, then select Save to rubric bank.

  1. Find the rubric you would like to delete using Find in list, Columns, or Filters.

  2. Select the triple-dot icon (...) beside the rubric name.

  3. Select Delete, then Confirm.

  1. Find the rubric you would like to print using Find in list, Columns, or Filters.

  2. Select the triple-dot icon (...) beside the rubric name.

  3. Select Print. This opens a preview of the rubric. Select Print again to open a printing menu in your web browser.