Brightspace interactive rubrics help instructors:
- Increase Efficiency - Rubrics are built into the grading workflow. Rubrics click-and-score simplicity saves time.
- Provide Consistent and Quality Feedback - Rubrics enable instructors to provide consistent evaluation and contextual feedback to students.
- Promote 21st Century Skills - Rubrics make it easier to assign essay questions, individual and group assignments, and discussion forums as assessment activities which foster critical thinking and collaboration.
Rubrics allow instructors to establish set criteria for grading assignments; instructors can attach rubrics to submission folders so that the criteria are available to students before they submit their assignment.
Rubrics contain criteria that list the attributes on which an assignment will be assessed and levels that list the standards each criterion must meet. A specific grade or score is usually assigned to each level. In Brightspace, you can use a rubric to calculate scores for multiple criteria to determine an overall score for an assignment.
Rubrics can be used to display the number of points students were awarded for each criterion after the assignment is graded and rubrics can also be used to provide customized feedback.
Instructors can choose to have the rubrics visible to students at any time, only after grading has been completed, or not shown to the students at all.
If you are looking for more information on rubrics, check out these resources:
- TLEE Podcast #87: Jay Todd on Rubrics
- Creating and Using Rubrics (Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning at Yale)
- Tips for Keeping Rubrics Clear, Fair and Efficient
- Sample Discussion Rubrics (pdf)
- Grading Rubrics: Sample Scales
NOTE: The Brightspace Rubrics tool is different from Turnitin Rubrics.
Follow these steps to do it.
To create a rubric you should:
- On the navbar, click Course Admin.
- Click Rubrics.
- On the Rubrics page, click New Rubric.
- Enter a name for your rubric.
- Change the status of your rubric, if necessary.
- Choose the rubric Type and Scoring method.
- Enter the criteria, levels, criteria/level details, and initial feedback for your rubric.
- Enter details for the Overall Score feedback.
- Click Options and choose the options for your rubric.
- Click Close.
Note: Rubric changes are automatically saved.
To attach a rubric to a Discussion topic:
Note: You must first create a rubric and set its Status to Published.
- On the course home page, click Discussions in the NavBar.
- Click Edit Topic from the context menu of the discussion topic you want to attach a rubric to.
- In the Assessments tab, click Add Rubric.
- Select the check box for the rubric you want to attach to the discussion topic.
- Click Add Selected.
- Click Save and Close.
To attach a rubric to an Assignment:
Note: You must first create a rubric and set its Status to Published.
- On the NavBar, click Activities and then click on Assignments.
- Click Edit Assignment from the context menu of the assignment you want to attach a rubric to.
- In the Properties tab, click Add Rubric.
- Select the check box for the rubric you want to attach to the assignment.
- Click Add Selected.
- Click Save and Close.
Want more information?
Rubrics Tool Quick Reference Guide (pdf)
Create a Rubric
Create an Analytic Rubric (video)
Create a Weighted Rubric (video)
Create a Holistic Rubric (video)
Add a Rubric to an Existing Activity (video)
Attach a Rubric to a Discussion Topic (video)
Grading with a Rubric
Add Feedback and Evaluations to Assignments (video)
Rubrics FAQ
View all the Brightspace training recaps
Instructors Quick Start Tutorial
Continuous Delivery release notes
Brightspace Known Issues
Request a sandbox course
Sign-up for Brightspace training sessions
You can find Brightspace help at D2L's website.
Join the Brightspace Community.
Try these Brightspace How-To documents.
Visit our Brightspace FAQs for additional Brightspace information
or schedule a one-on-one session, email, or
call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.
Note: Are you doing something innovative in Brightspace or perhaps you've discovered a handy tip? Share how you are using Brightspace in your teaching and learning in The Orange Room.
Image credit: "Rubric Highway" by Jen Hegna licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Jay Todd studied writing with Frederick and Steven Barthelme and Mary Robison at the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi. His fiction has appeared in journals such as Southern California Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Fiction Weekly, and 971 Magazine. Since 2007, he has been a member of Department of English at Xavier, where he teaches American Literature, Freshman Composition, Modern English Grammars, and The Graphic Novel and Social Justice. From 2007 to 2010, Dr. Todd served as Xavier's Writing Center Director. From 2010 until 2015, he served as QEP Director, managing Xavier's Read Today, Lead Tomorrow initiative. In 2015, he became the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Faculty Development's first Associate Director for Programming. As Associate Director for Programming, Dr. Todd assists in providing high-quality, relevant, evidence-based programming in support of CAT+FD's mission to serve faculty across all career stages and areas of professional responsibility.
Elizabeth Yost Hammer is the Director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and a Kellogg Professor in Teaching in the Psychology Department. She received her Ph.D. in experimental social psychology from Tulane University. She regularly teaches Introductory Psychology, Research Methods, and Freshman Seminar. Her research interests focus on the scholarship of teaching and learning, and she has contributed chapters to several books intended to enhance teaching preparation including The Handbook of the Teaching of Psychology. She is a co-author of the textbook, Psychology Applied to Modern Life. Dr. Hammer is a past-president of Psi Chi (the International Honor Society in Psychology), and served as Chief Reader for Advanced Placement Psychology. Her work in the Center for the Advancement of Teaching includes organizing pedagogical workshops and faculty development initiatives. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, and the Professional and Organizational Developers Network.
