Write Effective Rubrics

Effective rubric design is key to encouraging students to provide constructively critical reviews and producing assignments with strong reliability.

In Peerceptiv, a Category is a conceptual element for the assignment. It can be a criterion for assessment or a group of criteria for assessment on the rubric. In Peerceptiv rubrics, a Category is made up of one Commenting Prompt for qualitative feedback and at least one Rating Prompt for quantitative feedback.

How to Add Categories with Comment Prompts and Rating Prompts

In Peerceptiv, each Category (broader assessment concept) contains Commenting Prompts (for qualitative feedback) and Rating Prompts (for quantitative feedback). These are grouped together so students are better able to understand the underlying concept.

To begin setting up a rubric, click Manage Your Rubric or Rubric on the side bar.

Then, click the plus icon to add a new rubric Category. 

Select Create Category with New Comment.

Add a Comment

1. Choose the name of the Category. The category is a concept or topic within the rubric. It may be a group of multiple criteria, or it can be one criterion. For example, the category might be the “Introduction,” and you may want to assess both the thesis statement and the background information within the “Introduction” Category. Each category in the rubric will have one Comment prompt, but may have multiple rating prompts.
2. In Peerceptiv, anytime there is a commenting prompt, the reviewer must enter a comment. 
   
3. Give the comment prompt a title and write a question prompting students and focusing the reviewers’ attention on what you want them to comment on.
4. Add the required number of comments, typically 1. You can add additional required comments but most instructors have students answer all questions in one commenting text box.
5. Below the prompt, enter the maximum number of comments (mandatory+optional). You must have at least 1 maximum comment if the required number of comments is 1, but you can add optional comment boxes if desired. For example, if the number of required comments is 1 and you enter 2 maximum comments, then the student will see 1 required comment box and 1 optional comment box.
6. When you are finished, click Create Category. 

Add a Rating Prompt

Next, click to add a Rating Prompt within that category. 

1. Click Add a Rating Prompt and then Create New Rating.
2. Since there may be more than one Rating Prompt in each Category, enter a Rating Name.
3. Include a rating prompt description to guide students in their ratings.
4. Select the Rating Weight for this rating prompt. The default is 1 for all Rating Prompts. If you set the weight of a prompt to 2, for example, that Rating Prompt will be worth twice as much as any that are set to 1.

5. Next, please include your rating level descriptors. You can choose anywhere from 2-10 levels. Most instructors use a rating scale with 4 or 5 levels. Leave any levels blank that you do not want students to use. In other words, if you want to have a 5-point rubric, only put descriptions in for levels 1-5.

NOTE: you have a 400 character limit for the rating level descriptors. Adding more than 400 characters will prevent your prompt from saving.

6. Click Create Rating when finished.

In the below example there are only four rating levels with descriptors, so the students will only see four levels available when rating. 

In the below example, there are 7 rating levels, but the instructor has put numbers in the “middling” levels, creating an option between descriptor levels. 

When you have successfully added a comment prompt and a rating prompt in a category, you can decide to add another rating prompt within that same category or create a new category. See below: 

Tips for Creating Rating Prompts

Keep the following in mind as you design the rating prompts.

1. Encourage a spread of ratings across the scale, making it more difficult for students to justify the highest rating in the rubric.
2. Use concrete terms (e.g. The paper provides necessary definitions clearly and consistently) rather than only generic descriptors (e.g., Good, Poor).
3. Each Rating Prompt should represent a single principle for assessment. It is better to have two different Rating Prompts when having students assess two different features of the assignment.
4. You have a 400 character limit for the rating level descriptors. It is better to keep the descriptors for each level concise and to the point. If you want to add more information for your students about the criteria, you can add that information to the general rating prompt description, which has no character limit.
5. If you leave an entry blank, the scale will omit that level entirely. For example, if you only put values in 1, 2, 3, 4 with the rest blank, then students will have a 4-point scale.
6. Use a spread of ratings across the scale. You can choose any spread of ratings between 1 and 10.  Best practices recommends at least three rating levels for each rating prompt.
7. If you want your assignment and the grades for the assignment to focus more on the reviewing process than the submission quality, please email [e-mail] for ways that you can customize the rubric set-up to focus on comments rather than ratings.

Writing an effective Rubric within the Peerceptiv framework is critical to your success while using this tool. We offer additional personalized support to instructors as they create rubrics. Please, reach out to Peerceptiv Support for this free rubric support.