Five Benefits to Using Rubrics to Assess Students

I would venture to guess that most of us are very familiar, if not most comfortable with, single-answer, multiple-choice exams to evaluate student knowledge. However, we need a different type of assessment when assessing performance, either on a skills type exam such as a simulated patient encounter or venipuncture, or a written paper, student presentation, or essay question.  

This is where using a rubric can be most effective. I find that many faculty are not as familiar with this type of assessment tool or the term. This isn't surprising since rubrics didn't come into educational fashion until the mid-1990s. Simply stated, a rubric is a scoring tool defining specific expectations for an assignment or assessment. It clearly defines the criteria that must be met and what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable performance (Stevens & Levi, 2005; Weimer, 2016). Rubrics vary significantly from simple to complex. For example, the checklist commonly used to evaluate student performance on physical examination skills is a simple form of a rubric. More complex ones are used when assessing more complicated skills such as OSCEs or for term or research papers, student presentations, or projects and, therefore, contain multiple levels of criteria and a scale. While I admit developing rubrics can be quite challenging, the good news is that many resources and templates are available, so you do not need to reinvent the wheel. I've included resources below.

Benefits of Rubrics

1. Assessment clarity

Using rubrics helps us focus on what we want to assess or evaluate. This clarity is essential because it helps us identify those parts of the assignment or performance that matter. I am sure we have all experienced creating an assessment, and then, in hindsight, we realized we were not as clear as we needed to be about what we expected from the students. I have found this especially true when assessing student performance on an objective structured clinical exam (OSCE). Or we discover the assessment didn't provide us with the information we hoped it would about what and whether the students learned what we needed them to learn. For example, it has taken several attempts for me to craft a rubric to help me gain insight into how students process their personal and professional ethics to arrive at a decision and course of action. Rubrics require us to consider the components, aspects, and characteristics of what we seek to assess. It helps us envision what performance outcome we are looking for, and this then helps us discern when that outcome is fully met by the student, partially met, or not met at all. This clarity helps us more accurately distinguish between different quality levels of performance. Rubrics are as good or bad as the criteria selected and the descriptions of the levels of performance under each criterion. Therefore, effective rubrics have appropriate criteria and well-written descriptions of performance.

2. Transparency

How many times have you heard a student ask, "I don't understand what you want on this assignment?" Rubrics can provide students with clear definitions and expectations of what they must achieve (criteria) to receive a particular grade on a defined scale. For example, if students want an "A," they will know precisely what they need to do to receive that grade. Rubrics offer transparency by helping students clearly understand what needs to be done and how their work or performance will be judged and evaluated. It has been my experience that this type of transparency helps to reduce student stress and anxiety.

The rubric must be given to the student ahead of time to provide this transparency. However, there are some valid objections to this approach. Some in education feel that providing the students with a rubric in advance results in the student focusing on getting each piece of the rubric done without considering the whole picture, such as in an assignment or paper. Although a few studies reveal that the quality of student research papers actually improved when using a rubric (Greenberg, 2015), I have encountered objections to this in PA education, especially around assessing student performance during OSCEs. Since a checklist is a form of a rubric and is commonly used as the grading tool in these situations, providing such a rubric ahead of this type of examination seems illogical. As a result of direct experience, I would agree. In one program, students were given the OSCE checklists ahead of time. As a grader, I observed that the students had memorized the checklist and performed the skills in the order of the checklist, with little critical thinking evident and minimal patient interaction. This simply highlights the importance of fully understanding the benefits and limitations of whatever assessment tool or method is being employed.

3. Grading consistency and objectivity.

Since rubrics require us to clearly define the criteria against which we will be assessing the students, it helps us grade more consistently and objectively. Each student's work is evaluated against the rubric to determine whether they met the criteria or not. Of course, we cannot completely eliminate subjectivity, but using a rubric certainly helps.

As any of us who have to grade papers in our courses know, it can be stressful, exhausting, and frustrating if we don't give ourselves enough time to do it. At the end of my ethics course each year, I had 60 essay exams to grade that averaged five pages in length. My practice was to grade 5-10 and then take a break. It is important to me to remain consistent in my grading, and experience has taught me that if I try to grade them all in one sitting, I can become more critical or lenient as the hours pass. This is referred to as grader drift. Using a rubric helps keep me honest and makes sure I am assessing against the stated criteria and that I don't get pulled off by effective or ineffective writing skills. If they don't write particularly well but they meet the criteria, they get the points. Likewise, if they write well, I could miss that they really didn't meet the criteria. The consistency and objectivity of rubrics are also helpful in enhancing consistency when multiple people are doing the grading.

4. Reduces grading time.

In most situations, rubrics function both as a guide for students and a grading tool for faculty. Grading essays and papers take time. There is no getting around this fact. However, having a rubric for each student can expedite grading time by helping us stay focused on the criteria against which we are assessing each student's work. I have definitely found this to be true.

5. Improves student feedback and decreases student complaints.

When the rubric is used as the grading tool and is returned to the students, they receive clear feedback and information about how well they met the defined criteria. This provides an opportunity for them to see exactly how they performed on each piece or section of the rubric. This can also serve to aid students to reflect on what was good about their work and what wasn't. Since there was clear communication and consistency between the work and performance expected of the students and how they were assessed, it tends to reduce student grading complaints. However, it bears mentioning that students sometimes have different opinions regarding their perception of whether they met the criteria or not. So, be sure your criteria are as clear and detailed as possible.

Developing a Rubric

Many resources can help you develop a rubric (see resources below). However, here are a few steps to keep in mind when you are considering using one.

• Determine which assignment, assessment, or activity would be best served by using a rubric.
• Clearly determine and identify what you want students to show you about their learning through this assignment. This is your criteria.
• Determine the quality levels for your criteria, which will define whether the students have met, partially met, or not met the criteria. This is referred to as the scale or rating and is commonly associated with descriptive terms such as met expectation, exceeded expectation, and/or a numerical value.

Rubrics are an effective assessment method that can benefit students and teachers significantly. The appropriateness of their use must be determined by the teacher and the nature of what is being assessed. Their effectiveness rests on a carefully constructed rubric to ensure that they evaluate the desired performance accurately.

References and Resources

Allen, D., & Tanner, K. (2017, October 17). Rubrics: Tools for making learning goals and evaluation criteria explicit for both teachers and learners. CBE -Life Sciences Education. 5(3), 197-203. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.06-06-0168

Brookhart, S. M. (2013). How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading. Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD.

DePaul University Teaching Commons. Types of rubrics. https://resources.depaul.edu/teaching-commons/teaching-guides/feedback-grading/rubrics/Pages/types-of-rubrics.aspx

Greenberg, K. P. (2015). Rubric use in formative assessment: A detailed behavioral rubric helps students improve their scientific writing skills. Teaching of Psychology. 42(3), 211-217. doi.org/10.1177/0098628315587618

Shaw, P. (2016). Re-envisioning rubrics: A few brief suggestions. The Teaching Professor. https://www.teachingprofessor.com/topics/grading-feedback/rubrics/reenvisioning-rubrics-a-few-brief-suggestions/

Stevens, D. D., & Levi, A. (2005). Introduction to rubrics: An assessment tool to save grading time, convey effective feedback, and promote student learning. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing.

UC Berkeley. Center for Teaching & Learning. Rubrics. https://teaching.berkeley.edu/teaching-guides/assessing-learning/assessment-rubrics

University of Arizona College of Medicine. Assessment and evaluation tools – Measurements: Rubrics. https://phoenixmed.arizona.edu/students/assessment/measurement-tools

Weimer, M. (2015). Exploring the advantages of rubrics. The Teaching Professor. https://www.teachingprofessor.com/for-those-who-teach/exploring-the-advantages-of-rubrics/

Weimer, M. (2016). The value of rubrics. The Teaching Professor.  https://www.teachingprofessor.com/topics/grading-feedback/rubrics/the-value-of-rubrics-for-teachers/