You use a rubric to assess students' performance in a reliable, transparent, and consistent way. When creating rubrics, it is useful to follow several steps (based on the Assessment Guide, 2024):

1. Determine the scale to be used for the assessment levels. An even number of levels in the scale can make it difficult to assess performance "in the middle." In this context, decide on the layout of the rubric. From high to low or vice versa.
2. Identify the critical elements of each learning outcome (criteria): What must a student demonstrate? For example, is it about being able to describe/show something?
3. Translate these into measurable performances. Start by defining the 'sufficient' level. This is the minimum performance required for the level.
4. Describe the expected performance at different levels of the scale as concisely as possible, preferably in one sentence. Check whether the descriptions for 'excellent,' 'good,' etc., are consistent and not overly detailed.
5. Optionally, assign weight to each criterion for the final score.
6. Present the rubric to colleagues and the assessment committee, and discuss it with a few students if necessary.

When creating a rubric, you define criteria and levels. You can use a criterion group to group related criteria. For example, for an essay rubric, you can create the criterion groups Language Use and Content. Within the Language Use group, you could create the criteria Spelling, Grammar, and Sentence Structure. Then, you define the levels at which students can score for each criterion, such as: Insufficient, Sufficient, Good, and Excellent.

To access rubrics, go to Course Admin in the course and select Rubrics.

You land on the rubrics homepage, where you can find an overview of all the rubrics you have created.

• Click on New Rubric.

1. Give the rubric a name.
2. In the top bar, choose:
   • Type – select whether the rubric is holistic or analytic;
   • Scoring – choose the method of point allocation:
     • No Score: no points, only text.
     • Points: a combination of text and points (e.g., Good and 20 points). The points for the levels are the same across all criteria. Note: This option is only available for an analytic rubric.
     • Custom Points: assign a custom number of points to each criterion (e.g., the performance levels are defined as insufficient, sufficient, good, and excellent. Each level of the criterion Spelling could be worth 0, 10, 20, or 30 points, while the levels of the criterion Grammar could be worth 0, 20, 40, and 60 points, making Grammar twice as valuable as Spelling). Note: This option is only available for an analytic rubric.
     • Percentage: assign a percentage to each level (e.g., Level 4 is 75%). When the student is rated at Level 4, they will receive 75% of the maximum score for that item. Note: This option is only available for a holistic rubric.
   • With Reverse Level Order, you can indicate whether the levels increase or decrease in points.
3. In the top row, give the criterion group and levels a name (e.g., the criterion group Language Use, which has four levels). Note: Initially, you will have a default criterion group with three rows and four columns. You can only name the criterion group after you have added at least one group.
   • Use the plus icons to the left and right of the levels to add levels.
   • If you chose scoring via points, you can change the number of points for each level.
   • Click the trash icon to remove a level.
   • For each criterion, add a description and, if necessary, specific feedback for that criterion (e.g., in the Language Use group, there are criteria for Spelling and Grammar. Each of these criteria can be scored at Level 3, Level 2, or Level 1, with the corresponding points).
4. Under Initial Feedback, you can optionally add criterion-specific feedback. Note: This feedback will not be shown in the general feedback but will be displayed when students view the completed rubric.
5. On the right, you will see the number of points a student can earn for each criterion.
6. Use the six-point icon on the left of each criterion to drag it to a different position within the criterion group. Click and hold the icon, then move the mouse to the desired location and release it.
7. Use the arrows to move the criterion group up or down in relation to other criterion groups.
8. Click on the three dots next to a row to perform actions that affect the entire row.
   • Click Copy Row to copy the row. The copy will be named "Copy of ...".
   • Click Delete Row to remove the row.

1. At the bottom of a criterion group, you can add criteria to the group. Click on Add Criterion. Then, you can add a name and description for the new criterion. You can add as many criteria as you need.
2. Click on Add Criteria Group to create a new criterion group. If your rubric contains many criteria, you can organize them neatly into different categories with this option (for example, in the previous example, we already saw that this rubric has a criterion group called Language Use).
3. At the bottom of the rubric, you will see the maximum number of points that can be earned for the entire rubric.
4. To copy or delete an entire criterion group, click on the three dots next to the criterion group. Then, select Copy Criteria Group or Delete Criteria Group.

Under all the criterion groups, you will find the Overall Score. In this section, you specify performance levels based on the total score achieved.

1. Enter the number of points a student must earn to reach each level. Note: The number of levels in the Overall Score is not dependent on the number of levels in the rubric and can have more or fewer levels. The performance level indicates how much room for improvement a student has, but it does not determine the grade for the assignment. The Overall Score is separate from the Total Score, which determines the assessment grade. The Overall Score only provides an indication to the student of their performance level.
2. Use the plus icons to add levels. Note: You can delete levels with the trash icon.
3. Optionally, add feedback for each level.

Click on Options to open additional settings for the rubric.

1. Select whether students can see the rubric:
   • Rubric is visible to students: students can always see the rubric as soon as they can access the item to which the rubric is linked.
   • Rubric is hidden from students: students will not see the rubric, not even afterward. They will only see the grade calculated from the rubric.
     • Include rubric feedback in overall feedback: if you check this option, students will see the scores they achieved for the different criteria along with the grade, but not the rubric itself.
   • Rubric is hidden from students until feedback is published: students will only see the rubric after you have published the feedback for the item to which it is linked.
2. Check Hide Scores from students to prevent students from seeing the scores when using a different grading scheme. Students will still see the levels and, in the feedback, which level they scored on each criterion, but they will not see the specific score for a level or the total score.
3. Optionally, provide a short description for the rubric. Note: This description is not visible to students.
4. The options under Advanced Availability are turned off by default and are not relevant, as both the competencies tool and the ePortfolio tool in Brightspace are not used in our Brightspace environment.
5. Click on Close to close the rubric and return to the rubrics homepage. Note: The rubric is automatically saved, so you do not need to save it manually.

1. Click on the arrow next to Edit Rubric and then click on Preview to see what the rubric looks like at that moment. The preview will open in a new window.
2. On the right, you will see Saved: this means all the changes you have made to the rubric have been saved. If you are in the process of editing, you may see Saving.... This means Brightspace is saving all the changes.
3. A new rubric is automatically set to Published. This means it is available to be linked to activities such as an Assignment or Discussion. Click on the arrow to change the status:
   • Draft: The rubric cannot yet be linked to an activity (and therefore cannot be used to assess an activity). Use this option if you still want to make changes to the rubric.
   • Published: The rubric can be linked. Note: Once linked, you cannot change the name, description, levels, or criteria of the rubric!
   • Archived: The rubric will not appear in standard search results and is unavailable for linking. However, existing links will remain intact after archiving.

If you want to edit a rubric, click on the arrow next to the rubric's name. Here, in addition to the Edit option, you will also see the Preview option. With this option, you can print the rubric by clicking on Print in the top right corner.

When you have created a rubric and want to use it in another course, you can copy it. To do this, go to the course where you want to use the rubric. Then, follow the steps in this article:How do I copy content from my Blackboard course to Brightspace?

When selecting components, look for Rubric and check the box. This will copy only the rubric from the course.