Criteria-based assessment involves using scoring guides – often referred to as rubrics – that are utilized to measure a student’s learning outcome. Enabling teachers to divide standardized learning objectives into smaller parts (the rubric, or scoring guide) helps teachers better evaluate a student's learning on the basis of a range of criteria, not just a single numeric score. Rubrics are divided by four proficiency levels - Advanced, Proficient, Basic and Below Basic.
If the assessment rubric is presented to the students before they start working on assignments, they are aware of the criteria by which their work will be assessed and can reflect on what they have learned as they go.
In itslearning, a teacher's own assessment criteria or rubrics, can be added to standards/learning objectives that have been imported to, or created in, a course. This is possible from the standards/learning objectives page or when one is editing an assignment that has standards/learning objectives connected to it.
These standards/learning objectives are then connected to assignments or other activities. When students are working with an assignment, they can see the assessment criteria, and during grading the teacher selects the assessment criterion that fits the submitted assignment with a single click of the mouse.
Examples of rubrics
The formats of assessment rubrics may vary from teacher to teacher but can be divided into the following main types:
- General rubrics: Describe the typical features of an achievement and can be applied to various assignments without being connected to a specific subject.
- Task-specific rubrics: Designed for a specific assignment.
- Holistic rubrics: Use these to assess student work as a whole. The rubric in this case contains short and simple descriptions of the various achievement levels.
- Analytic rubrics: Identifies components of a finished product and serves as a guide in their assessment. The student's achievements are assessed independently of each other.
Getting started with criteria-based assessment
To use criteria-based assessment in a course, you need to follow these steps:
- Add standards/learning objectives to the course, either through the repository or by creating your own objectives
- Set up achievement levels for this course
- Add assessment criteria associated with standards/learning objectives
- Connect standards/learning objectives to an assignment
How to add learning objectives to a course
- Go to the Course Overview
- Click on Settings (under More)
- Click on Course Properties and Features
- In Functions, check the box for Learning Objectives/Standards
- Click Save
Once enabled, you can start adding learning objectives to the course. Learning objectives/standards will be visible in Course Settings. Click to find the learning objective/standards you required and click Insert to add to your Course.
Reporting
Progress on learning objectives can be monitor with the 'Learning objectives progress report' (under Status and Follow-Up in Course Overview).
The outcome status is managed by the school/organization's system administrator: Admin > manage settings for learning objectives reports.
You can select from default settings or create new settings.
If you prefer not to have automatic calculation, uncheck the box: Calculate overall assessment in view of the criteria-based assessment.
Assessing with rubrics
Assessing assignments with rubrics is easy. Simply open a student’s assignment and click the assessment criterion that fits best. You can also comment on each criterion.
When the grading is completed, the student can see the rubrics and any comments from the teacher.