Instructors can use rubrics as a tool within the learning environment both to convey their expectations to students and to delineate their grading criteria. As a highly customizable tool, rubrics should be built and scaled based on the assignment they are purposed to assess. This, of course, rather demands an initial investment not only to develop learning activities but to design appropriately scaled assessment rubrics. Below is a list of resources that can help get you started on rubric development for your course assignments – but these tools are not one-size-fits-all. Starting small with a more widely applicable rubric may help you delineate some expectations for a set of assignments and/or a smaller project. Over time, you may wish to expand your rubric use to culminating projects, essays, and lab reports. 

As always, we at the Etown Teaching and Learning Design Studio would love to help you develop these helpful and specific learning assessment tools! Please feel free to reach out to us if you would like an instructional design consultation to discuss your vision and to brainstorm ideas for using rubrics in your class. 

AAC&U VALUE Rubrics (American Association of Colleges and Universities)

Beyond Fairness and Consistency in Grading The Role of Rubrics in Higher Education 2020

Creating and Using Rubrics (Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence at Carnegie Mellon University)

Grading Rubrics: Sample Scales (The Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown University)

Learning Maps for Ten Essential Learning Outcomes (Stockton University)

Using Rubrics (Center for Teaching Innovation at Cornell University)