Instruction and Course Design
Rubrics

• Use common rubrics across your course(s) with consistent language
• Criteria utilize specific but simple language (avoid unnecessary complexity)
• Use action verbs from Bloom’s Taxonomy that align with cognitive levels appropriate to the learning outcomes (understand, analyze, evaluate).
• Rubrics are attached to all summative assignments & discussions
• Performance scale of 4 levels 
• Performance levels progress in a clear and logical order

In the past, rubrics served 1 main purpose: to standardize and make grading criteria transparent. Going forward, they will serve another purpose: seamless assessment of course outcomes.

Outcomes will be linked to the criteria rows of an assignment / discussion rubric by CIC. If instructors use the rubric to grade, the outcomes will be assessed automatically. 

There are three important considerations that need to be made when attaching rubrics to assessments that will be used to assess a course outcome: 

1. The rubric must be “Analytic” type
2. The rubric needs to be a unique creation or copy of an existing rubric. That means it’s not possible to use shared (org level) rubrics when linking outcomes.
3. Many existing rubrics do not directly (or indirectly) address the outcome(s) associated with it. That means an entirely new rubric needs to be created, or a new criteria row needs to be added.
    

For example:

Course Outcome: “Identify the physiological responses and signs that are contraindications for starting or indications for terminating exercise testing or sessions.”

Existing rubric criteria: 

• Fulfills or exceeds all of the assigned content requirements
• Knowledge of the subject is accurate throughout.
• Demonstrates excellent mechanics, sentence structure, and organization. 
• Writer always clearly and consistently differentiates their own thoughts from those of others.

These criteria are vague and irrelevant to the outcome. In cases like this, CIC strongly recommends creating a new rubric that aligns with the outcome(s).  

New aligned rubric criteria:

• Accurately identifies all key physiological signs (e.g., chest pain, dizziness, abnormal HR/BP) with no omissions
• Clearly distinguishes between signs that prevent starting and those that require stopping a session
• Accurately applies knowledge to realistic testing/training scenarios with clear justification
• Consistently uses appropriate terminology and clinical reasoning to support decisions

This helps ensure that the achievement of the outcome is effectively and accurately measured. 

When writing rubric criteria that aligns with a course outcome:

• Use the language and intent of the outcome as your anchor.
• Ask: What would success look like if this outcome were fully achieved?
• Outcomes often contain multiple skills (e.g., "identify signs" and "determine when to stop an exercise") - Turn each part into a separate rubric criterion that targets a specific, observable behavior or product.
• Use appropriate verbs to Make Criteria Observable and Measurable 
   

Analytic
Two-dimensional rubrics with levels of achievement as columns and assessment criteria as rows. Allows you to assess participants' achievements based on multiple criteria using a single rubric. You can assign different weights (value) to different criteria and include an overall achievement by totaling the criteria. With analytic rubrics, levels of achievement display in columns and your assessment criteria display in rows. Analytic rubrics may use a points, custom points, or text only scoring method. Points and custom points analytic rubrics may use both text and points to assess performance; with custom points, each row (criterion) may be worth a different number of points.

Points: This scoring method is only available to analytic rubrics. Performance levels are indicated by points. For example, three performance levels for a rubric can be Poor (0 points), Good (75 points), and Excellent (125 points).

Custom Points: This scoring method is only available to analytic rubrics. The Custom Points scoring method is similar to the Points scoring method, but you can customize the points given for each criterion. For example, if performance levels are Poor, Good, and Excellent, then the criterion Spelling and Grammar can be worth 0 points, 10 points, and 20 points for each level, and the criterion Expression can be worth 0 points, 30 points, and 60 points, making it worth three times the points of Spelling and Grammar. 

Holistic
Single criterion rubrics (one-dimensional) used to assess learners' overall achievement on an activity or item based on predefined achievement levels. Holistic rubrics may use a percentage or text only scoring method. Scoring by percentage is only available to holistic rubrics. A holistic rubric using Percentages can be automatically assessed based on the score of its associated item, for example, a Grade item.

The Curriculum & Instruction Center has created a collection of analytic rubric templates. These rubrics can be used as is and entered into the LMS, or they can be used as a starting point and modified for specific course/program use. 

Analytic Example: Simple Discussion Rubric