Moodle3.2: Rubrics as a method of providing feedback using Moodle Assignment

There are several ways to mark and provide feedback on Moodle. In this blog post I will focus on rubrics as a method in which this is possible.

A rubric for assessment, usually in the form of a matrix or grid, is a feedback tool used to interpret and grade students’ work against criteria and standards. Rubrics are sometimes called “criteria sheets”, “grading schemes”, or “scoring guides”.

Rubrics can be used for a wide array of assignments: papers, projects, oral presentations, artistic performances, group projects, etc.

Marking with a rubric allows you to address several aspects of a student’s assignment, assess them separately and let Moodle calculate the aggregated grade. Rubric marking makes the rationale behind your scores clear to students and to other markers of the same assignment.

Rubrics in Moodle Assignment

Grading rubrics can be set up in Moodle to facilitate criterion based assessment. The grading rubric is extremely easy to set up and can be helpful in improving consistency of marking (particularly where there are multiple markers), and in enhancing the feedback given to the student.

Appropriate criteria are set up (as in the example below), against which descriptive levels are provided alongside associated grades.

The rubric score is calculated as a sum of all criteria grades. The final grade is calculated by comparing the actual score with the worst/best possible score that could be received.

For those wishing to personalise feedback, it is also possible to add bespoke comments against each criterion and/or (depending on how the assignment has been set up), in the comments boxes within rubric. You can also use rubrics to provide qualitative feedback without scoring.

What are the new Rubric features in Moodle 3.2?

• Negative numeric values for certain features, which can be used as a penalty can now be added
• There is an option to calculate a grade according to the minimum score possible, or default it to zero.

Find out more on how to set up the rubric here: https://sleguidance.atlassian.net/wiki/display/Moodle/Set+up+a+Moodle+Rubric  or for more advanced users: https://docs.moodle.org/31/en/Rubrics.