How to Create a New Rubric in Your Online Course
1. Click “turn editing on” at the top right corner of your course homepage.
2. Go to the section of your course where you want the new assignment activity.
3. Click the “+ add an activity or resource” link, select assignment and click the add button.
4. Enter the name and description of the new assignment.
5. Configure the settings for your assignment, and from the “grade” section, select rubric as the grade
method. (You can also set the maximum points for the assignment and choose the category in your
gradebook at this time.)
6. Click “save and display.” This will bring up a screen to create or load the rubric.
7. Click “define new grading form from scratch.” The “define a new rubric” screen will open.
8. Enter the name and description of your rubric. If you plan on using this rubric for multiple assignments,
make sure you give it a relevant name.
9. Add the rubric criterion. These are the specific elements you will be grading the assignment on. Enter
the name of the criterion where it says “click to edit criterion” and add more criterion by clicking the
“add criterion” button. To delete a criterion or a level, click the Delete icon (X).
10. Add the number of levels to your rubric by click the “add level” button. You can also sort the levels
ascending or descending by point using the drop down box below.
11. Add the number of points to each level. These do not need to be the same for each criterion. The
maximum total for the highest level of all criterion should equal the maximum points for the
assignment. IMPORTANT! You must start with a level that has a point value of ZERO (For example the
rubric could range from 0-3). If you do not include a "0" level, the rubric grade will not calculate
correctly!
12. Add the descriptions for each level of each criterion by clicking on each level.
13. In the options below the rubric, you can select if you want the rubric, and the points, to be visible
before the assignment submission.
14. Click “save rubric and make it ready”. You can also click “Save as draft” to save without having to
complete the criterion and level definitions.
How to Edit a Rubric in Your Online Course
1. Open the assignment containing the rubric you wish to edit.
2. Under the Administrative Block (typically on the left side of your online course), click Advanced Grading and then
Define Rubric.
3. The rubric will display and you can edit the criterion, points, or descriptions.
4. Click save at the bottom of the page to finish the edit.
Copy (Re-use) a Rubric
Instead of defining a new grading form from scratch, you can make a copy of an existing Rubric from any of
your online courses by choosing to use it as a Template. You can then edit the copy to fit the assignment you
are grading without affecting the Rubric you copied.
1. Click “turn editing on” at the top right of your course homepage.
2. Go to the section of your course where you want the new assignment activity.
3. Click the “+ add an activity or resource” link, select assignment and click the add button.
4. Enter the name and description of the new assignment.
5. Configure the settings for your assignment, and from the “grade” section select rubric as the grade
method. (You can also set the maximum points for the assignment and choose the category in your
gradebook at this time.)
6. Click “save and display.” This will bring up a screen to create or load the rubric.
7. Click “Create new grading form from a template.” The “Grading forms search” screen will open.
8. Check “include my own forms” and click search. This will give you a list of the Rubrics you have already
created throughout all of your online courses. You can also search for a particular Rubric by typing its
name into the search box. (This is why a useful name is important when creating your rubric).
9. Click “use this form as a template” next to the rubric you want to use and click Continue. The rubric is
ready to use with your assignment now.
10. You can make additional changes in the rubric by clicking “edit the current form definition”. Note: The
changes you make here will only affect the rubric associated with the current assignment.
11. When you are done making changes and editing, click Save.
Grade an Assignment with a Rubric
1. From your course page, click the link to the assignment you wish to grade. Once on the assignment
page, click “view/grade all submissions.”
2. In the edit column for the student you wish to grade, click grade. This will display the grading &
feedback screen for that student. The rubric will display below the assignment submission.
3. For each criterion in the rubric, click the level that you think best describes the student's performance.
When you select a level, it will highlight in green.
4. To provide additional written feedback, enter comments in the text box that appears to the right of
each criterion.
5. If you enabled feedback comments in the settings of the assignment, when you created it, you can also
provide overall, general comments, based on the assignment, below the rubric.
6. When you are done grading the assignment, click save changes. If “Notify Students” is turned in in the
assignment settings, the student will receive an email notifying him/her that you have graded the
submission.
7. Important: If the assignment is updated and the rubric is edited later, the currently selected level is
highlighted in green and the previously selected level is highlighted in red. This will show the students
the level they had versus the new level.