What is a Rubric?

Rubrics can be used in Canvas to communicate expectations to students. They can be used in tandem with any of your assignments, quizzes, or discussions.

Rubrics can also be used to the benefit of staff undertaking grading. You can use the rubric in Speedgrader to provide feedback, which helps standardise the feedback students receive.

Example Rubric

This is an example rubric as it would be presented to students on an assignment page. The 'Ratings' box can be used to provide comments specific to each criteria within Speedgrader.

How to Create a Rubric

You should have a document with your grading criteria and weightings prior to adding your rubric to Canvas. Once you have this information, you're ready to create your rubric.

You can add a rubric by clicking on the Rubrics page on your Course Menu, and from here you'll see an 'Add rubric' button.

Next, you can title your rubric and add your learning criteria to the template that appears. You may want to indicate the weighting of each criteria to the student, for example by noting that Knowledge and Understanding is worth 50% of their grade.

Creating A Rubric.PNG

You can also give each criteria a certain number of points, but this is difficult to align with the 22 point scale and needs to be done carefully. If you prefer, points can be ignored entirely, as when we add the rubric to an assignment we can remove the points column. This will be described further below.

The 'Ratings' section can also be ignored, as usually tutors prefer to leave free text comments against each criteria, as opposed to a rating. However, if you have used points, you can create ratings which are pre-defined comments against each score a student can receive.

If you would like to learn more about using ratings and points, please see the Canvas guide to adding a rubric to a course.

Adding a Rubric to an Assignment

To add the rubric you have created to an assignment, visit the assignment page and look for the '+ Rubric' button.

Add Rubric to Assignment.PNG

You should then select 'Find a Rubric'. Find a Rubric.PNG

Once you have selected your Rubric, you can decide how the Rubric will be used:

If you'd prefer to leave free-text comments rather than use Ratings, select the box that reads 'I'll write free-form comments when assessing students'.
If you would prefer not to use points, tick the box that says 'Remove points from rubric'.
To use the rubric in Speedgrader, select 'Use this rubric for assignment grading'.

Once you're happy with your settings, you can click 'Create rubric'. You'll now see the finished rubric at the bottom of the assignment page, and you'll be able to see it in Speedgrader if you have selected 'Use this rubric for assignment grading'.

Adding a Rubric to a Turnitin Assignment

Canvas Rubrics cannot be added to an assignment is already a TII assignment. Instead, you must:

1. Add the rubric to the assignment before making the assignment a TII submission

2. Make Rubrics public in the course menu and link to it from the assignment brief - this is because the TII assignment hides the Rubric, so it is no longer visible to students. Alternatively, you can upload the rubric as a document to the brief. You can create this document by pasting the rubric into excel and tidying it up.

3. Provide a link to this page How to find your Feedback in Canvas and highlight the section on Rubrics when marks are released as the rubric will not be visible on the assignment page – think this is usually where students find their feedback.

4. Make sure that Grades is visible in the course menu so that students can find their feedback.

Contact LThelp@gsa.ac.uk if you need assistance with rubrics and TII.

Video Demo: Setting Up and Adding a Rubric to Your Assignment