Learning outcomes and rubrics - an overview

Last revised January 25th 2022

Introduction

Did you know that you can set learning outcomes and create rubrics for assessment in Canvas?

  

You link the Rubric that you have created to an Assignment. It is possible to expand the rubric with a link to the learning outcomes. A rubric linked to an assignment can look as follows in SpeedGrader:

  

Advantages with rubrics:

• increased fair assessment 
• can form a basis for calibration within a teaching team in the assessment of the same assignment 
• enhanced assessment quality - rubrics help students understand expectations for the assignment and follow the assessment process 

Disadvantages: 

• requires some work to prepare
• the function with assessment rubrics and assessment criteria in Canvas is largely based on summative assessment, which seldom corresponds to the qualitative and formative assessment tradition in Sweden

 

Add a rubric to an assignment ("Matris")

Click Rubrics in the Navigation sidebar and Add rubric. 

The dialogue box for creating a rubric looks as follows:

    

To rename a rubric, type in the Title field (1).

To edit a rubric criterion description or long description, click the criterion Edit icon (2). You can also edit criterion ratings (3), add ratings (4), and edit points (5).

To delete a criterion from the rubric, click the criterion Delete icon (6).

You can also add a new criterion (7) and outcomes (8).

To save your edits, click the Update Rubric button (9).

To remove associated outcome criteria from a rubric, click the Delete icon (10). Outcome criteria can only be edited from the Outcomes page.

 

Edit the criterion description

To edit the criterion description, click the Edit button (2, above).

 

Enter a short description for the criterion in the Description field (1). To add a longer description to the criterion, enter a longer description (2). The longer description provides students with more information about the criterion.
Click the Update Criterion button (3).

 

Edit the rating

To edit the rating, click on the Edit icon (3).

You must specify points (1), but you can choose not to use these when linking the rubric to an assignment (see below).

Select a Rating Title (2) (eg Pass / Pass with distinction, A / B / C etc) and enter your grading criterion in the field Rating description (3).

 

The Range checkbox (11, according to the dialogue box above), allows you to create a point range. Ranges allow you to assign a rating for a range of point options instead of just one point value, for example, 5 to >3, 3 to >0 and 0 points. Enter the total point value for your criterion. (See below how to remove rating with points in an assignment). 

Click the Find Outcome link to align an outcome with the rubric (read more under the section Learning outcomes). Do not forget to click the Create Rubric button to save your work. 

Add a rubric to an Assignment / Graded discussions / Quizzes

Click the Assignment link and the name of the assignment that you want to add a rubric to.

Click the + Rubric button. 

  

In the dialogue box that appears you can select between creating a new rubric (see above for instructions) or find an existing rubric (1).  

1. With the Find a Rubric link, you can choose from a list of rubrics that you have access to as an instructor.   
   Please note that if you want to use any of the options in the checkboxes you have to make these choices before you click Find a Rubric. 
2. If you select the "I'll write free-form comments when assessing students" checkbox, no ratings are used to assess the student and criterion values are assigned manually. 
3. If you select the "Remove points from rubric" checkbox, no points are associated with the rubric, but students can still be rated using the rubric criterion. 
4. If you select the "Don't post Outcomes results to Learning Mastery Gradebook" checkbox, students will be able to see rubric and outcome results in the Grades and submission details pages but results will not be posted to the Learning Mastery Gradebook. This option is only available if your university has enabled the Learning Mastery Gradebook ("Måluppfyllelse").
5. If you want to use the rubric for grading in SpeedGrader, select the "Use this rubric for assignment grading" checkbox. If you leave this box unchecked, the rubric will be used as feedback rather than assessment.
6. If you don't want students to see the score total for the rubric, select the "Hide score total for assessment results" checkbox. This option is only available if the rubric is not used for grading (option 5). 

Use a rubric to grade assignments in SpeedGrader

When you are ready to grade an assignment using a rubric that you've already created, open up SpeedGrader and click on View Rubric. 

You are now able to see the rubric in the grading box in SpeedGrader. To view the entire rubric window, you may need to scroll both vertically and horizontally. To resize the rubric window, click and drag the sizing column horizontally. 

The image below shows a rubric with the "Remove points from rubric" option checked.

Click the Comment icon (1) to add a comment for each rubric criterion (2).

Click the Save button (3) to save your comments in the rubric.

Enter the grade (4).

Write a general comment, if relevant (5).

Click the Submit button to publish the grading. The student can now access your grading.

 

Learning outcomes - read more

The Outcomes function in Canvas is strongly based in points and summative assessment. This makes it difficult to use in the Swedish educational context. The link below will take you to external guides for Outcomes, if you would like to learn more about this function. 

Guider för Lärandemål (Outcomes) Links to an external site.