research essay rubric

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• AACU VALUE Rubrics

Using rubrics

A rubric is a type of scoring guide that assesses and articulates specific components and expectations for an assignment. Rubrics can be used for a variety of assignments: research papers, group projects, portfolios, and presentations.  

Why use rubrics? 

Rubrics help instructors: 

• Assess assignments consistently from student-to-student. 
• Save time in grading, both short-term and long-term. 
• Give timely, effective feedback and promote student learning in a sustainable way. 
• Clarify expectations and components of an assignment for both students and course teaching assistants (TAs). 
• Refine teaching methods by evaluating rubric results. 

Rubrics help students: 

• Understand expectations and components of an assignment. 
• Become more aware of their learning process and progress. 
• Improve work through timely and detailed feedback. 

Considerations for using rubrics 

When developing rubrics consider the following:

• Although it takes time to build a rubric, time will be saved in the long run as grading and providing feedback on student work will become more streamlined.  
• A rubric can be a fillable pdf that can easily be emailed to students. 
• They can be used for oral presentations. 
• They are a great tool to evaluate teamwork and individual contribution to group tasks. 
• Rubrics facilitate peer-review by setting evaluation standards. Have students use the rubric to provide peer assessment on various drafts. 
• Students can use them for self-assessment to improve personal performance and learning. Encourage students to use the rubrics to assess their own work. 
• Motivate students to improve their work by using rubric feedback to resubmit their work incorporating the feedback. 

Getting Started with Rubrics 

• Start small by creating one rubric for one assignment in a semester.  
• Ask colleagues if they have developed rubrics for similar assignments or adapt rubrics that are available online. For example, the  AACU has rubrics  for topics such as written and oral communication, critical thinking, and creative thinking. RubiStar helps you to develop your rubric based on templates.  
• Examine an assignment for your course. Outline the elements or critical attributes to be evaluated (these attributes must be objectively measurable). 
• Create an evaluative range for performance quality under each element; for instance, “excellent,” “good,” “unsatisfactory.” 
• Avoid using subjective or vague criteria such as “interesting” or “creative.” Instead, outline objective indicators that would fall under these categories. 
• The criteria must clearly differentiate one performance level from another. 
• Assign a numerical scale to each level. 
• Give a draft of the rubric to your colleagues and/or TAs for feedback. 
• Train students to use your rubric and solicit feedback. This will help you judge whether the rubric is clear to them and will identify any weaknesses. 
• Rework the rubric based on the feedback. 

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Whenever we give feedback, it inevitably reflects our priorities and expectations about the assignment. In other words, we're using a rubric to choose which elements (e.g., right/wrong answer, work shown, thesis analysis, style, etc.) receive more or less feedback and what counts as a "good thesis" or a "less good thesis." When we evaluate student work, that is, we always have a rubric. The question is how consciously we’re applying it, whether we’re transparent with students about what it is, whether it’s aligned with what students are learning in our course, and whether we’re applying it consistently. The more we’re doing all of the following, the more consistent and equitable our feedback and grading will be:

Being conscious of your rubric ideally means having one written out, with explicit criteria and concrete features that describe more/less successful versions of each criterion. If you don't have a rubric written out, you can use this assignment prompt decoder for TFs & TAs to determine which elements and criteria should be the focus of your rubric.

Being transparent with students about your rubric means sharing it with them ahead of time and making sure they understand it. This assignment prompt decoder for students is designed to facilitate this discussion between students and instructors.

Aligning your rubric with your course means articulating the relationship between “this” assignment and the ones that scaffold up and build from it, which ideally involves giving students the chance to practice different elements of the assignment and get formative feedback before they’re asked to submit material that will be graded. For more ideas and advice on how this looks, see the " Formative Assignments " page at Gen Ed Writes.

Applying your rubric consistently means using a stable vocabulary when making your comments and keeping your feedback focused on the criteria in your rubric.

How to Build a Rubric

Rubrics and assignment prompts are two sides of a coin. If you’ve already created a prompt, you should have all of the information you need to make a rubric. Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way, and that itself turns out to be an advantage of making rubrics: it’s a great way to test whether your prompt is in fact communicating to students everything they need to know about the assignment they’ll be doing.

So what do students need to know? In general, assignment prompts boil down to a small number of common elements :

• Evidence and Analysis
• Style and Conventions
• Specific Guidelines
• Advice on Process

If an assignment prompt is clearly addressing each of these elements, then students know what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and when/how/for whom they’re doing it. From the standpoint of a rubric, we can see how these elements correspond to the criteria for feedback:

All of these criteria can be weighed and given feedback, and they’re all things that students can be taught and given opportunities to practice. That makes them good criteria for a rubric, and that in turn is why they belong in every assignment prompt.

Which leaves “purpose” and “advice on process.” These elements are, in a sense, the heart and engine of any assignment, but their role in a rubric will differ from assignment to assignment. Here are a couple of ways to think about each.

On the one hand, “purpose” is the rationale for how the other elements are working in an assignment, and so feedback on them adds up to feedback on the skills students are learning vis-a-vis the overall purpose. In that sense, separately grading whether students have achieved an assignment’s “purpose” can be tricky.

On the other hand, metacognitive components such as journals or cover letters or artist statements are a great way for students to tie work on their assignment to the broader (often future-oriented) reasons why they’ve been doing the assignment. Making this kind of component a small part of the overall grade, e.g., 5% and/or part of “specific guidelines,” can allow it to be a nudge toward a meaningful self-reflection for students on what they’ve been learning and how it might build toward other assignments or experiences.

Advice on process

As with “purpose,” “advice on process” often amounts to helping students break down an assignment into the elements they’ll get feedback on. In that sense, feedback on those steps is often more informal or aimed at giving students practice with skills or components that will be parts of the bigger assignment.

For those reasons, though, the kind of feedback we give students on smaller steps has its own (even if ungraded) rubric. For example, if a prompt asks students to  propose a research question as part of the bigger project, they might get feedback on whether it can be answered by evidence, or whether it has a feasible scope, or who the audience for its findings might be. All of those criteria, in turn, could—and ideally would—later be part of the rubric for the graded project itself. Or perhaps students are submitting earlier, smaller components of an assignment for separate grades; or are expected to submit separate components all together at the end as a portfolio, perhaps together with a cover letter or artist statement .

Using Rubrics Effectively

In the same way that rubrics can facilitate the design phase of assignment, they can also facilitate the teaching and feedback phases, including of course grading. Here are a few ways this can work in a course:

Discuss the rubric ahead of time with your teaching team. Getting on the same page about what students will be doing and how different parts of the assignment fit together is, in effect, laying out what needs to happen in class and in section, both in terms of what students need to learn and practice, and how the coming days or weeks should be sequenced.

Share the rubric with your students ahead of time. For the same reason it's ideal for course heads to discuss rubrics with their teaching team, it’s ideal for the teaching team to discuss the rubric with students. Not only does the rubric lay out the different skills students will learn during an assignment and which skills are more or less important for that assignment,  it means that the formative feedback they get along the way is more legible as getting practice on elements of the “bigger assignment.” To be sure, this can’t always happen. Rubrics aren’t always up and running at the beginning of an assignment, and sometimes they emerge more inductively during the feedback and grading process, as instructors take stock of what students have actually submitted. In both cases, later is better than never—there’s no need to make the perfect the enemy of the good. Circulating a rubric at the time you return student work can still be a valuable tool to help students see the relationship between the learning objectives and goals of the assignment and the feedback and grade they’ve received.

Discuss the rubric with your teaching team during the grading process. If your assignment has a rubric, it’s important to make sure that everyone who will be grading is able to use the rubric consistently. Most rubrics aren’t exhaustive—see the note above on rubrics that are “too specific”—and a great way to see how different graders are handling “real-life” scenarios for an assignment is to have the entire team grade a few samples (including examples that seem more representative of an “A” or a “B”) and compare everyone’s approaches. We suggest scheduling a grade-norming session for your teaching staff.

• Designing Your Course
• In the Classroom
• When/Why/How: Some General Principles of Responding to Student Work
• Consistency and Equity in Grading
• Assessing Class Participation
• Assessing Non-Traditional Assignments
• Beyond “the Grade”: Alternative Approaches to Assessment
• Getting Feedback
• Equitable & Inclusive Teaching
• Advising and Mentoring
• Teaching and Your Career
• Teaching Remotely
• Tools and Platforms
• The Science of Learning
• Bok Publications
• Other Resources Around Campus

Rubric Best Practices, Examples, and Templates

A rubric is a scoring tool that identifies the different criteria relevant to an assignment, assessment, or learning outcome and states the possible levels of achievement in a specific, clear, and objective way. Use rubrics to assess project-based student work including essays, group projects, creative endeavors, and oral presentations.

Rubrics can help instructors communicate expectations to students and assess student work fairly, consistently and efficiently. Rubrics can provide students with informative feedback on their strengths and weaknesses so that they can reflect on their performance and work on areas that need improvement.

How to Get Started

Best practices, moodle how-to guides.

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Step 1: Analyze the assignment

The first step in the rubric creation process is to analyze the assignment or assessment for which you are creating a rubric. To do this, consider the following questions:

• What is the purpose of the assignment and your feedback? What do you want students to demonstrate through the completion of this assignment (i.e. what are the learning objectives measured by it)? Is it a summative assessment, or will students use the feedback to create an improved product?
• Does the assignment break down into different or smaller tasks? Are these tasks equally important as the main assignment?
• What would an “excellent” assignment look like? An “acceptable” assignment? One that still needs major work?
• How detailed do you want the feedback you give students to be? Do you want/need to give them a grade?

Step 2: Decide what kind of rubric you will use

Types of rubrics: holistic, analytic/descriptive, single-point

Holistic Rubric. A holistic rubric includes all the criteria (such as clarity, organization, mechanics, etc.) to be considered together and included in a single evaluation. With a holistic rubric, the rater or grader assigns a single score based on an overall judgment of the student’s work, using descriptions of each performance level to assign the score.

Advantages of holistic rubrics:

• Can p lace an emphasis on what learners can demonstrate rather than what they cannot
• Save grader time by minimizing the number of evaluations to be made for each student
• Can be used consistently across raters, provided they have all been trained

Disadvantages of holistic rubrics:

• Provide less specific feedback than analytic/descriptive rubrics
• Can be difficult to choose a score when a student’s work is at varying levels across the criteria
• Any weighting of c riteria cannot be indicated in the rubric

Analytic/Descriptive Rubric . An analytic or descriptive rubric often takes the form of a table with the criteria listed in the left column and with levels of performance listed across the top row. Each cell contains a description of what the specified criterion looks like at a given level of performance. Each of the criteria is scored individually.

Advantages of analytic rubrics:

• Provide detailed feedback on areas of strength or weakness
• Each criterion can be weighted to reflect its relative importance

Disadvantages of analytic rubrics:

• More time-consuming to create and use than a holistic rubric
• May not be used consistently across raters unless the cells are well defined
• May result in giving less personalized feedback

Single-Point Rubric . A single-point rubric is breaks down the components of an assignment into different criteria, but instead of describing different levels of performance, only the “proficient” level is described. Feedback space is provided for instructors to give individualized comments to help students improve and/or show where they excelled beyond the proficiency descriptors.

Advantages of single-point rubrics:

• Easier to create than an analytic/descriptive rubric
• Perhaps more likely that students will read the descriptors
• Areas of concern and excellence are open-ended
• May removes a focus on the grade/points
• May increase student creativity in project-based assignments

Disadvantage of analytic rubrics: Requires more work for instructors writing feedback

Step 3 (Optional): Look for templates and examples.

You might Google, “Rubric for persuasive essay at the college level” and see if there are any publicly available examples to start from. Ask your colleagues if they have used a rubric for a similar assignment. Some examples are also available at the end of this article. These rubrics can be a great starting point for you, but consider steps 3, 4, and 5 below to ensure that the rubric matches your assignment description, learning objectives and expectations.

Step 4: Define the assignment criteria

Make a list of the knowledge and skills are you measuring with the assignment/assessment Refer to your stated learning objectives, the assignment instructions, past examples of student work, etc. for help.

  Helpful strategies for defining grading criteria:

• Collaborate with co-instructors, teaching assistants, and other colleagues
• Brainstorm and discuss with students
• Can they be observed and measured?
• Are they important and essential?
• Are they distinct from other criteria?
• Are they phrased in precise, unambiguous language?
• Revise the criteria as needed
• Consider whether some are more important than others, and how you will weight them.

Step 5: Design the rating scale

Most ratings scales include between 3 and 5 levels. Consider the following questions when designing your rating scale:

• Given what students are able to demonstrate in this assignment/assessment, what are the possible levels of achievement?
• How many levels would you like to include (more levels means more detailed descriptions)
• Will you use numbers and/or descriptive labels for each level of performance? (for example 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and/or Exceeds expectations, Accomplished, Proficient, Developing, Beginning, etc.)
• Don’t use too many columns, and recognize that some criteria can have more columns that others . The rubric needs to be comprehensible and organized. Pick the right amount of columns so that the criteria flow logically and naturally across levels.

Step 6: Write descriptions for each level of the rating scale

Artificial Intelligence tools like Chat GPT have proven to be useful tools for creating a rubric. You will want to engineer your prompt that you provide the AI assistant to ensure you get what you want. For example, you might provide the assignment description, the criteria you feel are important, and the number of levels of performance you want in your prompt. Use the results as a starting point, and adjust the descriptions as needed.

Building a rubric from scratch

For a single-point rubric , describe what would be considered “proficient,” i.e. B-level work, and provide that description. You might also include suggestions for students outside of the actual rubric about how they might surpass proficient-level work.

For analytic and holistic rubrics , c reate statements of expected performance at each level of the rubric.

• Consider what descriptor is appropriate for each criteria, e.g., presence vs absence, complete vs incomplete, many vs none, major vs minor, consistent vs inconsistent, always vs never. If you have an indicator described in one level, it will need to be described in each level.
• You might start with the top/exemplary level. What does it look like when a student has achieved excellence for each/every criterion? Then, look at the “bottom” level. What does it look like when a student has not achieved the learning goals in any way? Then, complete the in-between levels.
• For an analytic rubric , do this for each particular criterion of the rubric so that every cell in the table is filled. These descriptions help students understand your expectations and their performance in regard to those expectations.

Well-written descriptions:

• Describe observable and measurable behavior
• Use parallel language across the scale
• Indicate the degree to which the standards are met

Step 7: Create your rubric

Create your rubric in a table or spreadsheet in Word, Google Docs, Sheets, etc., and then transfer it by typing it into Moodle. You can also use online tools to create the rubric, but you will still have to type the criteria, indicators, levels, etc., into Moodle. Rubric creators: Rubistar , iRubric

Step 8: Pilot-test your rubric

Prior to implementing your rubric on a live course, obtain feedback from:

• Teacher assistants

Try out your new rubric on a sample of student work. After you pilot-test your rubric, analyze the results to consider its effectiveness and revise accordingly.

• Limit the rubric to a single page for reading and grading ease
• Use parallel language . Use similar language and syntax/wording from column to column. Make sure that the rubric can be easily read from left to right or vice versa.
• Use student-friendly language . Make sure the language is learning-level appropriate. If you use academic language or concepts, you will need to teach those concepts.
• Share and discuss the rubric with your students . Students should understand that the rubric is there to help them learn, reflect, and self-assess. If students use a rubric, they will understand the expectations and their relevance to learning.
• Consider scalability and reusability of rubrics. Create rubric templates that you can alter as needed for multiple assignments.
• Maximize the descriptiveness of your language. Avoid words like “good” and “excellent.” For example, instead of saying, “uses excellent sources,” you might describe what makes a resource excellent so that students will know. You might also consider reducing the reliance on quantity, such as a number of allowable misspelled words. Focus instead, for example, on how distracting any spelling errors are.

Example of an analytic rubric for a final paper

Example of a holistic rubric for a final paper, single-point rubric, more examples:.

• Single Point Rubric Template ( variation )
• Analytic Rubric Template make a copy to edit
• A Rubric for Rubrics
• Bank of Online Discussion Rubrics in different formats
• Mathematical Presentations Descriptive Rubric
• Math Proof Assessment Rubric
• Kansas State Sample Rubrics
• Design Single Point Rubric

Technology Tools: Rubrics in Moodle

• Moodle Docs: Rubrics
• Moodle Docs: Grading Guide (use for single-point rubrics)

Tools with rubrics (other than Moodle)

• Google Assignments
• Turnitin Assignments: Rubric or Grading Form

Other resources

• DePaul University (n.d.). Rubrics .
• Gonzalez, J. (2014). Know your terms: Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics . Cult of Pedagogy.
• Goodrich, H. (1996). Understanding rubrics . Teaching for Authentic Student Performance, 54 (4), 14-17. Retrieved from   
• Miller, A. (2012). Tame the beast: tips for designing and using rubrics.
• Ragupathi, K., Lee, A. (2020). Beyond Fairness and Consistency in Grading: The Role of Rubrics in Higher Education. In: Sanger, C., Gleason, N. (eds) Diversity and Inclusion in Global Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.

Eberly Center

Teaching excellence & educational innovation, grading and performance rubrics, what are rubrics.

A rubric is a scoring tool that explicitly represents the performance expectations for an assignment or piece of work. A rubric divides the assigned work into component parts and provides clear descriptions of the characteristics of the work associated with each component, at varying levels of mastery. Rubrics can be used for a wide array of assignments: papers, projects, oral presentations, artistic performances, group projects, etc. Rubrics can be used as scoring or grading guides, to provide formative feedback to support and guide ongoing learning efforts, or both.

Advantages of Using Rubrics

Using a rubric provides several advantages to both instructors and students. Grading according to an explicit and descriptive set of criteria that is designed to reflect the weighted importance of the objectives of the assignment helps ensure that the instructor’s grading standards don’t change over time. Grading consistency is difficult to maintain over time because of fatigue, shifting standards based on prior experience, or intrusion of other criteria. Furthermore, rubrics can reduce the time spent grading by reducing uncertainty and by allowing instructors to refer to the rubric description associated with a score rather than having to write long comments. Finally, grading rubrics are invaluable in large courses that have multiple graders (other instructors, teaching assistants, etc.) because they can help ensure consistency across graders and reduce the systematic bias that can be introduced between graders.

Used more formatively, rubrics can help instructors get a clearer picture of the strengths and weaknesses of their class. By recording the component scores and tallying up the number of students scoring below an acceptable level on each component, instructors can identify those skills or concepts that need more instructional time and student effort.

Grading rubrics are also valuable to students. A rubric can help instructors communicate to students the specific requirements and acceptable performance standards of an assignment. When rubrics are given to students with the assignment description, they can help students monitor and assess their progress as they work toward clearly indicated goals. When assignments are scored and returned with the rubric, students can more easily recognize the strengths and weaknesses of their work and direct their efforts accordingly.

Examples of Rubrics

Here are links to a diverse set of rubrics designed by Carnegie Mellon faculty and faculty at other institutions. Although your particular field of study and type of assessment activity may not be represented currently, viewing a rubric that is designed for a similar activity may provide you with ideas on how to divide your task into components and how to describe the varying levels of mastery.

Paper Assignments

• Example 1: Philosophy Paper This rubric was designed for student papers in a range of philosophy courses, CMU.
• Example 2: Psychology Assignment Short, concept application homework assignment in cognitive psychology, CMU.
• Example 3: Anthropology Writing Assignments This rubric was designed for a series of short writing assignments in anthropology, CMU.
• Example 4: History Research Paper . This rubric was designed for essays and research papers in history, CMU.
• Example 1: Capstone Project in Design This rubric describes the components and standard of performance from the research phase to the final presentation for a senior capstone project in the School of Design, CMU.
• Example 2: Engineering Design Project This rubric describes performance standards on three aspects of a team project: Research and Design, Communication, and Team Work.

Oral Presentations

• Example 1: Oral Exam This rubric describes a set of components and standards for assessing performance on an oral exam in an upper-division history course, CMU.
• Example 2: Oral Communication
• Example 3: Group Presentations This rubric describes a set of components and standards for assessing group presentations in a history course, CMU.

Class Participation/Contributions

• Example 1: Discussion Class This rubric assesses the quality of student contributions to class discussions. This is appropriate for an undergraduate-level course, CMU.
• Example 2: Advanced Seminar This rubric is designed for assessing discussion performance in an advanced undergraduate or graduate seminar. 

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Academic essay rubric

This is a grading rubric an instructor uses to assess students’ work on this type of assignment. It is a sample rubric that needs to be edited to reflect the specifics of a particular assignment. 

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Score:             _________/80   = _________

Performance Inventory/ Legend

Using Rubrics to Assess Learning

The assessments students complete in your courses (e.g., projects, papers, presentations, performances, exams) provide a way for students to demonstrate how well they have achieved the student learning outcomes . Designing rubrics that clearly convey your assessment criteria to students will help them understand how you will be grading their work and provide them with meaningful feedback they can use to self-assess their strengths and areas for improvement. This resource offers guidance for understanding, creating, and using rubrics effectively.

What is a rubric?

Rubrics are guidelines, criteria, or expectations used to assess student work and provide feedback. Most people think of rubrics as a tool that lays out the criteria to evaluate (grade) written student work after it is submitted or presented. However, rubrics can also be used to provide feedback on other demonstrations of learning like class participation or contributions to a specific discussion.

Rubrics support student learning by providing a structured and consistent way to assess student work, promoting transparency and fairness in assessment.

How do I create a rubric?

Components of a rubric.

Rubrics typically contain several components, which may include:

• Criteria: These are the specific aspects or dimensions of the task or performance that you’re assessing (e.g., content, organization, clarity, argumentation, use of sources). Criteria should be clear, specific, and relevant to the learning outcomes or purpose of the assignment.
• Performance Levels & Scoring Scale: Each criterion is typically broken into different levels of performance, ranging from exceeds expectations to does not meet expectations . The scoring scale corresponds with the levels of performance and can be numerical (e.g., 1-4) or descriptive (e.g., excellent, good, fair, poor).
• Descriptors: Each criterion is accompanied by a description or a set of descriptors that outline the different levels of performance.
• Weighting: In some cases, criteria may be weighted differently to reflect their relative importance.
• Feedback Space: Rubrics may include space for providing written feedback or comments on each criterion or overall performance. This feedback helps students understand their personal strengths and areas for improvement.
• Overall Score: Rubrics typically provide a mechanism for calculating an overall score based on the scores assigned to each criterion. The score can be used to summarize the students’ performance on task. Students can also use the rubric to score themselves and self-assess their performance before submitting an assignment.

Different Types of Rubrics

Checklist rubric.

The simplest type of rubric is a checklist rubric, which is a list of criteria and descriptors with only two performance levels possible (e.g., yes/no, present/not present, meets/does not meet). These types of rubrics can include written feedback for each criterion. One benefit is that they are quicker to use; however, they only assess for proficiency or completion in a binary way.

Checklist rubrics are great for smaller assignments or formative assessments, such as an online discussion board post, an in-class reflection, or drafts of an upcoming larger project.

Example: Online Discussion Checklist Rubric

Single-Point Rubric

The single-point rubric is similar to the checklist rubric, in that there is one single column of criteria; however, it makes space for written feedback for each criterion. Like the checklist, single-point rubrics are quicker to create and easy for students to read since the only descriptors are the target expectations. Another benefit is that they allow for higher-quality, more individualized feedback because teachers specify areas of growth and strengths for that particular student.

Single-point rubrics are very useful to provide formative feedback and support students’ growth. Thus, you could use the rubric without assigning any points, or you could assign points for completion but use the rubric to provide feedback that the student can apply to future work.

Example: Online Discussion Single-Point Rubric

Holistic Rubric

Another simple type of rubric is a holistic rubric, which consists of a single scoring scale where all criteria are considered together. For each level of performance, there is a detailed description that allows for an overall assessment. Thus, the students’ performance is matched to a single description on the scale. However, the feedback is more general than specific, and it may be difficult to determine which level of performance is most fitting.

Like checklists, holistic rubrics are useful for smaller assignments and formative assessments or behaviors like in-class participation. They can even be used for learning activities that are not formally graded by providing a summary of expectations.

Example: In-Class Participation Holistic Rubric

Analytic Rubric

The analytic rubric is what people typically imagine when thinking of a rubric. It resembles a grid or a table with the criteria listed in the leftmost column and the levels of performance listed across the top row. When scoring with an analytic rubric, each criterion is scored individually.

Analytic rubrics provide the most detailed and useful feedback on areas of strengths and weaknesses. They tend to provide more consistent grading. The one drawback is that they may take longer to create.

Example: Reflection Journal Analytic Rubric

Steps to Create a Rubric

• Determine the purpose of the assessment. Identify what is most important for students to demonstrate with the assignment based on the course learning outcomes and how the assignment aligns with those outcomes.
• Decide what type of rubric is most relevant. Based on the descriptions of checklist, holistic, and analytic above, determine which is best fit for the assessment.
• Identify criteria and performance levels. Determine the specific aspects that you are assessing and, if you are creating a holistic or analytic rubric, a scale of performance for those criteria.
• Write clear descriptions for each level of performance. If you are creating an analytic rubric, be sure to use parallel language between the different levels of performance for each criterion so that the distinctions between them are clear. For instance, if full marks for “background information” in a research report is, “The brief overview of the concept provides accurate and thorough connections to course concepts and cites at least 3 peer-reviewed sources,” then the next level down might be, “The brief overview of the concept provides some connections to course concepts and cites at least 1 peer-reviewed source,” and the lowest level might be, “The overview of the concept does not include connections to course concepts or any peer-reviewed sources.”
• Determine relative weight of each criterion. Consider if certain criteria are more important than others and should be worth a larger percentage of the grade. For instance, for a research project, evidence and analysis might be more important than organization and presentation of the information.
• Consider the format and layout of the rubric. We recommend inputting the rubric into Canvas so that it is accessible for students to review in conjunction with the assignment and so that students will have access to the rubric-based feedback.
• Test and revise the rubric. Before deploying to assess student work, test your rubric on a hypothetical or actual example of student work to ensure it works in the way you intended.

Using Rubrics in an Equitable Way

Rubrics are very beneficial for learning if implemented in an equitable way. Here are some additional considerations to help ensure fairness and consistency in assessing diversity in student performance.

• Use rubrics consistently and fairly. If working with teaching assistants or using the same rubric across instructors, practice applying the rubric together.
• Keep rubrics clear, concise, and aligned with learning outcomes.
• Review and revise rubrics periodically to ensure relevance and accuracy.
• Communicate rubric expectations to students. Go through the rubric when introducing the assignment. You could even look at an example together and have students practice using the rubric to assess that example. Ask students if they have any clarifying questions about the rubric or potential changes.
• Provide written comments as feedback in addition to ranking student work based on rubric criteria.
• Encourage self-assessment and reflection using rubrics. You could also ask students to peer review each other’s work using the rubric.

Additional Examples of Rubrics

We highly recommend you draw upon existing examples when creating a rubric. The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has developed Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) rubrics for 16 broad, cross-cutting learning outcomes, including ethical reasoning, global learning, intercultural knowledge and competence, and teamwork.

The EMRN rubric is a four-level rubric framework that uses a simple flowchart to categorize student work/learning into one of four categories: Excellent, Meets expectations, Revision needed, and Not assessable. You might use EMRN as your levels of performance for a holistic or analytical rubric.

Generative AI can also help you to create a rubric. For instance, when prompted with, “Create a rubric for an undergraduate research project,” and, “Create a rubric for an undergraduate research presentation,” ChatGPT provided a list of criteria with detailed descriptions for the highest level of performance. You could present this rubric as a checklist rubric or use this information as a start to build a full analytical rubric.

Example: ChatGPT Rubric for Undergraduate Research Project

• Clear articulation of research question(s) and objectives.
• Relevance of the research question to the field of study.
• Alignment between research question(s) and objectives.
• Comprehensive review of relevant literature.
• Critical analysis and synthesis of existing research.
• Identification of gaps or areas for further investigation.
• Clarity and appropriateness of research design.
• Rigor in data collection methods.
• Justification for chosen methodology and data analysis techniques.
• Presentation of empirical evidence or findings.
• Depth of analysis and interpretation of results.
• Use of appropriate statistical or analytical tools.
• Coherent discussion of findings in relation to research question(s).
• Consideration of implications and significance of results.
• Reflection on limitations and potential areas for future research.
• Structure and organization of the research project.
• Clarity and coherence of writing style.
• Use of appropriate citations and references.
• Originality and creativity in approach or perspective.
• Innovative solutions to research problems.
• Contribution to advancing knowledge in the field.
• Adherence to ethical guidelines in research conduct.
• Professionalism in communication and collaboration.
• Proper acknowledgment of sources and contributions.
• Overall impact of the research project.
• Contribution to the field of study.
• Potential for dissemination or further development.

Each criterion can be scored on a scale (e.g., 1-5) with corresponding descriptors to provide detailed feedback to students on their research projects.

Example: ChatGPT Rubric for Undergraduate Research Presentation

• Clarity and coherence of presentation structure.
• Clear articulation of research question(s), objectives, and significance.
• Logical flow of ideas and transitions between sections.
• Engaging introduction that captures the audience’s attention.
• Clear statement of the research problem and objectives.
• Background information provided to contextualize the research.
• Description of research design and methodology.
• Explanation of data collection procedures.
• Justification for chosen methodology and techniques.
• Clear presentation of research findings.
• Use of appropriate visual aids (e.g., graphs, charts) to illustrate data.
• Interpretation of results and connections to research objectives.
• Interpretation of findings in relation to research question(s).
• Consideration of limitations and potential sources of error.
• Exploration of implications and significance of results.
• Summary of key findings and their implications.
• Restatement of research objectives and contributions.
• Suggestions for future research directions.
• Confidence and clarity in oral delivery.
• Eye contact and engagement with the audience.
• Use of appropriate vocal tone and gestures to enhance communication.
• Clarity and effectiveness of visual aids.
• Consistency in design and formatting.
• Integration of visual aids to support key points.
• Adherence to allocated presentation time.
• Ability to cover key points within the time limit.
• Effective use of time for each section of the presentation.
• Ability to respond to audience questions or comments.
• Engagement with audience feedback and discussion.
• Demonstration of knowledge and expertise during Q&A session.

Each criterion can be scored on a scale (e.g., 1-5) with corresponding descriptors to provide comprehensive feedback to students on their research presentations.

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