eLearning for Staff

Mark an Assignment in Moodle Using a Rubric

Overview
You can design and use rubrics to mark assignments and Workshop activities in Moodle. (The use of rubrics with other
gradable items such as glossaries and database activities may be possible in the future.)
This page tells you how to set up a Moodle assignment to be graded with a rubric, how to create a rubric or edit an existing
one, and how to grade the assignment using the rubric. A separate page provides instructions on creating a rubric in the
course of building a Workshop activity.

Rubric marking is also available within Turnitin's GradeMark tool. See this linked page for
instructions.

You cannot mark assignments offline if you are using a rubric.

When to use
Refer to this page when you want to introduce rubric marking into your Moodle course.
A rubric is a set of marking criteria, for each of which several descriptive levels are defined and assigned points. It is
presented as a table, with the criteria defined in rows and the levels and associated points defined in columns.
Both marking guides and rubrics are forms of standards based assessment.

Benefits
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.

Challenges
Rubrics can be quite time-consuming to set up. A marking guide is a simpler form of rubric, which you can also create
within Moodle.

Guide
Step by step instructions

Set up an assignment to be marked using a rubric

Define a rubric from scratch
Create a new rubric from an existing one
Tell students how to view the rubric
Edit a used rubric
Mark an assignment using a rubric

Set up an assignment to be marked using a rubric

1. On the course home page, click Turn editing on, then click the assignment's Update icon .
2. On the Updating: Assignment page, in the Grade section, at Grading method, select Rubric.

3. Click Save and display.

4. On the Advanced grading page, choose whether you will:

create a new rubric from scratch (click Define new grading form from scratch; the Define rubric page will
display) or
begin with an existing template (click Create new grading form from a template; the Grading forms search
page will display).

Define a rubric from scratch

On the Define rubric page (open the assignment, then in the Settings block click Advanced grading, then Define rubric):
1. Give the rubric a meaningful Name.

2. Add a Description, e.g. what the rubric should be used for. (The name and description will not be displayed to
students.)

3. Click Add level in the far right-hand column to add columns to the rubric table; click Add criterion below the table
to add rows.

4. Click the table cells (or tab through them) to open them to define the criteria and levels.
You can specify the weight of a criterion using the points you assign to its levels. For example, a criterion with
levels of 0, 2, 4 and 6 points will have twice as much impact on the final grade as one with levels 0, 1, 2 and
3 points.
Note: For the total mark to be calculated correctly, it is vital that, for each criterion, you include a level worth

zero (0) points.

5. Under Rubric options, select the Sort order and select the other options as desired.

6. To save the form as a draft, click Save as draft. To save and release it for assessment use, click Save rubric and
make it ready.

Create a new rubric from an existing one

Only rubrics that have been saved as shared templates are included in the search results. You can also include all the
rubrics you yourself have created for the course in the search results, so that you use your marking forms without sharing
them. Only forms that are Ready for usage can be re-used.
1. Create an assignment and open the link on the course page.
2. On the Grading summary page, go to Settings and choose Advanced grading.
3. In the Grading forms search page, select the check box to include your own forms in the rubric search, enter any
keywords necessary and click Search. (To view only your own forms, select the check box and leave the keyword
field blank.)

4. When the search results display, locate the relevant rubric and click Use this template.

5. In the confirmation page, click Continue.

6. On the template page, click Edit the current form definition.

7. Change the Name and Description as necessary, and click the cells within the rubric to edit the text and points.
Add criteria and levels as needed. Select Rubric options, then click Save as draft, or Save to release the rubric for
use.

Marks will be lost if you do not save them at this point.

Tell students how to view the rubric

Once you have made the rubric available by clicking Save when you set up the rubric students will be able to view the
rubric when they open the assignment link. If you choose Save as draft when setting up the rubric students will not be able
to see the rubric.

Edit a used rubric

You may decide that a rubric that has already been used for assessment requires editing.
If you make what the grading plugin considers significant changes (such as adding entire categories to the rubric),

gradebook values and feedback for the activity will remain visible to students. However, students will not be able to see
their marks for the various rubric categories until the assignment is re-graded. When making changes to a rubric, you
should check that all graded submissions are still marked appropriately.
To access a rubric for an assignment forwhich submissions have been made:
1. On the course home page, click Turn editing on
2. Click the assignment's link.

3. On the Online Assignment Submission page, in the Settings block, select Advanced grading, then Define rubric.

4. On the Define rubric page, make and save your changes to the rubric.

Mark an assignment using a rubric

When you release a class's marks for an assignment marked with a rubric, each student will see:
the entire rubric
the levels you chose in relation to their own assignment
the comments you made (if any) for each rubric criterion
their total mark for the assignment and
any general feedback you entered for them.
To mark a submitted assignment using a rubric:

1. On the course home page, click the link for the assignment.
2. On the assignment's home page, click the link View/grade all submissions. All the submitted assignments display.
3. Click a student's Grade icon to view their submission. The rubric displays below the assignment text (if an online text
assignment) or below the submission details and the link to the uploaded assignment file.
4. View the submission.
5. At Grade, for each criterion in the rubric.
Click the level this submission has attained. You must click a level for each criterion, so that a total can be
calculated.
If a text remark field is available, add a comment for the criterion, if you wish.
Add
more
general Feedback if necessary, then click Save and show next to move on to the next submission.
6.

Marks will be lost if you do not save them at this point.

Additional information
External resources
For more information, see on this site:
Standards based assessment
Using assessment rubrics

Further assistance
If you experience technical or other issues, consult the Where to get help page.

Teaching @UNSW | eLearning for Staff

Mark an Assignment in Moodle Using a Rubric
Document Version Date 21/07/2015
https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/moodle-mark-assignment-using-rubric