Designing and Using Rubrics
Three Types of Rubrics
Holistic Rubrics
Holistic rubrics provide criteria for success on the full assignment, and a single score is given for the full task. Holistic rubrics can be graded quickly, but may provide less robust feedback for students. They are most typically used for smaller, low-stakes assignments.
View an example of a holistic rubric
Analytic Rubrics
Analytic rubrics provide criteria for each element of an assignment task, and a score is provided for each element according to the rubric criteria. Grades for each element are added together to produce the final assignment score. Analytic rubrics are often used for complex assignments, such as reports, ePortfolios, and presentations.
Example analytic rubric
Single Point Rubrics
Single point rubrics present the criteria for success on each element of the assignment task, typically in a centre column. The instructor provides feedback on areas that do not yet meet course learning objectives (typically in a column to the left), as well as feedback on areas where the student has exceeded requirements (typically in a column to the right).
Single point rubric template from OER Commons
More About Rubric Types (with Examples)
- Rubrics (Queen’s University Centre for Teaching and Learning): An introductory guide to the task of rubric creation, with examples.
- Know Your Terms: Holistic, Analytic and Single-Point Rubrics (Cult of Pedagogy)- A simple (and humourous) introduction to the three main rubric types, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of each.
- Analytic Rubric example (Wiki Education): Provides an example of a well-designed analytic rubric for a complex assessment task.
Effective Rubric Webinar
In the short webinar below, Dr. Kristie Dukewich explores the process of creating rubrics.
Additional resources
- BASICS: A web-based workflow for rubric creation (from Queen’s University)
- Quick Rubric: An online tool for creating and saving rubrics.