Introducing marked rubrics to enhance the student experience: one programme’s journey to improve consistency

Taylor, Julie ORCID logo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4113-3857 , Charters, Andrea and Bates, Elizabeth ORCID logo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8694-8078 (2019) Introducing marked rubrics to enhance the student experience: one programme’s journey to improve consistency. In: 7th International AHE Conference 2019 (Assessment in Higher Education), 26-27 June 2019, Manchester, UK. (Unpublished) Full text not available from this repository.

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Abstract

In the transition to online marking our use of paper-based marking grids was temporarily lost. This loss coincided with reduced student satisfaction reports on the fairness, transparency and consistency of our assessment and feedback procedures. Additionally, colleagues reported that the burden of marking had increased. To remedy the situation, the psychology staff and academic technicians began a research project seeking to develop a marking process to address these issues. The process was designed around the quantitative turnitin rubric tool augmented by reference to best practice research findings from the literature. The literature suggested that to be effective rubrics needed to be task specific, explicit and part of the teaching and learning experience (Andrade, 2009; Fraile, 2017; Panadero, 2014; Reddy, 2010; Rezaei & Lovorn, 2010; Sundeen,2014). Over the past two years we have developed a series of developmental, level and task specific rubrics and a standardised approach to feedback. In parallel we have collected and responded to student, staff and external examiner feedback. This presentation describes our current process and the challenges and opportunities faced by staff and students throughout its inception to our present position. The data reported was collected during focus groups, in-class activities, questionnaires and from institutional quality procedures. Initial findings suggest that provided the rubrics are used consistently and as part of a programme level teaching and learning strategy they are positively received by students and staff alike. Enhancing student confidence in procedures and reducing the burden of marking for staff. Moreover, there have been several unintended positive consequences, for example their utility in academic tutorials; and reflective peer and self-assessment tasks. However, an unintended negative outcome was the response of students who were introduced to rubrics part way through their academic journey. The implications for future research and development will also be discussed.

References:
Andrade, H. (2009). Promoting Learning and Achievement Through Self-Assessment. Theory Into Practice, 48(1), 12-20.
Fraile, J. (2017). Co-creating rubrics: The effects on self-regulated learning, self-efficacy and performance of establishing assessment criteria with students. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 53, 69-77.
Panadero, E. (2014). To rubric or not to rubric? The effects of self-assessment on self-regulation, performance and self-efficacy. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 21(2), 133-149.
Reddy, Y. M. (2010). A review of rubric use in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(4), 435-449.
Rezaei, A.R. & Lovorn, M. (2010). Reliability and validity of rubrics for assessment through writing. Assessing Writing, 15(1), 18-39.
Sundeen, T.H. (2014). Instructional rubrics: Effects of presentation options on writing quality. Assessing Writing, 21, 74-89.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Departments: Institute of Health > Psychology and Psychological Therapies
Institute of Health > Social Work, Children and Families
Depositing User: Anna Lupton
Date Deposited: 02 Jul 2019 13:57
Last Modified: 13 Jan 2024 09:17
URI: https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/4964
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