This is available for Authors. Additionally, only Extended Access users can view or share other rubrics.

Rubrics in Inspera Assessment are powerful tools that help instructors clearly communicate expectations to candidates and ensure consistent, fair grading. Authoring a rubric provides graders with the specific criteria and standards needed to evaluate questions effectively. 

This article provides an overview of what rubrics are, explains their different types, lists the question types they can be used with, and shows rubric examples.

What are Rubrics?

You can create Rubrics from the Author module or directly within the question you are authoring. Rubrics provide a structured way to assess performance, typically consisting of:

• Criteria (Rows): These correspond to the specific knowledge, skills, or dimensions required for the assessment.
• Level of performance (Columns): These define what candidates are able to demonstrate on an assessment, often described across a spectrum (e.g., "Excellent," "Good," "Needs Improvement").
• Maximum Points: Points are assigned to each criterion and distributed across the levels of performance. This provides a score based on the candidate's work.

By default, rubrics consist of two rows and two columns. You can add, edit, duplicate, or delete the rows/columns as you begin creating your rubrics.

Rubrics types

Inspera Assessment supports several types of rubrics, each designed for different grading needs:

• Point-based rubric: With point-based rubrics, you allocate a single point value to each Level of Performance for a given criterion. Once a maximum score is set, points are automatically divided across the number of Levels of Performance. The total number of maximum points determines the rubric's overall worth. 

  Points can have up to two decimal places, and negative points are not allowed.

• Points range rubric: With points range rubrics, you allocate a range of points to each Level of Performance. Similar to point-based, once a maximum score is decided, points are automatically divided across the Levels of Performance.
• Percentage rubric: With percentage rubrics, a percentage is allocated to each Level of Performance. Once a maximum percentage is decided, a range of percentages is automatically divided across the Levels of Performance.
• Qualitative: With qualitative rubrics, no points are assigned. These rubrics are used to provide feedback and evaluate subjective, non-numerical aspects of candidate performance.
• Marked Qualitative rubric: With marked qualitative rubrics, marks are assigned directly within the question. These rubrics are used to provide feedback and assess subjective, non-numeric aspects of a candidate's performance while maintaining the flexibility to classify the question based on other criteria.

Question type compatibility

Rubrics can be used with the following manually marked question types:

• Essay
• Text area
• Upload assignment
• Programming
• Math working
• Audio record

Example Rubrics

• This Point-based rubric features four criteria and four levels of performance. The max points are divided by four in descending order from left to right. 

  

• This Points range rubric features four criteria and four levels of performance. The max points are divided by four with a range of values in descending order from left to right. 

  

• This Percentage range rubric features four criteria and four levels of performance. The max percentage is divided by four with a range of values in descending order from left to right. 

  

• This Qualitative rubric features four criteria and four levels of performance. With Qualitative rubrics, there are no points allocated to the Level of performance.