Category: Assessment

How one configures Blackboard assignments for formative assessments will vary depending on local needs. This guidance provides a generalised set of principles and steps that may need modification and adaptation, depending on the specific requirements of the assessment.

Creating the submission point:

1. Navigate to the Blackboard course.
2. Locate and select the Unit Assessment learning module, expanding its contents.
3. Select any of the dividing lines between items in the Unit Assessment learning module to open a pop-up menu.
4. Select Create to open the Create Item menu on the right side of the screen.
5. Select Assignment. This will create a new Blackboard Assignment in the Unit Assessment learning module.
6. Give the assignment a name.
7. Select the cog icon in the top right of the screen to open the Assignment Settings menu.
8. You should consider the following:
   1. Does your course require a due date?
   2. Are you marking this assignment as “Formative” to students?
   3. Set the number of attempts as desired
   4. Set the marking schema as required
   5. Add a description
9. Once configured to your needs, select Save.

Managing visibility and Release Conditions

1. Select Hidden from students in the top right of the screen to open a dropdown menu.
2. If you want to make the assignment visible to students immediately, select Visible to students.
3. To set rules on when or how the assignment becomes available to students, select Release conditions.
   1. Select the pencil icon to change the name of the rule.
   2. Choose between All members to set a rule that affects all students on the course, or Specific members or groups to choose either individual students or groups of students.
   3. Choose Date/time to add Access from and Access until dates and times.
   4. Choose Performance to set prerequisite attainment in another assessment as the condition for students to access this assessment. For example, students must gain 50% or higher in “Practice Assignment” to access this assessment.
   5. Multiple Release Conditions rules can be set if desired by selecting Add new rule. If you have finished configuring access, select Save.

Rubrics provide standardised grading criteria for assessments, often helping to provide transparency, consistency and clarity for students.  They can be associated with assignments, journals and discussions in Blackboard. If it is linked to a submission point, students are always able to see the rubric and marking criteria it uses before submitting their work via the assignment submission point.

Whilst they offer many benefits for staff, including speeding up and making the marking process more consistent across a team of markers, they require some upfront investment in time from both academic and administrative staff.

All rubrics should be created with reference to school, faculty and institutional marking criteria. Refer to the University of Bristol marking criteria and/or to local guidelines for school and faculty-level marking criteria when creating your rubric.

Creating, editing, and copying rubrics

Rubrics can be created and edited via either an individual assessment or the Gradebook. They should be carefully checked for clarity and consistency before use and should adhere to guidance on marking criteria for your school, faculty, or the institution at large.

If you intend to use the rubric in just one assessment within a course, it is best to create it within that assessment.

If you intend to use the rubric in several assessments within the course, it is best to create and edit it via the Gradebook before linking it to any assessments.

Rubrics can only be edited before they have been used for marking.  Once they have been used to mark work, you can only duplicate and edit the new version.
No changes to a rubric applied to a submission point should be made after the assessment is available to students.

Once created, all rubrics can be accessed and edited via the Gradebook and may be applied to any assessment within a course.

Creating a rubric in an assessment:

Rubrics added to a visible submission point will be shared with students. No changes should be made after rubrics have been shared with students.

1. Go to the assignment in your course and select the assignment title.
2. Select on the cog icon in the top-right hand corner of the screen.
3. Scroll down to the Additional Tools section and select Add marking rubric.
4. Select the Create button.
5. Amend the title from ‘New Rubric’.
6. Select the rubric type you wish to use from the drop-down menu. See our guide for the different types of rubric you can create, including additional considerations for each.
7. To edit the contents of a cell, hover your mouse over it and select the pencil icon.
   
8. To add extra rows, hover over the column/row boundary line in the title row and select the purple plus icon that will appear.
9. To delete a row/column, hover on the title and select the trash icon that will appear.
10.  When this is completed, select Save in the bottom right-hand corner. 

Creating a rubric in the Gradebook:

1. Go to the Gradebook and select the cog icon. This will open a side-bar.
2. Scroll down to the Course Rubrics section.
3. Select the Create button.
4. Amend the title from ‘New Rubric’.
5. Select the rubric type you wish to use from the drop-down menu. See our guide for the different types of rubric you can create, including additional considerations for each.
6. To edit the contents of a cell, hover your mouse over it and select the pencil icon.
   
7. To add extra rows, hover over the column/row boundary line in the title row and select the purple plus icon that will appear
8. To delete a row/column, hover on the title and select the bin icon that will appear
9.  When this is completed, select Save in the bottom right-hand corner

Adding an existing rubric to an assignment

Rubrics added to a visible submission point will be shared with students. No changes should be made after rubrics have been shared with students.

1. Find the assignment in your course and enter it by selecting the title.
2. Select the cog button in the top-right hand corner of the screen.
3. Scroll down to the Additional Tools section and select Add marking rubric.
4. Look for the name of the rubric: If you are using a points-based or points-range rubric, you should toggle the option to apply the points possible.
5. Select Add.
6. Select Save at the bottom of the settings page.

Duplicating and deleting a rubric

To duplicate a rubric:

1. Go to the Gradebook tab and select the cog icon on the right-hand side.
2. Scroll down to the Course Rubrics section and select the “…” icon next to the relevant rubric.
3. Select Duplicate, change the name and press save.

To delete a rubric;

1. Go to the Gradebook tab and select the cog icon on the right-hand side.
2. Scroll down to the Course Rubrics section and select the “…” icon next to the relevant rubric.
3. Select Delete.  You will be asked to confirm that you wish to permanently delete the rubric.

Grading with a rubric

This is general advice on marking with a rubric. Some variation may appear depending on the rubric type used. Please refer to our guide on different rubric types for more information.

1. Go into the Markable items tab of the Gradebook and select the assessment name. 
2. On the submissions page, select the student whose work you wish to mark.
3. The rubric appears within the overall feedback tab on the right-hand side of the page. If you are unable to see it, select the overall feedback tab to open it as shown below.
   
   The rubric can be found underneath the Overall Feedback box.
4. Select a performance level for each criterion to select it.  In the example below, Criterion 1 has Satisfactory selected.
   
5. Select the Show Descriptions toggle underneath the maximum score if you wish to have descriptions of each criterion showing.
   
6. Add feedback for each criterion by selecting the ‘Add feedback’ option next to the criterion name, which appears as a plus sign.
   All rubric scores and feedback will calculate and save automatically.
7. Add overall feedback by entering it in the box above the marking rubric and selecting Save changes.

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This guide details the different types of rubric available and lists some considerations and implications for marking with each, helpful for both markers and those creating rubrics.

Blackboard allows five different types of rubric to be created. Before creating and marking with a rubric, you should familiarise yourself with these types and decide on which is most suitable for your assessment and marking requirements.

• Percentage-based
• Percentage-range
• Points-based
• Points-range
• No points

Percentage rubrics

Considerations when making percentage-based rubrics

Percentage rubrics use percentages on two axes:

1. The Criteria Percentage is listed down the left-hand column for each criterion. These represent the weighting given to each criterion as they relate to the overall mark. Criteria percentages must be 100% in total (as they represent 100% of the mark), or else a warning message will appear, reading “The criteria total percentage must equal 100%”:
   To resolve this, you can either manually change your Criteria percentages so they total 100%, or else select Balance Criteria to automatically balance the criteria percentage across all criteria. Percentages must use whole numbers.
2. The levels within each criterion are expressed as a percentage in a cell within each row. These represent the degree of success a student has realised in each criterion. The percentages expressed across the row of levels should span the full range of 0 to 100% in most instances.

   

Considerations when marking with percentage rubrics

When grading student work with a percentage rubric, the marker selects a percentage level in each marking criterion.

The example below shows an assignment where the “Satisfactory” has been selected for the first Criterion, awarding 20 points.

The overall grade is expressed as a percentage, calculated by the levels selected by the marker in each criterion. This mark can then be overridden by the marker, if desired, but this should be avoided.

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Percentage-range rubrics

Considerations when making percentage-range rubrics

Percentage-range rubrics use percentages on two axis.

1. The Criteria Percentage, which is listed down the left-hand column for each criterion. These represent the weighting given to each criterion as they relate to the overall mark. Criteria percentages must be 100% in total (as they represent 100% of the mark), or else a warning message will appear, reading “The criteria total percentage must equal 100%”:
   To resolve this, you can either manually change your Criteria percentages so they total 100%, or else select Balance Criteria to automatically balance the criteria percentage across all criteria.  Percentages must use whole numbers.
2. The levels within each criterion are expressed as a percentage range in a cell within each row. These represent the degree of success a student has realised in each criterion.  The percentages expressed across the row of levels should span the full range of 0 to 100% in most instances.  Ranges should be exclusive of each other. For example, if one range is “75% – 100%”, the next range’s floor should be no higher than 74%.

   

Considerations when marking with percentage-range rubrics

Percentage-range rubrics often produce fractional grades (for example, “70.35%”) and may need some manual rounding before extraction to SITS or presentation to students.

The methodology for calculating, applying and sharing these rounded marks with students should be agreed before marking begins. This methodology should be shared with students for transparency, helping to improve student confidence in equity and consistency.

When grading student work with a Percentage-range rubric, the marker selects a range of values and then specifies the exact percentage within this range.

The example below shows an assignment where the “Satisfactory” range between 50% and 75% has been selected, with 60% entered as the exact percentage awarded.

The overall grade is expressed as a percentage, calculated by the criteria and ranges selected by the marker. This mark is often fractional when using this rubric type. This mark can then be overridden by the marker, if desired. The override function could be used as one method for applying and distributing rounded marks.

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Points-based rubrics

Considerations when making a points-based rubric

It is only possible to use whole numbers for this rubric type. The maximum possible points should be less than or equal to 99,999.

The total points possible for each criterion is defined by the highest points value possible across the levels of that criterion.

The total points possible for the rubric overall is defined by the sum-total of all criterion.

Considerations when marking with a points-based rubric

When grading student work with a points-based rubric, a marker selects the number of points awarded in each criterion. The overall points awarded for the assignment equates to the sum total of points awarded for each criterion. This can be overridden by the marker, if desired, but it should never exceed the total number of points possible for the assignment.

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Points-range rubrics

Considerations when making a points-range rubric

It is only possible to use whole numbers for this rubric type. The maximum possible points should be less than or equal to 99,999.

The points range is set from the lower to the higher range, left to right at each level. 

Ranges should be exclusive of each other. For example, if one range is “7 – 10”, the next range’s floor should be no higher than 6.

The total points possible for each criterion is defined by the highest points value possible across the levels of that criterion.

The total points possible for the rubric is defined by the points possible across all criterion.

Considerations when marking with a points-range rubric

When grading student work with a points range rubric, a marker selects the range awarded in each criterion and then enters the specific number of points awarded at that level.

In the example below, the marker has selected the “Satisfactory” range of 21-30 points, specifying the exact points awarded as 28.

The overall points awarded for the assignment equates to the sum total of points awarded for each criterion. This can be overridden by the marker, if desired, but it should never exceed the total number of points possible for the assignment.

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No points rubrics

Considerations when making a no points rubric

A no points rubric has no points associated with either the criterion or levels. They may also be referred to as “Mark Sheets” or “Feedback Tables”.

Considerations when marking with a no points rubric

When used in grading, markers select a level within each of the criterion, but this is purely indicative and doesn’t affect the overall grade directly. A singular overall mark is entered for the assignment.