Grade with a Rubric

Important:

  • If you would like to use a Rubric to assess a learning activity in the course, such as a Dropbox Assignment or Discussion Topic, please associate the Rubric with the activity rather than the grade item. The learning activity itself can be linked to the grade item.
  • Students can see the completed rubric in Discussions, as well as in the Content tool, where a discussion is included. If a discussion has an associated grade, students can view it in the Gradebook also.
  • Grade items that are considered independent and intended for offline or observational activities can have rubrics directly associated with them. However, once that connection has been made, you will no longer be able to link the grade item with a learning activity that is built within the D2L course.
Grade an Assignment/Dropbox submission with a Rubric

1- Select Assessments, then Dropbox in the course navigation bar.

2- Select the name of the submission folder you would like to assess.

Dropbox Folders in D2L

3- You will see the names of students who submitted their work and the file names of submissions. Beside the students’ name, click on Evaluate.  

Folders submissions and list of students

4- To evaluate a submission with a rubric, click on the rubric name. This will open the rubric you have attached.

Rubric icon
Rubric sample

5- Select the box for the level the student achieved for each criterion. Select Add Feedback in the criteria column to enter qualitative feedback. As scores are selected for each criteria, the rubric will automatically update the overall score.

Rubric sample with selected boxes

You can manually adjust the score for each criterion by clicking the number under Criterion Score. (* denotes a manual change.) Regardless of whether you adjust the score, you still need to select a box in each row, otherwise you will notice a “Not Scored” indicator and students will not be able to see the rubric details.

6- The rubric will automatically save as information is entered.  

Publish and save buttons

8- When finished scoring the rubric, select Close.

9- Select Save Draft, move to the Next Student, or Publish.

Grade a Discussion Post with a Rubric

1- Select Communications, then Discussions in the course navigation bar.

2- Click on the dropdown arrow next to the topic name. Select Assess Topic from the menu.  

Assess topic option in dropdown menu

3- You will see a list of students’ names and their topic scores

List of students for a topic

In the screenshot above, the first student’s contributions to the discussion has already been evaluated. The second column shows the score, and the status show that the evaluation has been published. The second student has not been evaluated. 

4- To evaluate the student click on Topic Score. The rubric will appear in a new window. Select the box for the level the student achieved for each criterion.  As scores are selected for each criteria, the rubric will automatically update the overall score. Select Add Feedback in the criteria column to enter qualitative feedback.

Rubric with selected boxes

You can manually adjust the score for each criterion by clicking the number under Criterion Score. (* denotes a manual change.) Regardless of whether you adjust the score, you still need to select a box in each row, otherwise you will notice a “Not Scored” indicator and students will not be able to see the rubric details.

6- The rubric will automatically save as information is entered.  

7- Select Save Draft or​ Publish.

Using Rubrics directly for Grade items

You may decide to grade with a rubric directly in the Gradebook. This grading method may be chosen when the grade item is not associated with any existing activity, for example to grade an oral presentation or participation. 

1- Select Assessments on the course navigation bar, then Grades and Enter Grades.  Click on Enter Grades.

Enter grades option under grade item dropdown

2- Click on Assessment.

Rubric icon for the grade item

3- You will see a rubric attached to the grade item. Select the box for the level the student achieved for each criterion.  As scores are selected for each criteria, the rubric will automatically update the overall score.

rubric with selected boxes

You can manually adjust the score for each criterion by clicking the number under Criterion Score. (* denotes a manual change.) Regardless of whether you adjust the score, you still need to select a box in each row, otherwise you will notice a “Not Scored” indicator and students will not be able to see the rubric details.

4- Click Publish to release the score to the Gradebook and to the student or Save Draft if you want to continue working on it. 

D2L Rubric: Common Issues & Solutions