Do you feel frustrated when assignments are submitted that are lacking important criteria? Do you have several people grading and want to maintain consistency and fairness? Are you wishing to provide more feedback to students, to help them improve their skills? Answers to these questions can be targeted by building effective analytic rubrics.  In a recent webinar, I shared how to build effective analytic rubrics, including what they are and why you should use them. Understanding the what, why, and how will help you to determine where to start when creating effective rubrics for your course. Let's begin! What is a rubric? A rubric is “...a document that articulates the expectations for an assignment by listing the criteria or what counts, and describing levels of quality from excellent to poor" ( Reddy and Andrade, 2010 ). Typically comprised of rows and columns, where the rows are used to define the various criteria being used to assess an assignment. And the columns are used ...

Inclusive Teaching. The literature is clear: creating classroom spaces, virtual or in-person, where students feel like they belong is an important step to ensuring students are retained and progress to graduation. Amy Pate , Associate Director for Faculty Support within SOLS, and I ran a session recently, co-hosted by the RISE Center for Research in Inclusive STEM Education , that focused on the frameworks that educators use to evaluate whether a given course or curriculum is designed to create such inclusive spaces. The recording of that session can be found here . The session was well attended and interactive, but perhaps you were not able to attend or you are only now hearing about this topic. Below are the highlights of the ideas presented and the questions we grappled with. We need to start with some definitions Inclusive Pedagogy: A student-centered approach to teaching where instructors create an inviting and engaging learning environment for ALL students with diverse background...

Did you know that K12 schools are integrating 21st Century Skills and making broad shifts in education? These changes include integrating more real-world problem solving, peer collaborations, and innovative technologies into classrooms. In Tuesday's TeachT@lk webinar, our guest, David Roman , a K12 Education Specialist from Pinal County, helped us understand what these skills are, and what faculty should expect in future college students. David introduced us to "P21" a framework for helping to develop 21st Century Learning, which includes these 3 skill areas: Life/career skills Learning/Innovation Skills 21CLD Collaboration Rubric Information/Media/Tech skills The webinar also included an introduction to the 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics , which describe 6 specific skills for higher education, including: Collaboration Knowledge construction  Self-regulation Real-world problem solving Use of ICT (Information and Communications Tech...

In our second summer TeachT@lk webinar on  Assessment Techniques - Avoid Overload in Grading,  Peter van Leusen, PhD  and  Amy Pate  presented strategies for balancing effective and efficient feedback. As a group, we discussed benefits, challenges, and tools for several strategies including student created rubrics, peer feedback, and checklists. Many shared first-hand experiences and examples included using model responses and pre-tests. Below are some of the resources mentioned during the webinar, along with the slides and recording. Webinar Recording   (60 minutes) Webinar Slides Bonk, C. J., & Zank, K. (2008). Empowering online learning: 100+ activities for reading, reflecting, displaying, and doing . Jossey-Bass. Faculty Focus - Effective feedback strategies for the online classroom Faculty Focus – Be efficient, not busy: Time Management Strategies for online teaching To Register for future TeachT@lk Webinars:   http:/...