Creating rubrics for Blackboard assignments

You can add a rubric (marking grid) to help you mark a Blackboard assessment (assignment dropbox, discussion or journal). A rubric clearly indicates and explains marking criteria to students and markers and facilitates consistency and transparency in the evaluation of students' work.

A percentage range rubric for a Blackboard assignment dropbox

In Blackboard, the rows represent the assessment criterion and its weighting. The columns correspond to the level of achievement for each criterion. Each cell has a description and a value describing the level of achievement in the criterion.

The rubric can then be viewed by students during their submission:

Student view of rubrics in the Blackboard assignment dropbox

You can view the rubric when you are marking the student’s submission by clicking on the rubric icon in the right hand side. As you select or enter values for each criterion the student mark will be calculated automatically.

1 Rubric types in Blackboard
2 Adding a rubric to your assessment
3 Related Articles
4 Useful Links

Rubric types in Blackboard

Blackboard assessments support four types of rubrics:

Percentage - Each level of category (column) is assigned a specific percent value, for example the Excellent column is assigned the value of 100%. Selecting a level of achievement automatically increments the total mark with this value
Percentage Range each level of category (column) is associated with a range of percentages, for instance in the example above the outstanding column has a range of 80-100%, you need to select the specific value within that range when grading the submissions.
Points - Each category (column) is assigned a point value. Selecting a level of achievement automatically increments the total mark with this value. Use 0 points for a qualitative rubric.
Points Range - Each category (column) is assigned a range or point values. The sum of the highest values should represent the total possible points that can be earned for that assignment or test. Instructors will be asked to select the specific value within that range when grading the submissions..

Qualitative Rubrics

Select 0 Points to provide a rubric that provides qualitative feedback only. This gives you a purely descriptive rubric. The overall student mark is zero, but you can override the final mark.

To date, there is no way to hide the 0 points value in this type of rubric.

Adding a rubric to your assessment

There are three ways to add a rubric to your Blackboard assessment (assignment dropbox, discussion or journal)

You can create a rubric within an assessment e.g. a Blackboard assignment
You can create a new rubrics from within the Gradebook and associate it with an assessment later.
Rubrics can be copied from previous Original or Ultra modules

Creating a new rubric in your assessment

Open your assessment for instance Blackboard assignment dropbox, click on the cog to open the settings.

This will open the assessment settings at the side. Scroll down to the Additional Tools section, select Add marking rubric

This opens up the Add Marking Rubric options. Select Create

This will open up an empty rubric template with four achievement columns with percentage marks and four empty criteria rows each weighted at 25%.

Click on “New Rubric” to add a meaningful name to your rubric.
Select your preferred rubric type e.g. Percentage Range from the Rubric Type drop-down menu.

Along the top of the columns, you have the levels of achievement: Excellent, Satisfactory etc. If you need to add another level, e.g Very Good, mouse over the vertical border between the cells in the top row between Excellent and Satisfactory. Click on the plus that appears

Add in the achievement level e.g. Very Good in the text box, click outside the textbox to confirm the edit.

To edit an achievement level, mouse over the right hand side of the cell and a pencil icon will appear. Click on it to edit the name of the column. Click outside the cell to confirm the text edit.

In the first column, mouse over the right hand side of each cell until the pencil appears …

… then click to add text to the Criterion text box

If you need to add another criterion, mouse over the border of the cells in the first column and click on the plus.

Add your criterion and then add in the weighting of that category. When you add the weighting you’ll get a warning that your weighting isn’t balanced. You can choose to add your own weighting or balance the values evenly using Balance Criteria.

Mouse over each cell, click on the pencil icon to edit achievement descriptor and value.

12. Select Save.

And Save in the settings

Your marking rubric will now appear in the settings in your assessment:

Add a rubric within Gradebook

Select the Gradebook and then Markable items. Then go into Gradebook Settings using the cog icon.

This opens the Settings side-panel, scroll down to Course Rubrics and select Create.

On the New Rubric page, type a title (if you don't add a title, "New Rubric" and the date appear as the title)
Select Percentage Range from the Rubric Type drop-down menu.
By default, there are four criteria rows and four achievement level columns. Mouse over the border of the cells in the top row to create a new achievement level. Click inside the cells to edit levels, amend the percentage ranges and add a description.

Mouse over the border of the cells in the first column to create a new Criterion. Click inside the cell to rename each Criteria to reflect your assignment learning outcomes.

Amend the percentage weighting of each Criteria so the overall total is one hundred.

Select Save.

When you create a rubric, this will be available to use in the module in which it was created. You can also copy a rubric from one module to another.

Copying rubrics from Blackboard Learn Original

In your module, in the Course content area, click on the plus + and select Copy Content from the drop-down menu.

Choose the course that contains the rubric that you wish to copy, and expand the Rubrics folder containing the rubric(s) that you would like to copy.

Select the rubric(s) you wish to copy.

The chosen rubrics will appear in the selected items panel.

Click Start copy to copy the rubrics to your ultra module.
These rubrics will appear in the Add Marking Rubric options for you to choose (see below).

Add an existing rubric to a Blackboard assessment

In your module, find the assessment that you would like to associate your rubric with.

Select the Assessment Settings cog to open the settings panel at the side

Scroll down to Additional Tools, select Add marking rubric.

To use an existing rubric, select the rubric you want from the list under the buttons and click Add.

Then click Save

Removing the rubric from the assessment

Select the Assessment Settings cog to open the settings panel at the side

Scroll down to Additional Tools, to where the rubric is attached. Mouse over the panel on the right, a bin symbol appears. Click on the bin icon to remove the rubric from the assessment.