This week’s QA Weekly expands on last week’s topic of creating grading rubric for discussions. Please note that the examples provided last week were to help instructors create their own rubrics relevant to their class by keeping University’s policies in mind.

Online discussions are an essential part of online classes since there is no face to face interaction. While the focus of these discussions should be on free flowing conversation, specific characteristics need to be specified to help students create adequate contributions and, as a result, enrich the discussion. The objective of discussion participation should include both quantity (e.g. number of postings per week, number of responses to other students and length of a response, etc.) and quality (e.g. content, critical thinking, expression of ideas, etc.). Creating grading rubric with clear details will also help instructors distinguish between enriching submissions to the discussions and those that simply satisfy the quantity of postings.

Steps for creating a discussion rubric:

1.      Put together a list of criteria: Specify the exact requirements for the discussion assessment. There are a myriad of discussion rubrics posted on the internet from different Universities. The basic criteria can be summarized into the following areas:

·         Quality of posting – Did the student’s posting display an understanding of the material? Were the opinions clearly and accurately expressed? Does the student answer the questions posed?

·         Resources/Document Reference – Does the student support their answer with resources? Was the University required APA style of citation followed?

·         Active Participation – Did student respond to other students’ postings? Did the response advance the discussion with an invitation for others to participate? Did the student clearly express the points of agreement or disagreement?

·         Writing quality – Was proper grammar, spelling and punctuation used in the post? Was the length requirement met?

2.      Create a rating scale: This will measure the level of students’ performance for each criterion created. A basic example is a 4 level scale where 1 notes the lowest, incomplete level of performance, 2 notes a basic level of performance with further development necessary, 3 notes proficient, accomplished level of performance with movement towards exemplary performance and 4 notes the highest, exemplary level of performance. Then, for each criterion, note a performance level related to the 1-4 rating, for example lowest rating 1 for Resources criteria would be “Student didn’t support the answer with resources”.

3.      Create a grading rubric: Once you have the criteria and possible performance levels listed, you can create a grading rubric:

4.      Test the rubric: apply the rubric to a sample discussion posting. Analyze whether the rubric was successfully used.

Lastly, it is important to note that no matter how detailed the specifications for discussion participation are, one requirement remains unchanged: to satisfy the University’s policy on asynchronous classes, students must be granted full seven days to complete all assignments, including discussions. Creating detailed grading criteria for discussions will help provide a clear explanation to students how their participation will be graded and help instructors with consistent grading.