sustaining a quality education ~ with Claire Sparklin ~
Indian Food, Velcro Shoes, and Blackboard Rubrics
Sure, raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens are nice and all, but when it comes to my favorite things, I’d sing about Indian food, Velcro shoes and Blackboard Rubrics. Why are these my favorites? Pass the Matar Paneer. Indian food is probably the most ridiculously delicious food on the planet. I dare you to prove me wrong.* And, putting my children in Velcro shoes has saved me approximately 3 hours of shoe tying per child which has translated into 12 additional hours of eating Indian food. In 2012, I added a new favorite to my list – Blackboard Rubrics.
The Blackboard Rubrics tool has changed my and my student’s lives for the better, arguably saving me more time than Velcro shoes and making my students happier than a steaming plate of Aloo Gobi. Blackboard Rubrics are an integrated way to use rubric grading within your Blackboard course site. It works for online and face-to-face classes. And, Blackboard Rubrics really shine in lab or performance settings.
I first ventured into using rubrics in an online Fundamentals of Speech class I designed. Blackboard’s set up was intuitive and I was easily making rubrics for all of the online assignments. Once I started using the rubrics to grade students’ work, I was blown away at how fast I could grade and how much more feedback my students were getting. The students knew the points they earned for each part of an assignment, saving me time from having to type a paragraph worth of information. I could save my typing for more specific individual feedback within the rubric.
The next Blackboard Rubrics experience for me was when I used some of the rubrics for a face-to-face Fundamentals of Speech classes. It used to take me at least a week to get speech grades back to students. But when I use Blackboard Rubrics, I grade them while they’re speaking and I don’t have to copy anything into the Blackboard grade book… the rubrics tool does everything for me. Students can deliver their speech and check their grade before they leave campus AND they don’t have to decipher my handwriting.
So, I might not convince you to join me at Raja Rani’s lunch buffet any time soon and, you might not replace your laces with Velcro, but one thing I hope you do is take a few minutes to explore the Blackboard Rubrics tool. Perhaps you’ll even be singing Julie Andrews style about rubrics like I am!
*Note: Coy invitation to drop tasty vegetarian food off at my LA136 office.
Want to get started with Blackboard Rubrics?
Join Jared Slayton and his Velcro shoes at Blackboard Rubrics training this Friday, February 1st at 9:30am in GM230A.
Or, view a step-by-step guide for creating rubrics and the 2013 In-service Rubrics Presentation by Connie Foster, Jared Slayton and Claire Sparklin.