The Pieces of the Puzzle....

Have you ever spent hours putting a puzzle together? How many times did you want to quit because it just got too frustrating? Once it was finished, weren't you glad you hung in there and finished it? That is the best analogy I could use for my comprehension of rubrics. I think the material this week has brought my understanding of rubrics full circle. I even went all out and read the eight page chapter on external sources using your rubric for grading. Over-achiever, I know.

The more I read this book, the more I like it. At first, I thought we were going to become experts on building rubrics at Portland State. The two-sided opinions of the book continue to amaze me. I am not used to brutal honesty in academic writings. If the rubrics are inappropriate for certain situations, it tells you. The readings aren't try trying to sway the reader, they just want to give us a heads up of what we are heading into before we jump in the pool. The book truly is an introduction to rubrics which might be a little elementary for a graduate level class. Not this one.

I thought the exercise using the SCC Online rubric was brilliant. The rubric is not meant a simple class, it's for the entire college. When you consider we have over 175 online classes, this is a pretty important resource.

I would like to thank Fran for a great job on the scoring rubric information. Perhaps the SCC Online rubric should carry that title. Many cohort member pointed out some potential flaws with the SCC rubric. If we can see them, is it time to revise? That leads to another question, how often is that rubric updated?

For novice rubric people like me, the information this week was great. I enjoyed to see the different approaches our faculty are using in their classes. I asked a question regarding our very first GMIT 510/520 assignment, Did Pat attach a rubric when he handed back our individual papers? I think it would be a great assignment for us to go back and look at the rubric he used and how the feedback was portrayed. Just a thought.

What's half of ten? Five. Five down, five to go!