On Friday, Dr. Jo Kord, assistant provost of Institutional Research and Assessment, held a workshop on creating and utilizing rubrics for faculty and staff as a part of her series of professional development workshops.

The purpose of the series is to help faculty and staff build their skillset and toolkits in what they can do for instruction and working with students, according to Kord.

During the 90-minute workshop, roughly twenty faculty members learned the basic information about rubrics. In her presentation before the workshop, Kord spoke about the value of using a rubric, how to construct one, and methods of grading with a rubric.

Kord said she hoped faculty members who attended the workshop learned not just about rubrics, but “just making a connection with how they can engage the students in the learning process.”

“If a teacher chooses to not use a rubric,” Kord said. “Then they run the risk of putting the student out there on an island.”

According to Kord, without a rubric, educators will come to an impasse with their students, who might turn in an assignment that does not meet the educator’s expectations because they were not clearly defined to begin with.

“There has to be an integrated learning environment,” Kord said. “That integration occurs when the student and instructor learn together and both understand together what is important to learn, how that learning is going to be judged, and what are the expectations.”

According to Kord’s presentation, some of the reasons rubrics are useful is that they measure achievement of course level student learning outcomes, department level goal achievement and university level goal achievement, to name a few.

Kord’s presentation also explained the four specific parts of a rubric: “Tasks description, scale, dimensions, and dimension descriptions.” Alongside these parts are the four stages to constructing a rubric: “Reflecting, listing, grouping and labeling, and application.”

The mission of the department of Institutional Research & Assessment, as stated on their department page, is “the office supports Emporia State University’s mission by providing the organizational intelligence utilized in data-based decision-making and facilitating continuous quality improvement through coordinated institution-wide assessment practices.”

“The Bulletin” has yet to receive a response from faculty and staff who attended the workshop.