Does this image of a rubric make you panic or does it bring you a warm and fuzzy feeling of comfort? Instructors have many different opinions of using rubrics to help their students and to help instructors grade and assess learning. There are some that are strongly against and some that are strongly for using rubrics in all aspects of their teaching and assessment process. What we talk about less is the idea or application of rubrics for instructor delivery and course design. For sure in face to face learning there is little to no application of a standardized rubric. However, within online education, rubrics for course design and delivery are common.
This last semester I have had the opportunity to participate in a Faculty Learning Community at MSU Denver. The Faculty Learning Community (FLC) is about building our online instructor presence and faculty members across the university come together to discuss what we are doing and to learn new ways of improving our online instruction. One of the goals we have tasked ourselves with is the creation of a rubric for online design and delivery. We have rubrics for student assignments, so why not a rubric for instructors in our online course design and delivery? Having rubrics can help hold us accountable to best practice and the quality of our courses for students. Using rubrics to figure out what makes a good class for instructor, student, and the institution is priceless. Because of this, I have been researching rubrics and have found one that I really like.
Attached here is the link for an ONLINE INSTRUCTOR RUBRIC FOR COURSE DESIGN AND DELIVERY from University of California Chico.
Like any rubric, look at it and see what applies. Not everything in your course needs to be exemplary. First there will be a developmental curve as you develop your skills, so having goals of exemplary in the next two years is a great plan. In addition, there may be some parts of your course that are more important than others therefore not requiring you to be exemplary in certain areas that don’t matter to your content, audience, delivery, and institution. Take notes and try to find examples of the different rubric areas. Often we can think we are doing something in our course but then when asked to demonstrate where this is happening, it may be more difficult. Though time is tight, recruit a colleague to do a peer review with a shared rubric of your online course. See what they find or see in your course that you may not.
Rubrics are not made to overwhelm but to help guide us to a quality outcome. So take it a step at a time and create a plan over the next couple of years for course and delivery improvement. Being intentional but simple and in all things consistent is a good rule to follow with online and digital learning. And have fun creating quality courses that show your unique instructor presence and passion!