Marking using Rubrics/Marking guides in Moodle Assignments

This refers to Moodle 4.3 from August 2024 onwards

• You can use a Rubric as the Grading Method in Moodle Assignments.  
• This allows you to mark submissions using set Criteria and levels.  
• All Moodle rubrics are Quantitative. This means that the grade is calculated by Moodle from the choices you make in the rubric.  
• You cannot use a rubric and then enter a grade yourself unless you override it in the gradebook, which we don't recommend as it would be confusing for students.
  
  

Things to consider when using rubric/marking guide with an assignment.

• You will not be able to mark offline with a rubric/marking guide as you can within a general Moodle Assignment. 
• The option to download grades before they have been released from within the dropbox assignment is not available with rubrics. 
• Within a rubric or marking guide if y
• ou need to change the overall grade for any reasons e.g. penalties need to be applied to the grade.   You will not be able to do this within the dropbox.  Only way to change the overall grade would be to release the grades first and then override the grade in the gradebook. A useful workspace guide on this is Grade 2 – Manually editing grades.  This is not recommended as it could cause confusion for students.  REMEMBER – you will need to hide the dropbox and assignment within the gradebook first.  If you decided to override the grade within the gradebook, then please note students should be made aware to prevent any confusion. 
• If you are using anonymous marking with a rubric, you will need to unanonymize the students before you can release grades to the students. 

REMEMBER to make sure when the assignment was set up that rubric was selected as the grading method.  In the Settings for the Assignment , scroll down to Grade and in the 'Grading Method' menu, select Rubric or Marking Guide depending of which you are using to mark with.

Tip: More information on choosing and setting up these options is given in How to create a rubric/marking guide for a Moodle assignment. You should look at that first.

This page is about using a rubric that is already set up.  

Important: If a rubric is already set up, do not change it once marking has begun.

How to mark an assignment using a rubric

1. Enter the assignment dropbox by clicking on the assignment name
2. Click on 'View all submissions'
3. Click on the blue 'Grade' marking button of the relevant student 
   
4. The rubric appears under the heading Grade in the grading window for the student
5. Click on the level that best describes the student's work for the criteria
   1. The level will be highlighted when you hover over it
   2. Once a level is selected it will stay highlighted  - you can change your selection by choosing another level instead
6. You can leave comments for the student relating to each criterion, if you have enabled this
   
   
   
7. Add any feedback overall within the 'Feedback Comments' box if required.  The feedback added within 'Feedback Comments' box will appear in the gradebook and assignment drop box for students to see.
8. 
9. Finally, 'Save changes'

Note:  You can set the Marking workflow state to 'Marking completed' if you wish, to highlight at a glance which submissions have been graded so far, thus allowing the convenor to know when the grades can be released to students in bulk. However, be aware that students can also see this status change.

The grade attributed to the submission will be automatically calculated based on the levels chosen in the rubric and the maximum grade set in the assignment dropbox settings.  

See example below.

How to mark an assignment using a Marking Guide.

1. Enter the assignment dropbox by clicking on the assignment name
2. Click on 'View all submissions'
3. Click on the blue 'Grade' marking button of the relevant student 
   
4. The Marking Guide will appear under the heading Grade in the grading window for the student.
5. Each criterion section of the marking guide has a feedback area, click in to the relevant criterion remark box e.g. introduction criterion remark to add feedback comments.  Under the criterion remark box there is a a section to add the chosen grade from within the allocated amount given to that section.     
6. 
   1. Finally, 'Save changes'

   

   
   Note:  You can set the Marking workflow state to 'Marking completed' if you wish, to highlight at a glance which submissions have been graded so far, thus allowing the convenor to know when the grades can be released to students in bulk. However, be aware that students can also see this status change.

   
   

   The grade attributed to the submission will be automatically calculated based on what was added to the individual  in the rubric and the maximum grade set in the assignment dropbox settings.  

   See example below.

   

See also:

How to create a rubric/marking guide for a Moodle assignment