Posted Dec 8, 2022 in

Faculty Question of the Week (December 8, 2022)

Blog post cover image for the Faculty Question of the Week December 8, 2022

Each week we'll use this space to share a question (or more!) that we've received about Quercus and other Academic Toolbox tools. 

This week's question is: "Does Crowdmark support rubrics for grading?"

Q:  My students are writing an exam in Crowdmark and one of the questions requires a longer essay-type response. I'd like to use a rubric to grade this question. Does Crowdmark support rubrics?

A:  Crowdmark does not have a dedicated rubric tool. However, their Comment Library can be used as a rubric. This is done by creating shared comments with points inside the Comment Library. When a comment is shared, it will appear in the Comment libraries of all team members (Instructors, Facilitators, and Graders).

Building a rubric using the Crowdmark comment library

You can build a rubric using the Crowdmark comment library in two ways (both can be done before starting to grade):

  1. Open the Comment Library and add comments (and, optionally, associated point values) directly in the grading interface. For details on using this method, please review the Crowdmark guide: Using a rubric in Crowdmark
  2. Select Manage Comment Library in the assessment administration panel, then fill out and import a CSV of comments to the library. For details on using this method and ways to troubleshoot your CSV import, please review the Crowdmark guide: Importing and exporting the comment library

Grading using the rubric in the Crowdmark comment library

Anyone grading a submission can open the comment library and simply drag and drop the comments onto a student's work to apply the feedback and any associated points to specific questions.  Note: If you are are using an Assigned (online) Crowdmark Assessment with a Text (with Markdown formatting) question type, you will need to use a slightly different method to use the comment library. For details, please review: Grading with the rubric.

Alternative to the Crowdmark comment library

As an alternative to using the comment library in Crowdmark as a rubric, you can:
  1. If your students are submitting the assigment in-person: create a rubric off-line and attach it as feedback in the Crowdmark assessment. For links to sample rubrics for a variety of assessment types, please see the Using Rubrics section on CTSI's Course Design page.
  2. If your students are submitting the assignment online: create an online submission assignment in Quercus (instead of using Crowdmark) and add a rubric to it.
For additional assistance with the Crowdmark comment library or with Quercus rubrics and assignments, please contact us at fase.edtech@utoronto.ca or book a consultation.  

Have a Quercus (or EdTech) question? Please contact FASE's EdTech Office.