Abstract:

Evaluation is an essential step in the teaching-learning process, both to monitor and improve the process itself and to assess the learning performance of each particular student. The use of evaluation for formative purposes motivates a higher engagement of the student and helps to detect deviations in the acquisition of competences that can be solved in time.

Rubrics are defined to structure the expectations for an assignment by listing the assessment criteria and by describing levels of quality. The criteria are the particular skills to be evaluated; the levels of performance are ratings to distinguish the quality of achievements; descriptors are a specific text for each level and criterion describing what the student must know to do in each case. If criteria, levels and descriptors are known by the student in advance, evaluation by rubrics can be used as a powerful learning tool for self-evaluation and, therefore, could serve to motivate and to promote success.

As occurs for any assessment procedure, rubrics must be defined to be objective, coherent with the competences to be acquired by the student and low time-consuming for the teacher. To design quality rubrics which fulfil these requirements is a very complex task, as they must be specific of the subject, level and context of application. However the biggest challenge is to develop quantitative and automated rubrics to reduce the time invested by the teacher.

In the present work, financed by the Program for Promoting Teaching Innovation (PIIDUZ_18_102), rubrics have been designed for the subject of Engineering Thermodynamics of the Degree in Industrial Technologies Engineering at the University of Zaragoza (Spain). The criteria are the particular skills related to the competences to be acquired in the subject and four levels of performance are defined by specific descriptors. The quantitative information, stored in Moodle forms, is downloaded in spreadsheets and later processed to calculate the score reached by the students in every criterion at different times of the semester. A preliminary assessment about the correlation between rubrics and final success is here presented.

Keywords:

Rubrics, Engineering Learning, Higher Education, Teaching Innovation, Educational Assessment, Virtual Learning Environments.