What is a Feedback Studio rubric?
A Turnitin rubric is a table showing assessment criteria vs performance scales. This is what one looks like:
It has two functions:
- Students can see it before they submit;
- Staff can use it to give rubric-based feedback.
This article is only relevant to you if your course has decided to give feedback using TurnitIn's Feedback Studio. Most courses give feedback by uploading a Word document or PDF containing comments and a rubric. If other modules on your course do not use Feedback Studio, you will need to brief your students very carefully about how they can access their feedback: please contact dlsupport@falmouth.ac.uk to discuss.
Things to be aware of before you start!
- When a staff member creates a rubric, that rubric belongs solely to that one person's login. Another staff member cannot, for example, save the rubric file and apply it to a different assessment. So if you want to alter a rubric that was uploaded by a member of staff who has now left, you can not.
- Once a rubric has been used for marking, no-one (not even its owner) can delete or alter it. Therefore, as a staff member who creates rubrics, your list of available ones grows ever-longer over the years. Therefore...
- When you create rubrics, you need to name them in an explicit, unique way. The name should identify 3 things: the academic year, the module, which assessment. The maximum name length is 31 characters. An example of an explicit name might be 1920-TEA101-ES (Academic year-module code-assessment type).
Creating a rubric in Excel
You can create a rubric from scratch in Turnitin or you can create the rubric in Excel then import it. These notes will only cover the Excel method because we think that way is clearer.
The Excel file has to be laid out in a specific way. It looks like this:
Contact dlsupport@falmouth.ac.uk if you would like an Excel template for this.
Note:In column A, you can see there are separate lines within a single Excel cell (i.e. Criterion heading on one line, then description two lines below). You can't achieve this by typing the heading then hitting the enter key (because that would put the description in a different cell). Instead, hit Shift+Enter to get a line break within the same cell.
Note:In column A, the first line can only be 13 characters long. So if your criterion is longer, you will need to truncate it to fit.
When counting the number of characters, do check to see if there are any extra spaces after the criterion name. If there are any, then delete them.
Note:The name of the Excel file will be used for the name of the rubric in Turnitin. So:
- the name must 30 chars or fewer
- make it explicit and unique (e.g. 1920-TEA101-PR).
Attaching your rubric to an assessment
Detailed steps are below. Those steps take you through two distinct stages:
- In "Rubric Manager", import the Excel file. Exit rubric manager.
- In the settings of the submission link, attach the resulting Turnitin Rubric file.
Note:The way this works is a little counter-intuitive at times: bear in mind there are two major stages and you can only do the first stage in Rubric Manager, even though it looks like you might be able to do both stages there.
Step 1
For the relevant Assignment activity, Edit Settings
Step 2
Find the Turnitin plagiarism plugin settings section - Launch Rubric Manager.
Step 3
In Rubric Manager, if you have used it before, you will see a rubric that you have used in the past. Ignore that fact and select Import...
Step 4
You will see the Import Rubrics dialogue box.
Drag your pre-prepared Excel file into the dialogue box. If the import works, it will look like this:
Note:If the import fails, it is likely to be due to:
- the filename is more than 30 characters, or
- one of the criteria headings is longer than 13 characters
So put those things right in the Excel sheet then try importing again. Do check for unwanted spaces after the criteria headings.
Step 5
Now exit the Rubric manager. To do this, click anywhere in your browser that is outside the Import Rubrics dialogue box. You will now see the submission's settings again, including the GradeMark Options section. Do nothing for a minute.
Step 6
After waiting a minute, refresh the page in your browser.
Step 7
Now attach your rubric to this assessment. To do this, click where it currently says "No rubric" and say OK to the warning dialogue that opens:
Step 8
Now, click where it says "No rubric" again, and select the correct rubric from the drop-down list that appears:
Note:
If the newly-imported rubric is not in the drop-down, then refresh the page repeatedly until it does appear.
Step 9
When the correct rubric is selected, Save the settings.
Note:
The rubric you have imported belongs to your login, and only you can edit it. Other staff on this module area cannot edit your rubric.
Changing or deleting a rubric
You can do this by editing the Turnitin link's settings, but NOT IF the rubric has been already used for marking.
You cannot change a rubric that another member of staff has attached.
Further Support
For further support on Learning Space, or to report any issues with this guide, please get in touch with the Digital Learning Team via dlsupport@falmouth.ac.uk. Alternatively, please refer to the numerous help guides found on our Knowledge Base.
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