What are Canvas Rubrics?

A Rubric is an assessment tool for communicating expectations of quality. Instructors use rubrics to:

  • Communicate assessment expectations to users.
  • Assess online submissions in the SpeedGrader.
  • Provide a format for peer review

You can add a rubric to an Assignment, Graded Discussion or Quiz at any time, either before or after students have submitted their work. If you add the Rubric before students submit their work, they will see the rubric's criteria and rating scale prior to submitting their work.

At Tufts, the Enhanced Rubrics feature option is on in all course sites. Learn more about how to manage Enhanced Rubrics in the Canvas Guides.

Example of a Scale Rubric

Example of a Written Feedback Rubric

Account vs. Course Rubrics

Rubrics can be created on either the Account level by Department or Program administrators or on the Course level by instructors.

Account-level rubrics are rubrics that are created at the account or sub-account level. They can be used by any course within that account or sub-account for assignments, discussions, or quizzes. If an account-level rubric is used in more than one place, it becomes uneditable, but is still usable.

Account-level rubrics can be used to create institutional or departmental question repositories. The purpose of account-level rubrics is to provide resources for instructors, not control content. For example, a department could create a sub-account level rubric. Instructors could then access the rubric to offer the same evaluation standards to students in different courses.

Course-level rubrics are rubrics that are created by the instructor at the course level. Once a rubric has been used to assess a student, the rubric cannot be edited. However, existing rubrics can be recopied and used on other assignments.

Course-level rubrics follow the instructor from site to site. If an instructor creates a rubric on one course site, it can be used or copied to a different course site.

Creating and Using Rubrics

Learn how to create rubrics and attach them in assignments in the Canvas Guides: