The Best Rubrics for Grading Online Discussion Posts

Teaching as an online instructor at a variety of colleges has its advantages- one is that I get to see how different deans, department chairs, etc. run their departments, and most importantly, I can see where there might be some overlap in grading requirements among the schools without too much guesswork on my part.

Recently, I discovered that grading online discussion posts doesn’t have to be the headache I thought it was. After consulting with a department chair at one school, and an instructional designer at another school, I realized that many instructors use an incredibly simple rubric to grade their discussions.

For the sake of privacy, I won’t give you their exact rubrics, but I’ll include the rubrics I created based on their original wording and weights:

Discussion Rubric (Worth 100%)

Answered the discussion prompt at a minimum (50%)

Answered prompt/question/s correctly, and with detail (30%)

Responded to 2 student posts (20%)

Discussion Rubric (Worth 10 points)

No participation: Original discussion post is not submitted (0 points)

Competent: Original discussion post does not meet the length requirement and/or is not well developed (5 points)

Proficient: Original discussion post meets the length required and is well developed (10 points)

This following is a rubric I recently reworked for a third school where I teach online, based on what I learned about simplifying the grading process for discussions:

Discussion Rubric (Worth 20 points)

Poor: Insufficient work (5 points)

Fair: Some components missing (10 points)

Good: Competent/minimal effort (15 points)

Excellent: Substantial effort (20 points)

I hope these samples helped some of you struggling out there. Feel free to implement these, share them, or alter them to suit your own needs in the classroom.

Happy learning and happy teaching!