The document explores the effectiveness of using rubrics in high school audio/visual production to improve film quality for public service announcements and commercials. It discusses the benefits and drawbacks of rubrics based on previous research, highlighting how they can enhance student learning and assessment transparency while noting challenges such as consistency and understanding among students and raters. The author outlines next steps for further research and implementation strategies in the classroom, emphasizing the importance of student involvement in rubric design.

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Utilizing Rubrics in Audio
/Visual Production
Next Step Plans
Corey Jermaine Anderson
EDGR – 601 | Educational Research
Concordia University – Portland Oregon

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Research Question
Can developing and utilizing rubrics with my high school A/V Production
students help improve the quality of their films for public service
announcements and commercials?

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Overview of Research
 The majority of the research suggests positive outcomes for students and instructors when rubrics are included as a
means of authentic assessment (Jonsson, 2014; Diller and Phelps, 2008.) In Rubrics as a Way of Providing
Transparency in Assessment, Jonsson (2014) researched three different assessment situations in professional
education.
 Although, there is significant evidence that rubrics may enhance the academic experience by providing some
transparency to students in regards to grading and expectations, all researchers don’t agree. Common Structural
Design Features of Rubrics May Represent a threat to Validity, focuses on the research of Mark Humphry and
Sandra Heldsinger (2008).
 Typically, students claim that using rubrics helps them to focus their efforts, produce work of higher quality, earn
better grades and feel less anxious about assignments (Jonsson, 2014).
 It takes time for the raters to truly understand the rubrics in a consistent way; therefore normalizing activities are
needed to bring consistency to the process (Diller & Phelps, 2008). Another drawback is the utilization of a
common language between instructors (raters) and students (those being rated). Although one part of the
explanation for student’s lack of understanding could be attributed to illegible writing, which seems to be a common
problem, the real challenge lies in teachers’ use of academic terminology or technical jargon (Jonsson, 2014).
 Research found that structural alignment could create a degree of unintended conceptual overlap and redundancy
in descriptions and gradations for some pairs of criteria (Humphry & Heldsinger, 2014).
 Having students generate the criteria for assessing the performance can serve several purposes (Wolf & Stevens,
2007). In addition to gaining a deeper understanding of what is being taught, Wolf and Stevens (2007) found when
you involve students in the development of the rubrics criteria prior to an assignment or project it can help them
make more informed choices, offer insights into the quality of their performance.

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Big Idea #1
Pros and Cons of Rubrics
 When considering whether
rubrics can improve the quality of
student work, it is important to
become familiar with the benefits
and drawbacks of this type of
assessment. Researchers Diller
and Phelps (2008) suggest
reliable evaluation of student
work and reflection can be
accomplished through the use of
an assessment rubric.
Furthermore, rubrics are effective
for authentic assessment,
because they make it easy for
educators to close the feedback
loop into the learning
environment (Diller & Phelps,
2008).
 The benefits of utilizing rubrics
do not come without
consequences or drawbacks.
There must be a commitment of
time for proper training and
developing a clear
understanding of the meanings
of each criterion. It takes time
for the raters to truly
understand the rubrics in a
consistent way; therefore
normalizing activities are
needed to bring consistency to
the process (Diller & Phelps,
2008).

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Big Idea #2
Criteria Selection and Gradations
of Quality for Rubrics
 Humphry and Heldsinger’s (2014)
research found that typically,
there is no underlying
developmental or learning theory
that justifies having precisely the
same number of qualitatively
distinguishable stages across
multiple aspects of a construct.
This makes it unlikely that the
gradations of quality faithfully
capture that which is observed in
student performances for each
criterion separately from other
criteria (Humphry & Heldsinger,
2014).
 Kenneth Wolf and Ellen
Stevens (2007) suggest since
there may be one or two criteria
that are valued more than the
others and they could be given
a higher value when calculating
the overall score for the
performance or product.

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Big Idea #3
Best Practices for Implementing
Rubrics in the Classroom
 Jonsson (2014) cites research
that implies that, in order to
educate and improve student’s
performance; all tasks, criteria
and standards must be
transparent to both students
and teachers. Learning is a
partnership and using rubrics
and structured collaboration
imposes accountability on the
system (Benjamin, 2011).
 Training students how to use
rubrics will increase
transparency and effectiveness
of usage (Diller & Phelps, 2008;
Jonsson, 2014). It takes time
for the raters to truly
understand the rubrics in a
consistent way; therefore, more
normalizing activities are
needed to bring consistency to
the process (Diller & Phelps,
2008).

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Next Steps: Plan of Attack
1. Contact the Librarian to see if I
can get help locating more
articles on the benefits of
including students in the rubric
design process.
2. I have identified a few methods
of data collection that would
prove beneficial. Observation,
interview, and document and
artifact analysis techniques
result in a great amount of data
(McMillan, 2016).
3. It seems as though this might
take some time, so after my
research proposal is accepted,
some thought on a timeline for
conducting and analyzing data
would be a good idea.

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Guiding Thoughts and Questions
 Should rubrics be lean and represent a few
behaviors or robust and specific?
 How long does it take to develop and implement
the utilization of rubrics in a program?
 How might I accomplish this in the classroom
setting student buy-in and respect for the
benefits of transparency as delivered through
rubrics?
 What is the best design for a generic rubric?
 What is the best design for a more detailed
rubric?
 How can I learn more about the implications for
students of color?
 Developing assessment
instruments
 The best time to implement this
research
 Triangulation of data and
implications
 Talk to colleagues about my
research and get feedback
Questions to Explore
New or Existing Ideas to Further
Pursue

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Continuing and Concluding
My Research
I have gained a wealth of information regarding
the utilization of rubrics in my A/V Production
classes to improve the quality of their
commercial and public service announcement
videos. It was important for me to know the
pros and cons to using rubrics as a learning
strategy, the best way to develop criterion and
qualitative ratings and the best way to
implement them in the classroom. Not only can
I use them to help teach technical jargon and
assess student work but after developing them
together, students can use rubrics as a means
of self-assessment or during peer review.
Using examples and devoting time to training
will also help ensure my students are prepared
for Destination 2025 (Shelby County Schools
Board of Education, n.d.)

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References
 Benjamin, S. (2011). Simple leadership techniques: Rubrics, Checklists, and structured
collaboration. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(8), 25–31. doi:10.1177/003172171109200806
 Diller, K. R., & Phelps, S. F. (2008). Learning outcomes, portfolios, and Rubrics, oh my!
Authentic assessment of an information literacy program. Portal: Libraries and the
Academy, 8(1), 75–89. doi:10.1353/pla.2008.0000
 Humphry, S. M., & Heldsinger, S. A. (2014). Common structural design features of Rubrics
may represent a threat to validity. Educational Researcher, 43(5), 253–263.
doi:10.3102/0013189x14542154
 Jonsson, A. (2014). Rubrics as a way of providing transparency in
assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(7), 840–852.
doi:10.1080/02602938.2013.875117
 McMillan, J. (2016). Fundamentals of educational research (7th ed.). VitalSource
Bookshelf Online: Retrieved from
https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780133580747/.
 Shelby County Schools Board of Education. Destination 2025. Retrieved March 26, 2016,
from http://www.scsk12.org/uf/webadmin/foundation/2025/
 Wolf, K., & Stevens, E. (2007). The role of rubrics in advancing and assessing student
learning. The Journal of Effective Teaching, 7(1), 3–14. Retrieved from
http://www.uncw.edu/cte/et/articles/vol7_1/wolf.pdf