AI Rubric Generator


Blackboard's new rubric generator is part of the Blackboard Learn "AI Design Assistant," which is now featured in Ultra view. This guide shows how the design assistant can generate full assessment rubrics from an assignment description.

To learn more about AI Design Assistant,  see the feature announcement from Blackboard. 

The rubric generator is only available in Ultra view courses. To access and explore the rubric generator in Ultra view, you can also use the Ultra Sandbox that is available for you in Blackboard original view. 

Rubrics can help align assessments with learning objectives and promote transparency, consistency, fairness and effective feedback in the grading process. Using Blackboard’s AI design assistant, you can generate rubrics based on your course content.  The generated rubric is 100% editable by the instructor.  Instructors are encouraged to review and refine the rubric content.

Accessing the Rubric Generator

To access the generator directly from "Course Rubrics":

  1. Navigate to the Gradebook tab of your course.
  2. Click the settings iconsettingsto open the Gradebook settings
  3. Scroll down to the "Course Rubrics" section and click the black "Generate" button.


In order to access the rubric generator when creating an assignment:

  1. Create an assignment or open an existing assignment that you wish to apply the grading rubric
  2. Click the settings iconsettingsto open the assignment settings
  3. Scroll down to the "Additional Tools"
  4. Click "Add grading rubric" under the "Use grading rubric" options
  5. Click the black "Generate" button

GIF showing an Assignment in Ultra. The cursor clicks a gear icon, opening the assignment settings. The settings scroll down and the cursor clicks Add grading rubric. Another window pops up and the cursor clicks a black Generate button.

Defining the Rubric

Once you have accessed the "Generate Rubric" page, there are a couple of settings you can customize in order to generate a rubric for your assignment:

  1. Description: The rubric generator will take into consideration anything you have typed into the assignment's content, as well as the assignment title. However, the description is a great place to add any details that you would like taken into consideration that may not be mentioned in either of the aforementioned areas. This is also a great place to copy and paste the prompt that you can find here. 
  2. Rubric Type: Use the dropdown menu here to determine a grading system (points, percentage, etc.)
  3. Complexity: This setting is meant to adjust the level of sophistication for the vocabulary and content terms used in the generated prompt.  While this feature does sometimes render more complex results, it can be inconsistent and we hope to see this feature further developed and refined in the future. 
  4. Columns: Columns is often where the levels of performance will be listed (i.e. "Exceeds expectations," "Proficient," etc.). Adjust this according to your needs
  5. Rows: Rows is often where the individual criterion will be listed (i.e. "Organization," "Grammar & Mechanics," etc.). Adjust this according to your needs.

If you know the criteria and levels of performance you'd like to use for your rubric but want to use the generator to save time, we recommend using the following prompt:

"This rubric is for an assignment that is to be graded based on [list criteria factors here which could include things such as organization, grammar and mechanics, text-based evidence, etc.]. The criteria should be listed as the first column. The levels of accomplishment on the rubric should be stated as [list wording here such as exemplary, proficient, developing, etc.]. Additionally, each criterion should have a maximum possible points of [insert number of points desired]."

If you wish for each category to have a different amount of possible points, edit the final sentence of your prompt to state: "Each of the criteria should have the following maximum amount of points: ..." and list them in order with a corresponding score.


Screenshot of the Generate Rubric page. The terms Description, Rubric Type, Complexity, Columns, and Rows are boxed in red on the left hand side of the screen. Numbers 1 through 5 are placed next to the boxes in respective order, corresponding with the numbers listed in documentation.

When you have finished customizing the settings, click the black "Generate" button. A generated rubric will appear to the right of the settings. Here, you can decide to modify any of the settings listed above to examine the changing outputs of the AI Design Assistant tool.                 

A screenshot that shows a generated rubric on the Generate Rubric page.

Editing a Generated Rubric

In order to edit a generated rubric:

  1. Click the black "Continue" button (located in the bottom right hand corner) to take you to a confirmation page
  2. Click the black "Save" button
  3. Exit the Assignment settings
  4. Navigate to the Gradebook
  5. Open the Gradebook settings by clicking the settings iconsettings to the right hand side of your screen
  6. When the side panel menu opens, scroll down to "Course Rubrics"
  7. Click to select the rubric you wish to edit
  8. Hover over the section of the rubric you wish to edit
  9. Click the edit iconeditto edit the text field
  10. Click the black "Save" button in the lower right hand corner.

If you have already used a rubric to grade a student submission, you will not have the ability to edit the rubric. Be sure to double check all rubrics before making an assignment available to students. 


GIF showing the gradebook page in a Blackboard course. A cursor navigate to the gear icon on the right hand side of the screen and clicks. A sidebar menu appears on the right hand side of the screen. The cursor scrolls down in the menu and selects a Participation Rubric that is already created in the course. The rubric opens to a new page where the cursor hovers over a section of the rubric. When the cursor hovers, a pencil icon appears in the top right hand of the boxed area. The cursor clicks the pencil icon, making the text field editable. Once text is edited in the selected area, the cursor navigates to the lower right hand side of the page and clicks a black Save button.

Considerations

While the rubric creation is part of the AI Design Assistant, the rubric generator should be thought of as more of a tool than an assistant. Here are some considerations when using the rubric generator:

  • The rubric generator will work best when you have clearly defined parameters, expectations, and grading guidelines outlined in your assignment's content. If your assignment is vague, the rubric will be vague.
  • The generated rubric is not created based on any kind of theoretical framework (i.e. Bloom's Taxonomy, ADDIE, etc.). If this is something you want incorporated, you'll need to make edits to the basic rubric.
  • If you are not totally satisfied with the rubric that is generated, clicking the "Generate" button will produce different results each time, even when the settings are unchanged.

Common Questions


Absolutely! While we find that the best way to get a useable rubric is by using the prompt provided in "Defining the Rubric," the AI tool is also helpful in generating ideas for the criterion and levels of performance you can use for your assignment. We recommend doing this by thoughtfully and thoroughly creating your assignment first, and then clicking the "Generate" button on the rubric generator to see the suggested categories that Blackboard provides. Continue clicking the "Generate" button and take note of the criteria/levels of performance that you would like to use for your assignment. Then use those terms in the prompt provided on this page. 



For more information about other features of the AI Design Assistant in Blackboard Ultra courses, see our dedicated AI Answers page.