To add a rubric to an assignment go to the assignment details page. Just below the description and the due date there is a button + Rubric, so rubrics are not accessed from the assignment settings (edit button). When you have clicked to add a new rubric a table with rubric specific tools and settings appear at once just under the assignment details.

The default rubric.

Set a title for your rubric with the text box at the top then start laying out your criteria in the left column. Wherever you see a pen icon Pen icon for editing. you can click to edit. In the middle column you setup the levels of the criterion, click the + to add more levels. The right column is used to set the max points for the criterion at hand.

To add a new row (new criterion) click + Criterion at the end of the criterion column. The points for each row will be added to the Total points at the bottom right corner.

If you check I'll write free-form comments when assessing students the ratings column will be disabled and instead you can enter free text for each criterion for each student.

Free text rubric.

By checking Remove points from rubric the right column (Pts) is completely removed and you can have a more qualitative approach.

Note!

The assignment itself is still worth the amount of points you set it up to have when creating it.

Rubric without points.

If you want the amount of points a student is rewarded in the rubric to also be the amount of points the student gets in the assignment you check Use this rubric for assignment grading. If the total points in the rubric doesn't match the assignment points you will be prompted with the following notification when clicking Create rubric.

Match the rubric points with the assignment points.

It is of course possible to use the rubric even without this setting but then it is more in a "feedback mode" where the amount of points in the rubric don't have to correlate with the assignment points - in that case: a rubric without points is perhaps more suited for what you want to accomplish?

The option Hide score totals for assessment results will simply hide the sum of the rubrics total points as well as the sum of the points a student gets when the rubric is being used. Points per criterion is still visible, just not the sum.

Don't forget to click Create rubric when you are finished. If you want to edit a rubric you have already created for an assignment there is a pen icon at the top right corner which toggles the same editing mode you used for creating the rubric, don't forget to click Update rubric after making your changes.

A complete rubric for a simple web development assignment might look like this:

Example of complete rubric with points.

As you can see in the screenshot above the width of each cell is automatically adjusted and it is possible to set the amount of points for one level to 0. The minimum amount of levels for one criterion is 2.

When and where does the student see the rubric?

As soon as you have clicked Create rubric (and the assignment is published) students will see the rubric just below the description on the assignment details page, i.e. just as you do as a teacher. This means that if you have setup your rubric before publishing your assignment students can use the rubric as a guide to what you would like their submission to include. When they have been graded/given feedback they can see a marked rubric, read more in the article Student view: Finding feedback and grades.

Using the rubric in SpeedGrader

Once a rubric has been created for an assignment SpeedGrader will show a button View rubric just below the grade input. Click this button and the rubric appears, then click away with your assessment.

Animation of a rubric being filled out by a teacher.

You can also leave one comment per criterion by clicking the balloon just under the points in the cells to the right. Don't forget to click Save (and enter an actual grade if you are not using Use this rubric for assignment grading).