I created a rubric in rGrade for my Web Design class. The rubric is specific to the end of the semester project which is working on our high school website. Students are usually very excited about this project until they see how much effort is really required on their part to meet the high level of performance I expect from them. When you view the rubric you will see that they are assessed on various types of abilities. To view the rubric click here. The state standards for Business Education was not listed as an option, so you can view the standards that go along with the categories of the rubric by clicking here.

I chose weak, adequate, strong, and excellent for my assessment criteria. I felt that these terminologies would be easy for my students to categorize and understand. I then created six categories that students would be assessed from: content, layout, attractiveness, technical, mechanics, and student involvement. These are all important elements of creating websites. This assessment would be given to students before they actually began the project. I would go over each required element and discuss what the outcome should be. This is an enormous project. I usually spend at least a week going over our school's web design policy and methods of assessment. I will have two methods of assessment, one being this rGrade rubric and the other being work logs. I feel with this particular assignment I give the students the opportunity to be decision makers. In the article New Assessment Beliefs for a New School Mission by Rick Stiggins, he discusses how important it is for classroom environments to get away from being adult-centered. He also emphasizes that assessments should turn students into "instructional decision makers". I think this rubric has done that. When I compare it to the old rubric I had for this project I really did not give the students enough information to be "instructional decision makers".