Write rubrics for scored work

A rubric is a scoring guide for work that a quiz can’t check, such as a conversation, a project or a written response. Each rubric has performance levels (for example Exemplary, Proficient and Developing), and criteria that say what the work looks like at each level. Link every criterion to the learning objectives it assesses, so the rubric shows which objective the work demonstrates.

Create a rubric

1. Open Learning Design and choose the Alignment tab.
2. In the Rubrics panel, choose Add rubric. A new rubric starts with three levels and one criterion.
3. Give it a Title, then name the levels and set their Points. Points go down from the first level to the last.
4. For each criterion, write a short label, tick the objectives it assesses, and write one descriptor per level. Use Weight (1–10) when a criterion should count more than the others.
5. Use Add level, Remove level, Add criterion and Remove criterion to change the shape. A rubric has 2–6 levels and 1–10 criteria, and a course can have up to 20 rubrics.

Every change saves like any other edit, and Undo reverses it. Deleting a rubric also clears it from rubric blocks and evidence items that used it; Undo puts those links back.

Draft a rubric with AI

1. In the Rubrics panel, choose Draft with AI.
2. Describe the Task: what learners will produce or do. Add your Success criteria, one per line, and tick the objectives the work assesses. If the course uses Backward Design, Start from evidence fills these in from an evidence item.
3. Choose Draft rubric. The draft appears as a suggestion with a Why this rubric explanation and the model that wrote it. Nothing changes in your course yet.
4. Choose Use to add it, or Discard. If you edited the course while the draft was being written, Use stops and asks you to try again, so your edits are kept.

The assistant checks its own draft once: when two adjacent levels differ only by words of amount, it rewrites them. If some still do, the suggestion lists them so you can edit them after you use it.

Rubric checks

The Rubrics panel and Review show these advisory warnings. They never block publishing or learner progress. Each one shows Why this matters with a Learn more link to this section.

Warning	Why this matters
Levels differ only by amount	When levels differ only by words like some, many or minor, two assessors can score the same work differently. Describe what the work looks like at each level.
Criterion isn’t linked to an objective	A criterion that isn’t linked to an objective can’t show which objective the work demonstrates.
Fewer than three levels	Three to six levels let assessors tell apart work that is close to the standard from work that meets it.

Selecting a rubric warning in Review opens Learning Design on the Alignment tab.

Show a rubric to learners

1. On a page, choose Insert block and select Rubric from the Assessment group.
2. In the inspector, pick the rubric under Rubric.

Learners see a table of criteria and levels with points. On narrow screens and in columns, each criterion is shown as a stacked card that repeats the level names, and screen readers still read it as a table. A rubric block counts as teaching for the objectives it’s linked to, like a text block. Review shows an error for a rubric block with no rubric chosen, or one whose rubric was deleted.

Availability and limits

• Rubrics describe how work is judged. Learners can’t submit work or be scored against a rubric in the app yet.
• Rubrics travel with course packages and duplicates, including their links to objectives and evidence.
• Agents edit rubrics with the course.rubrics.update operation. See Apply operations safely.