I found this post, My Teacher is a Zombie, about using the rubrics function in Moodle whilst browsing. It is a very nice write up of using rubrics and especially using rubrics in Moodle.
Essentially, Mr. Dorian Love, mentions how he uses rubrics to quickly and more effectively provide feedback to students by using rubrics. This provides the students with a much better idea of what to improve if a higher grade (or more proficiency) is desired. He provides specifics (including a screenshot of an actual rubric) that he uses to grade his “zombie presentations”.
The biggest point that Mr. Love wants to make is in regards to the chore aspect of grading. Using rubrics can help smooth that out. Moodle can help reduce the friction of grading, make it more transparent and more understandable. Basically, it is a win all the way around.
Note that rubrics probably shouldn’t be the only method of grading that you use. This is one more place the Moodle really shines. Moodle does provide the teacher with multiple methods of providing feedback and grading. Within Moodle, the teacher can choose to use a variety of questions that can be automatically graded (multiple choice questions, Yes/No, True False, Matching, Math equations), short answer quizzes, essays, peer reviewed work, and reflections. Most of these can be mixed and matched together.
Like much of life, there is not one simple way of assessing student work. Moodle helps expand the possibilities of assessment in a way that can help teachers do real work.
