Rubrics Rubrics A final aspect to consider when examining assessment techniques and measurement tools is the construction of an effective rubric. A well-constructed rubric provides a detailed analysis of the task to be completed, which directs students in their effort to successfully complete the assessment as well as helps the instructor to consistently and fairly mark the assessment. Therefore, it is worthwhile to examine the essential components of an effective rubric. A rubric describes various levels of achievement along a continuum. A commonly used type of rubric is the scoring or analytic rubric that is designed with explicit descriptions of performance characteristics, which correspond to a point on a rating scale (Allen 2004; Deardorff et al. 2009). An advantage to using an analytic rubric is that students have a detailed explanation of the expectations for the assessment, and after assessments are marked they receive specific feedback for each criterion (Mertler 2001). The elements of a scoring rubric include criteria related to each learning objective, definitions and examples to clarify the meaning of each criterion, and descriptions of the different levels of achievement for each criterion. For each of the learning objectives, knowledge, skill, or behavior that is expected of the students, the instructor should: