How do I write criteria for my custom rubric?

While Class Companion offers a variety of assignment rubrics out of the box - both provided by Class Companion and shared by other teachers - the best way to cater the AI feedback to your liking is with your own custom rubric.

Here are some suggestions for how to approach writing your custom rubric to help the AI understand your requirements.

Break down complex criteria into simple criteria

Each criterion should assess a single aspect or quality of the student's response. This will help the AI more effectively assess the student's work based on the criteria and select the appropriate score level.

Use specific and clear language

Be as specific and precise as possible with your definitions. This will help the AI grade more consistently and better align the AI's grading with your expectations.

Give examples when helpful

Examples are a great way to demonstrate to the AI exactly what you mean in your scoring definitions, especially if the definitions are more sophisticated or higher in complexity. If you feel like giving an example would help a human grader use your rubric, then it will almost definitely help the AI as well.

Phrasing your score definitions

The AI will see each of your point descriptions as the phrase: "X points are awarded if: [your score definition]". Phrase your score definitions with this context in mind to help the AI understand them better. If you choose to include a description of the criterion, it will be shown as additional context to the AI when it is selecting a score for the student's response.

Writing a paragraph rubric

While the paragraph input is very open-ended, try to be specific. For example, give the AI a list of that you want the student's answer to meet in order for it to be considered correct.

Avoid criteria that involve counting large numbers

While the AI is able to count small amounts of items well, such as the number of documents referenced in an essay, it struggles with counting large quantities. For example, we do not recommend having a criteria for word count - this won't work very reliably since a student's essay is usually at least several hundred words.