Purpose:
This assignment has two objectives:
1. To introduce you to the concept of rubrics for evaluation purposes
2. To have you generate a scoring rubric to help you evaluate the reliability of information contained on websites.
Background
One of the common tasks faced by most
people is evaluating things. Whether it is the food that we eat, cars
that we drive, classes that we attend, or people we date, we almost
invariably assess how much we like - or dislike - that which we deal
with. Often, the evaluation leads to decisions, sometimes on
items that will impact the rest of our lives.
Whenever we perform an evaluation, we
would like to do it in a consistent, systematic, objective
fashion. To facilitate that goal, we often put together some kind
of document (hard copy or electronic) that allows us to see all of the
factors that go into the choice. Such a document can take one of
two general forms: an advantage / disadvantage list, and a scoring
rubric. In both cases, you list a number of criteria important in making the
decision. Then you have some way of evaluating each
criterion. At the end, you come up with a synthesis.
Scoring rubrics are especially useful
when you want to provide a comprehensive evaluation of something that
can be judged by numerous criteria, and where each criterion might be
given a numerical score.
For example, imagine you want to buy a
new car, and are looking at several alternative models. You might
develop a scoring rubric to address the following criteria:
_____
Styling
_____ Power
_____ Fuel economy
_____ Reliability
_____ Price
_____ Comfort
_____ TOTAL
Each car would be rated for each
criterion according to a scale (1-5), and you would then add up the
scores to determine which car is best for you.
You should be aware that rubrics can
vary in the degree to which they provide flexibility to the user.
Some are fairly generalized, allowing some margin for judgement within
each criterion. Most rubrics, however, provide detailed
instructions to the reviewer so that they can consistently score each
criterion. An example of such a detailed rubric is given here.
Rubrics are especially important in
education, where instructors need to grade assignments submitted by
students according to some objective system that is fair, yet quick to
implement (see
example)
To Do
1. Visit the linked websites that were linked in the activities page
2. Read through the content of each website, paying special attention to the criteria that can be used to evaluate websites.
3. Select the criteria that you believe are important and reasonable to evaluate.
4. Generate a list of those criteria, leaving room for you to insert a score for each one.
5. Field test your rubric to see whether it works.
6. When you are satisfied with your rubric, email it to me as an attachment for grading by the deadline given above. Each rubric will be graded (by my own rubric!) and returned to you.
Grading:
Point value: 25 points. Grading will be based on how well thought out your rubric is, and how well it appears to synthesize information from various on-line sources. Your list must be original. Any rubrics found to be derived by plagiarizing existing lists will be given a grade of 0.