Refocus Podcast Rubrics to Assess Academic Standards

I am helping a teacher do some podcasts so I decided to look at some existing podcasting rubrics.

I believe that a rubric should assess student growth on a critical component of an academic standard. I believe that technology is a tool that supports student learning and is not the purpose of student learning.

I found that in ALL of these rubrics the value of standards-based learning was considered equal to voice quality, art work, introduction, etc. Student learning of a critical component of a standard counted for 1/6 or less of the rubric grade.

Let’s refocus the rubrics so that student learning of an academic standard is weighted the most, like 70%, and all other podcast rubric items support that standard. We can re-work it so that all items focus on the standard such as Does the art work help convey the standard? Does the student voice quality help to emphasize key vocabulary in the standard? If we do not refocus the rubric, then we cannot use it to evaluate student standards-based learning. A non-weighted, non-refocused podcast grade means little, if nothing.

Do you use a podcast rubric that focuses on an academic standard? Please share it.

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11 Responses to “Refocus Podcast Rubrics to Assess Academic Standards”

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1 Jenny Ashby June 4, 2007 at 4:41 am

Hello,
My podcast rubric was not to measure the standards in any domain. It was made to measure the ability to create a podcast from a technology point of view, that is just how to make a podcast. Our students were also interviewing people for the 125th and so some reference was made to this outcome.

I don’t think anyone’s rubric can be used as it is. Rubrics need to be created with student input and for different reasons. Assessment for, as and of learning.

Using a rubric already created for another class could be useful for the teacher to get some ideas for direction when creating the rubric with students.

The context of the rubric is always important and why it’s being used.

2 hgtuttle July 4, 2007 at 1:04 pm

My question is why we measure the technology aspects of a project and not the educational ones? When we create a technology rubric for a project, we are saying that the purpose of the project is technology. I feel we should have academic rubrics for all projects. If we are not doing the project for academics, then why are we doing them?

3 Olga J. Blom September 25, 2007 at 9:12 pm

I agree that technology is one of the tools we use to support our learning … and what a fantastic tool it is … Web 2.0 is mind boggling! Certainly in assessing student learning of outcomes, other than technology outcomes, the tool we use should be less significant in the weighting given it, for grading purposes. Technology can enhance learning but it in itself is not the learning.

4 Howie DiBlasi October 9, 2007 at 9:46 pm

You have some excellent references for Assessment and Technology..my I share them with my peers, teachers and administrators.. and others.

I am sharing a presentation at a conference and would like to provide your site as a link and contact.

Tks

5 hgtuttle October 10, 2007 at 4:59 pm

Howie,
Please feel free to refer people to this blog or to use the resources. I do workshops on it if the people are interesting – particularly in the area of formative assessments in standards-based learning
Harry

6 Simon Robinson June 12, 2008 at 7:58 am

This is a very belated comment but may be picked up…
IMHO you can have your cake and eat it too but the overall assessment framework needs to be clarified. Based on the statement in the post “…counted for 1/6 or less of the rubric grade.” I am assuming the overall rubric result is condensed into a single grade (be it A-E or whatever). If this is indeed the case I agree, the weightings need to reflect the emphasis of the course. If this is not the case e.g. you wish to provide timely, detailed feedback to students across a number of aspects of a multifaceted task with no single “letter grade” it’s less of an issue.
I respectfully disagree with Olga. Technology can (and should?) be the learning as well. Otherwise why use it? We are required to report to a technology standard as well as others (as is Jenny – Hi Jenny!)
I have often pondered why you would wish to lose all the useful information contained in a rubric by condensing it to a single letter. Who benefits from that?

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Education with Technology Harry G. Tuttle