R. Jack Fishman Library: Mobile Learning: The Research: Effectiveness of Using Rubrics

Multi-State Collaborative (MSC) to Advance Learning Outcomes Assessment

MSC Pilot Study Results
These slides summarize results from a proof-of-concept pilot study involving 59 institutions in nine states using common rubrics to assess more than 7,000 student work products. The sample of student work in the pilot represented the near-graduation students across the participating institutions in the nine states only; therefore, the results are not generalizable for all students in each participating state or nationwide.

The findings for those schools that participated in the MSC Pilot Study were extensive and highlighted in the list below:

The researchers concluded that an array of institutions can develop sampling plans that draw from samples of student work across departments and demonstrate achievement of learning outcomes that cut across disciplines;
Faculty can use common rubrics to evaluate student work — even outside of their own subjects;
With training, instructors can create reliable results using a rubric-based assessment approach (to ensure the validity of that, more than a third of the student work was double-scored specifically to examine inter-rater reliability);
Faculty found that the VALUE rubrics were "very useful" for assessing student work and improving assignments;
A web-based platform can serve as a useful framework for collecting student work and facilitating assessment; and
A common rubric-based assessment can generate data that provide evidence of student achievement in important learning outcomes.