Effects of Using Rubrics in a University Academic Level Romanian Literature Class

Abstract

The goal of this study was to determine the effectiveness of rubrics in an academic level university Romanian Literature class. This class was run in a hybrid system, combining face-to-face meetings with online written assignments. Students completed two equivalent assignments, one without the use of a rubric and the second assignment using a rubric. Each assignment was scored using the rubric. For the first assignment (see Appendix A: First Assignment) the students were given a written assignment in which they were asked to develop a creative essay in which they took the role of one character in a story and wrote a letter describing their feelings about another character. In the second assignment the students wrote an essay explaining their thoughts in relation to the creative process. For the second creative essay (see Appendix B: Second Assignment) the students were given a rubric (see Appendix E: Writing Rubric) to assist them in the development for their essay. Thirty- five second year students from a blended weekend program agreed to participate in this study. Participants also completed a post class survey (see Appendix C: Student Rubric Survey) in relation to their thoughts about using rubrics to complete their assignments. The data revealed that the class mean score rose 4.8 grade points using the rubrics. For the 56.7% of the students whose scores were raised when they used the rubrics the average increase in scores was 11.1 percentage points. The study indicated that there are two groups of students: those who functioned better using the rubrics (56.7%) and those who functioned as well as or better when using no rubrics (43.3%).