A few weeks back I linked to the Mozilla Foundation’s JetPack for Learning Design Challenge, and suggested that it might be good fun to assemble a team from the community of ProfHacker readers. Regular writers Jeff McClurken and Alex Jarvis, guest author Heather Whitney, and generally awesome people Thomas Brown, Mike Garcia, and Patrick Murrayjohn banded together to develop a proposal around the browser-based assessment of online work, which for now we’ve code-named Rübrick.
As we see it, Rübrick will have the following features:
- Grade right from your browser–no more switching apps, or even switching tabs
- Builds on familiar technology such as Google Docs, so should be robust and lightweight
- Fully customizable
- Cloud-based storage, so you can grade anywhere you can see the internet.
- Will make both faculty grading and peer- or self-assessment more structured, efficient, and easier to explain.
We’ve got mockups, plus a proof-of-concept screencast that shows it should be possible to build such a thing without too much sweating. The main goal in the next phase of the project would be making the interface simple and the entire thing stable.
What would you like to see in a browser-based assessment tool? Let us know in comments.
Comments
1. Ammon - November 30, 2009 at 07:02 pm
This would be tremendously useful. Even though I use a rubric now, I must spend 25% of my grading time flipping between windows, downloading things, uploading back to students, formatting, etc...
2. Laura - December 01, 2009 at 11:52 am
Tablet pen interface. There just should be a way to do it.
3. Nicole - December 01, 2009 at 02:43 pm
I like this a lot! I'd encourage, if possible, the flexibility of letting folks split screens either direction, though. There are some things it would be easier to grade with a vertical split.
Is it possible to grade .doc type things using something like this? Via an interface with google docs, I presume?
4. Jason B. Jones - December 01, 2009 at 03:10 pm
We would like to make word processing files gradable with this tool also, yes indeed.
And I believe we're going to have as many things customizable as possible, that are consistent with it being totally simple for us to develop and everyone to use.
5. Scott Walters - December 02, 2009 at 11:03 am
This would be wonderful! I hope you develop it!
6. Robert Wolff - December 02, 2009 at 04:21 pm
Love the concept!
7. Brian Croxall - December 03, 2009 at 10:26 pm
8. Sara - December 07, 2009 at 01:23 am
As an educator striving to integrate 21st century approaches to my teaching practices, I think this idea is Genius! The more streamlined my classroom practices can be, the better! An in browser rubric would also allow students to check the progress of their own work. Love it...please create this!
9. Aileen - December 07, 2009 at 11:14 am
Can you make it work with assignments submitted via a VLE, and Turnitin (usually as .doc)?
10. beth - December 07, 2009 at 01:12 pm
this would be great for our instructors! I'd love to see how something like this would work with an LMS
11. Michael Willits - December 07, 2009 at 01:20 pm
This is an amazing, much-needed undertaking. The Google Docs integration is especially intriguing. If there's anything I can do to help (beta test, rubric design, etc.), I'd be happy to contribute.
12. Lisa - December 07, 2009 at 01:42 pm
I wonder, with cloud-based storage of academic records - would there be a potential FERPA issue? Otherwise, really useful!
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