Seamless Transition to a Rubric-Based Assessment Culture

Case study: Seamless Transition to a Rubric-Based Assessment Culture

The faculty at Manor College in Pennsylvania sought an assessment system to improve the educational environment of their school after receiving recommendations from Middle States accreditation. Kathianne Komurek, DVM, a Professor and Program Coordinator of Veterinary Technology at Manor College, discovered RCampus and introduced it to her colleagues after experiencing its time and effort-saving features that made the adjustment painless. "I was introduced to RCampus by a colleague in January 2009 as a database of rubric examples," Ms. Komurek recalled. "It was not until months later, in May, when I explored RCampus further, that I understood the true value of RCampus as a rubric generator and grade book and all-round assessment database. By the fall of 2009, RCampus became the cornerstone of my student learning assessments."

Compile Accreditation Data with Ease

RCampus became even more valuable to Ms. Komurek when Manor College began implementing the changes to its learning environment. Ms. Komurek found that the adjustment to new requirements was effortless because RCampus' assessment system, iRubric, simplifies and expedites the assessment process. "As Manor College has moved forward into a rubric-based assessment culture, RCampus became indispensable to me in terms of creating, storing, scoring, and analyzing my assessment data. I include copies of the rubric statistics in my course assessment forms to the Academic Dean. The rubric statistics function has saved me a vast amount of time in data analysis," she explained.

Transforming a Tedious Process Into an Enjoyable Task

Ms. Komurek found that in addition to saving her vast amounts of time, RCampus' assessment system was also intuitive and therefore easy to navigate. "The user interface to grade the assignments with the linked rubric is easy, and frankly, fun to use. The rubric statistics is amazing! No more spreadsheets and separate files and piles and paper!" she exclaimed. "One click and it is done!"

A Timely Solution for a New Era

Ms. Komurek took the time she saved by using iRubric and devoted it to sharing her experience with colleagues. "I have described RCampus to others as a tool which makes assessing student learning fun, easy, and powerful," she said. Ms. Komurek introduced RCampus' features to the entire faculty during a meeting focused on learning assessments, held several orientation sessions, and even held one-on-one sessions with new faculty. "...the feedback has always been positive. RCampus came to us at a time of great change following Middle States recommendations. I think for the adjuncts in particular, the change was trying and RCampus helped to alleviate a great deal of stress involved with generating and analyzing rubrics," Ms. Komurek explained.