Grading Rubrics

1. Discussion Forum Rubric

Participation in discussion forums is critical to the successful completion of this course. Please keep in mind the following guidelines to help
you develop and formulate sound, thought-provoking responses and earn the maximum grade available.

General Guidelines

Take the time to organize your thoughts prior to formulating your response.
Use proper citations and formatting when stating examples or quoting sources.
Carefully proofread your response before submitting it to the forum.
Provide peer feedback using polite and courteous language.
Post substantive contributions. Posts such as “I agree” or “Good job” will not be awarded any credit in the discussion forums.

Rubric Guidelines

Engagement / Interaction counts the number of peers you interact with. To earn full credit, you must engage in a dialog with at least
two or more peers. The content of your posts must be meaningful and relevant and should encourage further discussion.
Participation counts the number of days you were active in each of the discussion forums in a module. To earn full credit, you must
contribute to the forum over the course of two or more days for EACH forum where there are more than one in a module, not collectively.
For example, if you have a course that has two discussion forums, you must participate and engage the required number of days and
times for EACH forum. They do not count together. They are graded separately.
Content / Topic Relevance measures you’re maintaining focus on the topic being discussed. To earn full credit, all your discussion forum
contributions need to address the main topic.
Timeliness measures when you first post your response to the discussion forum question. To earn full credit, you must post your
response to the main topic before the first post due date for each forum.

The due dates for posting your first posts in the discussion forums can be found on the course calendar, course schedule, the News
and Announcement forums, or in the actual discussion forum post directions themselves. If you have any questions, contact your
instructor at the appropriate email address found in the syllabus.
Please note that discussion forums are graded as separate assignments. For courses that have more than one discussion forum,
guidelines and requirements are for EACH forum, not collectively.

Content / Topic Knowledge measures your understanding of the course material and topic. To earn full credit you must display an
excellent understanding of the material.

Discussion forum participation will be graded using the following criteria:

0 points 1 point 2 points 3 points 4 points 5 points

Engagement /
Interaction

did not
participate

dialog between
peers was not
meaningful and/or
was frequently
off-topic

N/A – no points
are available for
this criterion

engaged in a
meaningful and
relevant dialog
with at least one
peers

N/A – no points
are available for
this criterion

engaged in a
meaningful and
relevant dialog
with two or more
peers

Participation
did not
participate

N/A – no points
are available for
this criterion

N/A – no points
are available for
this criterion

participated on
one days=

N/A – no points
are available for
this criterion

participated on
two or more days

Content / Topic
Relevance

did not
participate

discussion forum
contributions did
not address the

discussion forum
contributions
rarely addressed

discussion forum
contributions
sometimes
addressed the

discussion forum
contributions very
often addressed

discussion forum
contributions
always addressed

main topic the main topic main topic the main topic the main topic

Timeliness

did not
participate or
responded to
main topic three
or more days
after first
post due date

responded to main
topic two days
after first post due
date

N/A – no points
are available for
this criterion

responded to main
topic one day
after the first post
due date

N/A – no points
are available for
this criterion

responded to main
topic the day of
the first post due
date

Content / Topic
Knowledge

did not
participate

displays poor
understanding of
the material

displays a fair
understanding of
the material

displays a good
understanding of
the material

displays a very
good
understanding of
the material

displays an
excellent
understanding of
the material