a student may agree to work toward the grade of "B" by completing a specific number of assignments

Students can share their self-assessments with a peer or in a small group,

process requires the teacher to share learning goals with students

evidence-based feedback that is linked to the intended instructional outcomes

Students can use a rubric to provide feedback to a peer by articulating reasons why a piece of work is at one level and discussing how it could be improved to move it to the next level.

The result is many students struggle blindly, especially non-traditional, unsuccessful, or under-prepared students, who tend to miss many of the implied expectations of a college instructor, expectations that better prepared, traditional students readily internalize.

Similarly, Heidi Andrade, in her study, “The Effects of Rubrics on Learning to Write,” has found that, while rubrics increased her students’ knowledge of the grading criteria and helped most of her students (especially the young male students) do well on the state writing test, many of the young female students, who had been more expressive in previous writing assignments, wrote poorly when writing, as we might say, to the rubric.

the instructional hours sacrificed to testing will return dividends in the form of better instructional decisions

The course is easy and logical to navigate, including self-describing links

• Sets and models clear expectations for appropriate behavior and proper interaction