Rubrics, Assessment and eProctoring in Education

Blackboard is planning to introduce a new feature in its learning management system later this year to help instructors grade students’ participation in class discussions online. The feature, called the “discussion forum recommended grade,” will use computer algorithms to analyze students’ posts in class discussion forums.
John Whitmer, learning analytics and research director at Blackboard, said that instructors want to use discussion forums to judge students’ participation, but that doing so is time-consuming and difficult since the forums were designed for discussion rather than assessment. These discussion forums are often underused by students, said Whitmer, since there is often little incentive for students to engage