Using Rubrics in Canvas

Last updated on April 27, 2026

Tools: Rubrics, Assignments, and Discussions

Have you been putting off creating rubrics for your assignments, either because you don’t like them or don’t know how to create them? Would you be surprised to learn that rubrics not only help your students succeed, but they can also make your own grading process easier?

Rubrics provide a clearly defined set of criteria that serve as a basis for assessing student assignments and discussions. Using rubrics enables you, as an instructor, to give your students a clear outline of your expectations. Beyond this, they really do give your students the best chance of completing their assignments successfully because they know right up front what the assignment priorities are and can use the rubric as a guide to completing the assignment.

Rubrics help you as well. They can decrease the overall amount of time you spend grading and clarify your goals and expectations for a given discussion or assignment. Because they are essentially a to-do list of priorities and requirements, rubrics make it easier for you to grade impartially and consistently, and they present a clear relationship between a student’s work and the grade they receive. In other words, it makes grading straightforward and easy.

Tips for Writing Rubrics

Rubrics can be applied to subjective assignments and discussions just as effectively as they can for objective assignments and discussions. For example, in a reflective discussion in which you want to encourage the students to express themselves creatively, you may use rubrics to define expectations for spelling, grammar, or structure instead of content. 

Sometimes you can develop a rubric that is easily applied to multiple assignments or discussions to save time. For example, your discussion rubric may include criteria such as “use socratic questioning” or “respond to at least two classmates” or “does not use ‘me too’ or ‘I agree’” responses.”

If you prefer to leave the content of a given assignment or discussion completely up to the student, in an essay, for example, you may choose to use the rubric to clarify your expectations of their technical writing skills, the structure of their paper, or the number of required citations.

Finally, Rubrics work better for some assignments than others. For example, if you are using a third-party tool, such as hypothes.is or some integrated publisher-provided assessment tools, rubrics work differently (or sometimes not at all) and may be less effective.

Checklist for Creating Rubrics

Here is a helpful checklist to consider when creating a rubric:

• Performance Levels (Columns)
  • There are three to five performance levels.
  • The labels/descriptions of the performance levels are distinct, clear, and meaningful.
• Performance Criteria (Rows)
  • There are three or more performance criteria.
  • The labels/ descriptions of the performance criteria are distinct, clear, and meaningful.
• Performance Level Descriptors (Cells)
  • The descriptors describe differences in performance that are observable and measurable.
  • The descriptors clearly articulate what the expectations are for each performance level for a given criterion.
  • For a given row, the descriptors evaluate the same criterion across all performance levels.
  • The descriptors represent meaningful differences in performance across the performance levels for a given criterion.

Best Practices

• Consider what learning objectives the activity measures when you are developing your rubrics.
• Build Rubrics in the Rubrics section of Canvas and attach to your discussion or assignment rather than typing them in the text of the assignments. This lets you use the rubric to grade directly from SpeedGrader.
• Create more than three rating categories to avoid the “catch-all” middle category and to make criteria more clear and specific.
• Provide clear evidence for each criterion and rating that relates to the skills, knowledge, or behaviors measured by the activity.

Let’s walk through it together

This video shows an outdated version of Rubrics. View the written tutorial for updated directions.
New Spotlight coming soon.

Create a New Rubric

1. Log in to your Canvas Account.
2. Select the Course you’d like to work in.
3. Click Rubrics on the course navigation menu to the left.
4. Click + Create New Rubric at the top right of the screen.
5. Type the Title of the rubric in the Rubric Name textbox.
6. Select the type of rubric.
   1. Scale: This is the standard rubric style, where students score within a point range (ie. 1-4 points) for each criterion.
   2. Written Feedback: Criteria do not have a point range. Students will receive either receive all points or no points for each criterion. 
7. Select the Rating Display.
   1. Level: Level will show the numeric labels for each rating.
   2. Points: Points will show the actual point value for each rating. For example, if the levels are 1-4, but students earn 2 points for each level, the points would show the points they would receive.
8. Select the Rating Order.
9. Select whether the rubric will be scored or unscored.
10. See below for steps on how to add criterion.

Add Criterion to Rubric

Draft New Criterion

1. Click Draft New Criterion at the bottom left.
2. Type the Criterion Name in the top left textbox.
3. Enter the Criterion Description in the top right textbox.
4. Select the box next to Enable Range if you want multiple point values to fall under each rating.
   1. For example, 5-6 points could be the range for Mastery rather than just 5 points.
5. Edit the point value for each rating in the textbox next to the Display numbers.
   1. Note: The Total Points Possible in the top left below the Criterion Description will automatically update as you edit the point value for each rating.
6. Edit the Rating Name (optional) for each rating in the textbox to the right of the Points.
7. Enter a Rating Description for each rating in the text box to the right of the Rating Name.
   1. The rating description is what you will use to determine what rating a student receives, and it is how students will understand their score, so it is recommended to make it as specific as possible. 
   2. See our Spotlight, Aligning Outcomes to Rubrics, for guidance on how to create clear rubric criteria.
8. Click Save Criterion in the bottom left of the pop-up window.
9. Repeat steps 1-8 for each criterion you wish to add to the rubric or see below for how to create criteria from a learning outcome.
10. Click the Trashcan icon to delete a criteria.
11. Click the pencil icon to edit a criteria.
12. Click Preview Rubric in the lower right corner to view the SpeedGrader view of the rubric.
13. Click Create Rubric when done.

Create From Outcome

1. Click Create From Outcome on the left side of the rubric editor under the Criteria.
2. Search for the outcome using folders on the left of the pop-up window.
   • For guidance on creating Learning Outcomes in Canvas, see our spotlight, Use Learning Outcomes to Measure Student Progress in Canvas.
3. Click the outcome name to add it to the rubric.
4. Check the box next to “Use this criterion for scoring” if you would like to have points attached to this criterion in the rubric.
   • If you do not check this box, you will still score students using the outcome criteria, and you will still be able to track mastery, but it will not affect the student’s grade for the assignment. You can still add Criteria not tied to the outcome that are worth points, and use the student’s ratings to help determine their mastery level of the learning outcome.
5. Click Import on the bottom right of the pop-up window.
   • Note: Refer to the Spotlight linked above for directions on how to adjust the text and points that display in the rubric for the aligned outcome.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 for any additional learning outcomes or see above for for how to draft new criteria.
7. Click the Trashcan icon to delete a Criteria or an outcome.
8. Click Preview Rubric in the lower right corner to view the SpeedGrader view of the rubric.
9. Click Create Rubric when done.

Attach a Rubric to an Assignment

1. Log in to your Canvas Account.
2. Select the Course you’d like to work in.
3. Click Modules on the course navigation menu to the left.
4. Scroll to the Assignment within the Module you’d like to edit.
5. Click the Name of the assignment.
6. Click the Find Rubric button.
   • Note: These steps assume the rubric has already been created. To create a new rubric, visit the “Create a Rubric in Canvas” tutorial.
7. Click the appropriate Course from the drop down menu at the top of the panel that appears.
   • You may also search for the rubric if you know the rubric title.
8. Click on the bubble to the left of the rubric title from the right panel to select the rubric.
   • Click the arrow next to the rubric title to view the rubric.
     • Click the X at the top right to exit the rubric view.
9. Click + Add at the bottom right of the panel to attach the rubric to the assignment.

Attach a Rubric to a Discussion

1. Log in to your Canvas Account.
2. Select the Course you’d like to work in.
3. Click Modules on the course navigation menu to the left.
4. Scroll to the Module with the discussion you’d like to attach a rubric to.
5. Click on Discussion Title.
6. Click the More Options Menu (three vertical dots) to the far right of the Discussion Title.
7. Select Add Rubric from the drop-down menu.
   • Note: Discussion needs to be marked as Graded for this to appear. To do this, click the More Options Menu (three vertical dots), then click Edit. From there select the box next to Graded. Select the box to Assign graded checkpoints if necessary, then click Save.
8. Click Find Rubric from the pop-up window that appears.
9. Select the appropriate Course from the drop down menu at the top of the panel that appears.
   • You may also search for the rubric if you know the rubric title.
10. Click on the bubble to the left of the rubric title to select the rubric.
    • Click the arrow next to the rubric title to view the rubric.
      • Click the X at the top right to exit the rubric view.
11. Click + Add at the bottom right of the panel to attach the rubric to the assignment.
12. Click the X at the top right of the pop-up window to exit out off the Assignment Rubric Details.