Create and Grade an Analytic Rubric
Analytic rubrics have multiple criteria. You assess the level of achievement for each. You may give different weight to each criterion by assigning different values.
This page will walk you through how to make and grade an analytic rubric.
Related Pages
- Rubrics: What They Are, When to Use Them
- Rubrics: Create and Grade a Holistic Rubric
- Rubrics: Attach Rubrics to Grades and Activities
Create an Analytic Rubric
- Click or hover over “Assessment” on the course navigation bar and click “Rubrics.”
- Click the blue “New Rubric” button.
- On the “Edit Rubric” page, leave the “Rubric Status” set to “Draft” until you have the rubric ready to use. But you will need to change the status to “Publish” before you can associate the rubric with a tool, such as a Grade item.
- For “Rubric Type,” choose “Analytic,” of course. You won’t be able to change this once you save the rubric.
- Change the “Initial # of Levels” and the “Initial # of Criteria” to what you want. The more levels you have, the more precisely you can score an activity. But more levels makes it more difficult to write descriptions that clearly distinguish one level from the next.
- For “Scoring Method,” you have three choices:
- “Points” lets you assign a score to each level of achievement. The levels have the same number of points for each criterion, so all criteria have the same weight. Pilot will calculate the total points from all criteria.
- “Custom Points” lets you assign a score to each level of achievement within each criterion. This lets you control how much weight each criterion has in the final score. Pilot will calculate the total points for all criteria.
- “Text Only” lets you assess criteria with words like Exceptional, Average, Unacceptable, or with traditional letter grades. Since there are no numerical values, Pilot cannot calculate a total.
- Save your choices.
Video: Create an Analytic Rubric
Edit an Analytic Rubric
- Click the “Levels and Criteria” tab at the top of the page
- The key to editing the rubric is in the little downward-point arrows next to the table headings.
- For example, click the small arrow to the right of the table heading “Criteria” and choose “Edit Criteria Group” to name your criteria and levels.
- Click the small arrow to the right of each criterion and choose “Edit Criterion” to name the criterion, set the numeric value of each level, write a description explaining the requirements for each level, and include the feedback a student will get when you choose a level.
- Once you have everything filled in, click “Save.”
- To see how your rubric looks, click the little downward-pointing arrow to the right of the rubric’s name near the top of the page. Then choose “Preview.”
Grade with an Analytic Rubric
To use a rubric to assess students’ work and provide feedback, attach it to an activity, such as a Grade item, Dropbox folder, or Discussion topic.
Student View of Original Rubric
Although you can’t use a rubric to assess anything until you assign it to an activity, students can see any rubric after you’ve changed its status to “Published,” whether the rubric is attached to anything or not.
- Under “Assessment” on the navbar, click “Rubrics.”
- On the “Rubrics” page, click the little arrow to the right of the rubric’s name, then click “Preview.”
- Students will see the rubric in that preview, but not any grading you have done with the rubric.
Grade with Analytic Rubric Attached to a Grade Item
When you attach a rubric to an item in Grades, the rubric can automatically fill the grade item with its score. Then you don’t have to copy each student’s score to Grades.
Once a holistic rubric is attached to a grade item, it’s easy to score:
- Click “Grades” on the navbar.
- What you do next depends on which view you are in:
- If you are in “Manage Grades,” click the small arrow next to the name of the item you want to grade, then choose “Enter Grades.”
- If you are in “Enter Grades,” click the small arrow next to the name of the item you want to grade, then choose “Grade All.”
- For each student, click the yellow rubric icon in the “Assessment” column.
- On the rubric, click the level you want to assign. You can also click in the “Feedback” box to change the feedback you want to give the student.

Student View of Graded Rubric
When you grade with a rubric that’s attached to a grade item, a student will see an “Assessment Details” link to the right of the grade item in “Grades.”
A student who clicks “Assessment Details” will see the rubric. The level you assigned will be highlighted in yellow with a green check mark. The feedback and score for each criterion will be in the last column of its row. The level earned and total score will be in the last row of the table.