Set up your first assignment – Rubrics

You've created a workspace using the setup wizard and are ready to start grading essays. So what's next? You want the grading to meet your expectations and actually save you time. So let's invest just a little more time to make sure that both you and EssayGrader are set up for success.

Selecting an assignment

Using the side panel, make your way to the chosen assignment (one will already be selected if you have just finished creating a manual workspace).

Selecting the assignment will bring up the start grading screen where you select a rubric as well as set other criteria related to the assignment, grading, and style of the feedback report.

Selecting a rubric

The first and, in some ways, most important step is choosing a grading rubric, which you accomplish with the Select Rubric button in the top right of this screen.

If you have rubrics in your personal library you will see them first. Otherwise, select the Platform rubrics tab to choose one of the many built in rubric options. Selecting a rubric by clicking Select to the right of the rubric will take you back to the previous screen and you will see that the title of your chosen rubric is now displayed in the first section. Some of the grading settings below will also have adjusted to match the rubric settings.

1. Select the Create New Rubric button

Whether you are in the middle of setting up an assignment or you have navigated to the Rubric Library, in either case you will see a purple button that says Create New Rubric. Select that and continue to the next screen.

2. Choose the creation method

You have 4 options for creating a rubric, as seen in the screenshot below: Upload or import, Use template, Build with AI, and Start from scratch.

Upload or import

Selecting this creation method presents Student level, Grading intensity, and Language settings that we will also discuss in the next article.

• Student Level – This reflects the acadmic level of the students whose work is being graded and will default to the level assigned to the rubric. You can change it, however, if you so choose.

• Language – You can set both the input and output languages here, but the default assumes that both are the same. The options you have are UK, USA, and Australian English, as well as Spanish and French. If you wish to produce a feedback report that is in a different language than the essay (e.g., a Spanish essay but an English report), then then uncheck the box below the language options that says 'Your output language is the same as input language' and choose a new output language from the selections that appear below.

• Grading Intensity – While the scoring criteria are most importantly set in the rubric itself, you can instruct the AI to apply those criteria in a Light, Moderate, or Strict manner by selecting a grading intensity option.

Select the appropriate options for these three items and hit Continue to move to an upload or import screen where you can:

• select an existing rubric saved on your device
• import a rubric you have stored on Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive
• use your webcam to scan a paper-based rubric.

The software will convert your rubric so that it is compatible with EssayGrader's format and you will be presented with a screen where you may edit the criteria, descriptors, and scoring levels of your rubric. The next article will discuss these in detail.

Use template

When Use template is selected, you'll see the rubric library appear. The default option is your own rubrics in the My Rubrics tab. The Platform rubrics that are bundled with the EssayGrader software can be selected from the Platform rubrics tab. You can choose any of these as a base for a new rubric that you have customized from the selection.

Select the rubric you wish to use, noting the subject matter, student level, and type of essay (where noted in the title), then scroll down to the very bottom of the list and select Continue.

• Change template – If you wish to change your selection, you can click Change template in the Details section of the next screen and this will take you back to the Rubric library to select a new template. Once you've got the rubric you want, you can start to make changes to the criteria, descriptors, and scoring levels.

• Edit the rubric settings – You can also edit rubric settings by selecting the corresponding button in the same Details section at the top of the rubric. Here you can adust the Student Level, Grading Intensity, and Language associated with grading.

• Customizing the template

You will see this screen again in other rubric creation methods as it is ultimately the core of your rubric.

• Give it a name – You might be happy with the name it has, but for your own future sanity, it's probably better to give it a descriptive name that reflects your changes to the template.

• Review and edit the criteria – The titles at the top of each rubric section reflect the criteria against which the rubric is evaluating student work. The criterion example in the screenshot is Purpose, Focus, and Organization. That same rubric includes additional criteria of Development and Elaboration and Conventions of Standard English. Other rubric templates may have different criteria. You can keep these or change them as needed.

You can also delete any of the criteria (select the trash can icon to the right of the criterion title) or add additional ones by selecting Add criteria at the bottom of the rubric.

If helpful, you can duplicate criteria by selecting the icon to the left of the trash can.

• Review and edit the descriptors for each level – Descriptors help the AI to understand how the criteria are to be evaluated and what score to assign based on that evaluation.

• Review and edit the scoring values – Each level is assigned a score. The AI evaluates the essay against the descriptors for each of the criteria and assigns the corresponding score to the student. You will want to ensure that the scoring is consistent with how you would assign a value to student work.

The final grade will reflect the sum of the scores for each of the criteria. So if you want the assignment graded out of 25, for example, you could assign a maximum of 5 points for each of the criteria (which would mean 6 levels for each, including 0 points).

But you can also weight the different sections by having different maximums and you can also use decimal points.

• Preview your rubric – It may be a little easier to picture how the rubric will work if you switch to the preview mode, which can be accessed by selecting the Preview tab just below the rubric title. It lays out the rubric in a tabular format that is a bit easier to read, particularly if some descriptors are longer than the input field and can't be seen without scrolling.

Build a rubric using AI

The third creation method is to use AI to build your rubric for you. When you select this option, you will see the bottom section of the screen change and you'll be presented with options for Student Level as well the type of assignment being graded. Select the appropriate options and hit Continue.

You will now be presented with Grading intensity and Language options that will look familiar from the assignment setup screens. Where these settings overlap, your assignment settings will be updated with these rubric settings.

There is a new field here that asks you to describe the assignment that is being graded. The example given in the input box is "Argumentative Grade 10 essay. Include criteria about conciseness, use of evidence, grammar, and sentence structure."

You may be as detailed or as vague as you wish, but the better your description the more accurately the AI will be able to design a rubric for you. Select Continue and the AI will take about a minute to create your rubric.

You will then be provided with the opportunity to edit the rubric in exactly the same way that the template and upload or import methods produced. You may review the Customizing the template instructions above for a detailed description of that process.

Start from scratch

Choosing this 4th option on the screen takes you to the manual rubric creation workflow. Again, you will be presented with settings for Student level, Grading intensity, and Language. Hit continue and you will see a simplified version of the rubric editing screen with only one criterion and one scoring level.

Step 1: Give your rubric a name

Provide a descriptive name that reflects the nature and level of the rubric. You will want to be able to identify it within your rubric library, particularly if you have a number of custom rubrics. Each should have a unique and descriptive name.

Step 2: Add criteria

Presumably you already have a clear idea of the types of criteria that you want to apply to the grading for which this rubric will be used. Fill in the first Criteria title and then add additional criteria using the button at the bottom until you are satisfied with your list.

Step 3: Add scoring levels

Before you add scoring levels within the software you will need to know how you want to score assignments using this rubric, whether all criteria will be equally weighted, and the total score.

You don't have to have equal numbers of levels within each of the criteria. And the scale for each of the criteria could be different as well.

For example, you might grade the first criterion out of 5, the second out of 10, and the third out of 3. For the first you might have 6 levels (inlcuding 0 points), 4 for the second, and 6 for the third (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10). How you choose to do this is up to you.

Just remember that the student's final score will be the sum of all points awarded for each of the criteria.

To add additional scoring levels, select the plus sign to the right of the existing level and you will observe another level pop up. Fill in the score for that level and move on to the next, again pressing the plus sign to add another and another until you have all you need. This is done for each of the criteria.

Step 4: Add the descriptor text

Now that your overall structure is ready (you have your criteria listed, you have the scoring levels in place, and the scores for each level have been defined) it is time to add the descriptors.

Go through your rubric and fill in the detail that will instruct the AI on what kind of work, when evaluated against the criteria, will result in that scoring level. If you aren't sure how to make the correct adjustments to the text to reflect different scoring levels, take a look at some of the platform rubrics and see how they have been created in this regard.

3. Finalize your rubric

Now that you have chosen a creation method and gone through the process of creating a rubric, now you can finally click the Create rubric button at the bottom right of the screen.

Enjoy the confetti that celebrates your hard work and you will now see your new rubric in the My Rubrics list within the rubric library.

4. Edit your rubric

Once you have had a chance to use your rubric for grading you may feel that it needs some tweaking in order to produce the grading results you are expecting. You'll notice a pencil icon to the right of the rubric title in the library.

Select that icon and you will be presented with the familiar Edit rubric screen. Make the adjustments you need and re-save.

Continue the walkthrough: Set up your first assignment – Source material and grading settings >>>

Updated on: 09/20/2025