Rubric

Rubric Development for Psychology Students’ Written Communication Skills

Conducted by: Nicholas Thaler & Ellie Kazemi

Abstract

 The focus of this workshop is to discuss the utility, reliability, and validity of an assessment rubric.  This rubric was tailored to measure specific learning outcomes of undergraduate psychology students using their final papers of a research methodologies capstone course.  Such outcomes include adherence to principles of research methodologies, using appropriate statistics, adherence to the APA Publication Manual, and overall written communication skills.  As these are all critical learning outcomes recommended for undergraduate psychology programs, developing and validating such rubrics can have great potential in an academic environment.

Target Audience

 Faculty members who are interested in constructing objective rubrics for written material and measuring the utility of such rubrics would find this workshop relevant and informative.  Any individual who is interested in rubrics or assessing learning outcomes in general would also benefit from attending this workshop.

Learning Outcomes

Discuss the rationale for utilizing rubrics for undergraduate written research manuscripts

Identify the key components of a rubric

Identify barriers in constructing a rubric that is reliable across users

Identify how to incorporate tests of reliability and validity on rubrics

Biographies
 

Nicholas Thaler is a second year master’s student in clinical psychology at California State University, Northridge.  He has completed his B.S. in Psychology at the University of California, San Diego and hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology next year.  Nicholas’ research interests include assessment, psychometrics, and measurement.

Ellie Kazemi, Ph.D., B.C.B.A. is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at CSUN. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on research methodology and learning. As Department Assessment Liaison 

to her University she coordinates and oversees departmental assessment efforts. Her research interests involve children with disabilities and their parents.