This KB article will show you how to generate using Blackboard Ultra's AI Design Assistant. Grading rubrics offer a structured framework to assess student work. Rubrics help ensure both fairness and consistency in grading. Moreover, rubrics give students clear directives to meet desired learning outcomes. The AI Design Assistant creates rubrics by drawing insights from course context. 

Rubric generation can be launched from these areas within your course: an assignment, test, discussion, or from the gradebook.

Tips When Using the AI Design Assistant:

• The more information you provide in your descriptions, the more likely you’ll see accurate and salient AI generated content.
• Always check AI generated content for accuracy and appropriateness.
• You can make edits to all AI generated content as well as reject part or all of its output.

Instructions for AI-Generated Rubrics:

Step 1:

Create a new or edit an existing assessment (i.e., test or assignment) or discussion. (For instructions on this, see Create and Edit Assignments, Create Tests, or Create Discussions)

Important Note About Assessments: You cannot add a rubric to an assignment or test that already contains questions that you created within Blackboard. If you plan to add questions, do so only after you’ve created the rubric.

Important Note About Discussions: You cannot add a rubric to a Discussion that is not set to be graded. You must first indicate in the Discussion Settings that responses will be graded. (You may need to first name the Discussion before Ultra will enable you to set the Discussion as graded).

Step 2:

Click the Settings gear icon in the upper right corner. You will find the Settings icon of a gear in the upper right corner from within an assignment, a test, a discussion, and from within the Gradebook.

The image below is from within an assignment, and the Settings icon is highlighted in blue.

Step 3:

• For Assessments: In the settings window, scroll down to the Additional Tools section and click on Use grading rubric.
• For Discussions: In the Discussion Settings, be sure that Grade discussion is selected in the Details and Information section. Scroll down to the Additional Tools section and click on Use grading rubric.  

Step 4:

Select Generate to start.

You have several ways to customize the rubrics that the AI Design Assistant generates.

• Enter a description to narrow the focus of the rubric such as entering the purpose of and the assignment instructions to the assessment for which the rubric exists.
• Select the rubric type: percentage, percentage range, points, or point range.
• Adjust the complexity of the rubric.(Complexity refers to learners’ educational levels. A complexity level of 7 will typically meet the target ranges for undergraduate lower division, 8 for undergraduate upper division, and 9 for Master and early Ph.D levels per this guide).
• Define the number of columns and rows.

Once you’ve finalized your settings, select Generate. If the rubric meets your needs, select Continue to edit the rubric to further refine it.

Review each cell of the rubric for accuracy. You can also further edit your rubric to better fit your teaching style and goals. Visit the “Rubrics” topic to learn more about how you can customize your rubric.

See separate Knowledge Base articles to learn how the AI Design Assistant in Ultra can assist you with generating learning modules and their associated images, and with generating test questions.