Graduate Threaded Discussion Grading Rubric
Updated Guidelines for Faculty and Students
Discussion Criteria (updated 3/22/12—revised 6/13)
I. Support from Literature: Criteria: Support from the literature is present and includes a minimum of one scholarly in-text citation and matching reference, per each thread topic per week.
What is a scholarly resource?
A. A scholarly resource is one which comes from a professional, peer-reviewed publication (e.g., journals and government reports, such as FDA, CDC).
• Contains references for sources cited
• Written by a professional or scholar in the field and indicates credentials of the author(s)
• Is no more than 5 years old for clinical or research articles
B. What is not considered a scholarly resource?
• Newspaper articles and lay person literature (Readers Digest, Healthy Life Magazine, Food and Fitness) can be sources for background about your topic for a project, but are not considered scholarly.
• Information from Wikipedia or any wiki
· Textbooks
· Website homepages
· The weekly lesson
· Articles in healthcare and nursing-oriented trade magazines, such as Nursing Made Incredibly Easy and RN Magazine (Source: What is a scholarly article.docx Created: 6/09 CK/CL Revised: 2/17/11, 09/02/11 nlh/clm)
C. Can the lesson for the week be used as a scholarly source?
• Information from the weekly lesson can be cited in a posting; however, it is not to be the sole source used in the post
D. Are resources provided from CCN acceptable sources (i.e., the readings for the week)
· Not as a sole source within the post. The textbook or assigned (required) articles for the week can be used, but another outside source must be cited for full credit. Textbooks are not considered a scholarly source for the purpose of threaded discussions.
E. Are websites acceptable as a scholarly resource for threaded discussions?
· Yes for documents or data cited from credible websites. Credible websites usually end in .gov or .edu; however some .org sites that belong to professional associations (for example, American Heart Association, National League for Nursing, American Diabetes Association) are also considered credible websites. Websites ending with .com are not to be used as a scholarly resource.
II. Application of Course Knowledge: Post contributes unique perspectives or insights gleaned from personal experience or examples from the healthcare field.
· The term Application of Course Knowledge has been moved to the beginning of the phrase in the grading rubric to indicate that the student must accurately and fully discuss the topic for the week in addition to providing personal or professional examples. The student must completely answer the entire initial stated question.
III. Organization: Post presents information in logical, meaningful, and understandable sequence, clearly relevant to the discussion topic.
· No changes have been made in this area.
IV. Interactive Dialogue: Responds substantively to at least one topic-related post of a student peer. A substantive post adds content or insights or asks a question that will add to the learning experience or generate discussion.
• Does a response to the instructor count as credit in this section? No, the response must be to another student.
• A post to the instructor will count in the participation requirement; however, it will not be sufficient to meet the interactive dialogue criteria.
• A substantive post adds content or insights that will add to the learning experience or generate discussion. A post of “I agree” with a repeat of the other students’ post does not count as a substantive post. At least one of the posts in each of the discussion threads must be substantive. A collection of shallow posts does not equal a substantive post.
V. Grammar, Syntax, APA: APA format, grammar, spelling, and punctuation are accurate, or with zero to three errors.
· A change has been made in this area to include assigning a score of zero if the errors in the posts are repeated after the student has been informed of the errors.
VI. Participation Requirements: Student answers the threaded discussion question or topic on one day and posts a response to a student/instructor peer on another day.
· While participation requirements call for a minimum of two posts per week, the overall quality of the posts is considered in the final grade given.
VII. Early Participation Requirement: The student must provide a substantive answer to the graded discussion question(s)/topic(s), posted by the course instructor (not a response to a peer), by Wednesday, 11:59 p.m. MT of each week.
· Not every criterion for quality must be included in each post; for example, not all posts must have a scholarly resource; or not all posts must be a response to a peer but can be to an instructor; but, over the week, all quality criteria must be met.