Educators use rubrics to set expectations for their learners. Rubrics take much of the guesswork out of studying for learners so they can more readily succeed. Rubrics consist of checklists of skills or knowledge learners have gained that, in turn, help learners prepare for their assessments. Educators find rubrics to help score these assessments.
Our recent randomized controlled trial demonstrated that rubrics accompanied by a 5-minute instructional session were just as effective as the same 5-minute instruction followed by an added 25 minutes of instruction.1 This could save valuable time! The context was our Quantitative Medicine Block for second-year medical students learning question formulation skills as part of their Evidence Based Practice training.
We previously had observed the dramatic improvement driven by rubrics in medical students2 and also physician assistant students.3 These two previous quasi-experiments were based on earlier work involving Orthopaedic residents.4
Please email me at jeldredge@salud.unm.edu if you would like to learn more on using rubrics to save time in your courses or blocks.
Jon Eldredge, PhD, Professor and Evidence Based Practice Librarian
1Eldredge JD, Schiff MA, Langsjoen JO. Effectiveness of a question-formulation rubric with second-year medical students: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of the Medical Library Association; JMLA 2023 Jan/April; 111 (1/2): 591-8. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2023.1529
2Eldredge JD, Schiff MA, Langsjoen JO, Jerabek RN. Question Formulation Skills Training in First-Year Medical Students. Journal of the Medical Library Association 2021 Jan; 109 (1): 77-83.
3Eldredge JD, Nogar C. Physician assistant student training in question formulation: a quasi-experiment. Journal of Physician Assistant Education 2022 Mar; 33 (1): 47-50. PMID: 35170558
4Eldredge JD. Training orthopaedic residents to formulate evidence-based questions. Univ NM Orthop Res J 2019;8:85-87. https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1060&context=unm_jor