Alignment rubric
How a resource is graded against a competency: four levels, what each means for knowledge, skills and attitudes, and the reasons a reviewer can give when a resource only mentions a competency. Competency catalogue →
Version
alignment-rubric-1.1.0+sha256:bab75e54f320
Status
draft
Levels
What counts depends on the competency's marker in the catalogue: 21 knowledge, 75 skill, 8 attitude competencies.
| Level | Meaning | Knowledge | Skill | Attitude |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | develops The competency is an aim of the resource and takes a substantial part of it. |
It explains what the competency names, as something the reader is meant to understand: concepts, how they work, examples, and often a check of understanding. | It has the learner do what the competency names, with guidance: steps, exercises, worked examples or a task to complete, and the reasons behind them. | It works on the disposition the competency names, through cases, dilemmas, discussion or reflection meant to change how the learner acts. |
| 2 | contributes Working through the resource makes progress on the competency, though that is not its aim. |
It explains one part of the competency, or explains it briefly on the way to something else. | The learner practises the competency while doing something else, or practises one part of it: writing pandas code to train a model contributes to T16. | It raises the disposition in a section or a note, such as an ethics box in a lab or a closing reflection, without making it the aim. |
| 1 | mentions The competency's vocabulary appears, and the reader makes no progress on it. |
Its concepts are named without being explained. | Its tools or techniques appear, in code that is installed or imported but not taught, or in a list of prerequisites. | The disposition is invoked in a slogan or a passing sentence. |
| 0 | absent Nothing of the competency is in the resource. |
Its concepts do not appear. | Nothing in the resource asks for or shows the skill. | The disposition plays no part. |
Why a pair is only a mention
A reviewer who grades a pair 1 says why. The reasons are the evidence behind the vocabulary changes the competencies page proposes.
| In passing | Named once or twice, with no explanation and no practice. |
|---|---|
| Boilerplate | Text repeated across a repository or a site: a machine-translation notice, a licence, contribution or security footer. |
| Import or installation | The words occur in code that installs or loads a library, not in anything the learner is taught. |
| Link or reference | A link, a citation or an entry in a reading list. |
| Prerequisite | Assumed knowledge or skill, not practised in the resource. |
| Another sense | The same words with another meaning: scikit-learn's model_selection for G03, a region of interest for R21. |
Grading
- Judge what the resource itself does for a learner working through it on their own, not what a teacher could build on it, and not whether the row looks likely.
- Most rows are 0 or 1, and saying so is as useful as finding a 3.
- Read the competency's descriptor. Its outcomes say what developing it looks like; its false friends say which uses of its words do not count.
- A prerequisite is a mention, unless the resource has the learner practise it.
- A resource's purpose decides a 3. A text written to report research, sell a product or document software can contribute to a competency, and develops it only if teaching it is one of its aims.
- Material made for a teacher is graded the same way. A deck without its talk, an assignment's rubric or an answer key gives a learner what its own pages give: often a mention, sometimes a contribution. A deck's speaker notes, where it has them, are part of its pages.
- When the extracted text is thin, as in a deck or a scan whose pages are pictures, open the original and grade what its pages show.
- Length does not decide. A short lesson can develop a competency, and a long manual may only mention it.
- Between two levels, choose the one the text supports, and say why in the note.