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assessment

Student-led rubric co-design: students set the criteria they are graded by

In groups of three to four, students design the rubric by which their own coursework will be graded - developed at Arizona State University and piloted at other universities.

Student-led rubric co-design: students set the criteria they are graded by
Photo by Van Tay Media / Unsplash
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This example is part of the Scaling HESD Innovations Series. In this series, we explore practices that already exist in the niches of Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD) and that could plausibly be scaled to the regime level of higher education. Each example describes the practice itself, the landscape pressures ( ⇓ ) it speaks to, the crack in regime practices ( ◊ ) it exposes, and pathways for scaling it ( ⇑ ).

The practice
The approach has been developed at the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University and has been piloted also in other universities (King et al., 2024). In the original ASU approach, students work in groups of three to four to design the rubric by which their own coursework will be graded - first by adapting existing templates for a formative mid-term self- and peer-assessment, then by developing format and criteria from scratch in line with values and goals they negotiate together. The instructor supports the process and grades with each group’s rubric.

The landscape pressures it speaks to
The practice responds to three of the pressures identified in the workshop. The AI-driven erosion of conventional assessment ( ⇓ ) shifts the locus of evaluation away from the output, which a model can now produce in seconds, towards the process of value-formation, judgement, and reflection that co-design makes explicit. Scepticism about higher education’s relevance ( ⇓ ) is countered when students experience their criteria as connected to professional purposes rather than imposed by an instructor. And the crisis of democracy ( ⇓ ) is addressed, at small scale, by negotiation within the group: a lived counter-experience to instruction without say. The regime crack the practice exposes is the dominance of standardised, instructor-centred rubrics ( ◊ ) that capture neither student diversity nor complex sustainability competencies well.

From niche to regime
Lifting the format above the niche requires deliberate work on four fronts.

  • Anchoring ( ⇑ ): most examination regulations already permit self- and peer-assessment as formative components, and competence-oriented accreditation criteria offer further entry points.
  • Coalition-building ( ⇑ ): teaching-development units, student bodies, and quality-enhancement offices are the natural allies to support co-design assessment practices.
  • Translation ( ⇑ ): recognition in module handbooks with defined quality standards, in staff training, and in teaching awards that carry career weight.
  • Aggregation ( ⇑ ): the published evidence base and transferable implementation guides to seed the practice beyond sustainability programmes.

References:
King, J. A., Brundiers, K., & Fischer, D. (2024). Student agency in a sustainability-oriented assessment process: exploring expansive learning in student-led rubric co-design. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2024.2333031

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The Scaling HESD Innovations collection is open — you are invited to contribute your own example.