Development of Rubrics for Capstone Project Courses: Perspectives from Teachers and Students

TL;DR

This paper presents the development and validation of new rubrics for capstone project assessments, incorporating feedback from faculty and students to enhance fairness and relevance.

Contribution

It introduces new rating instruments based on rubrics, validated through stakeholder input, to improve assessment fairness in capstone courses.

Findings

Faculty and students found new rubrics fairer than previous ones

Final instruments are ready for deployment in the upcoming semester

Future research directions are outlined

Abstract

This study attempted to develop fair, relevant, and content-valid assessment tools for capstone project courses. Toward this goal, new rating instruments based on the concept of rubrics were proposed. To ensure that the new instruments were valid and fair, several meetings with faculty and students of the computing science departments (i.e., Computer Science and Information Technology) were successively conducted. Eight faculty members and 10 students participated in the study. The final versions of the instruments were completed after a series of careful deliberations with faculty and students. Faculty and students perceived the new instruments fairer than the previous ones. Since the final instruments will be deployed this semester, their strengths and weaknesses are not yet known at this time. Directions for future research are presented.