The Use of Rubrics in the Pharmacy Curriculum

Allison Loi, PharmD
PGY1 Pharmacy Resident
Safeway Pharmacy Mid-Atlantic Division

Throughout pharmacy school, student pharmacists encounter various evaluation methods that assess their knowledge acquisition, problem-solving capability, application of skills, and critical-thinking ability. With new learning experiences, questions related to grading and assessment always seems to be topic of interest among student learners such as "exactly where did I lose points?" and "what could I have done to get a better grade?" To help facilitate student learners from novice to competent, rubrics are incorporated into various learning experiences throughout the pharmacy school curricula, such as patient counseling activities and assessment and plan development.

O'Donnell et al., defined a rubric as a scaled tool with levels of achievement and descriptions of each criterion for each level of performance.1 Essentially a rubric is a document that defines what is expected from the student and what will be assessed for a particular project, presentation, or evaluation. Typically, rubrics are designed as a grid-type structure consisting of evaluative criteria, scoring strategy, and quality statements.2 The evaluative criteria describe the critical elements of a student's work related to the learning outcomes being assessed. The evaluative criteria are skills, knowledge, and behavior that the learner must demonstrate. For example, as part of a new prescription medication patient counseling activity, the evaluative criteria might include an introduction and patient history, basic counseling points, patient education, organization and succinctness, verbal, and nonverbal communication.3 The next component of a rubric is a scoring strategy to rate each criterion which is often combined with levels of performance such as "not meeting," "meeting," or "exceeding" expectations. Although the scoring scale can be either numerical or descriptive, the important aspect is that the different levels reflect variance in quality and not a shift in importance. The last component of a rubric is the quality statements that describe each level of performance.

According to Heidi Andrade, a rubric expert, an effective rubric goes beyond a grading/answer key.4 An effective rubric serves as a teaching and learning tool. For the instructor, a rubric for a learning activity helps clarify the learning goals, promotes objectivity and consistency in grading, and is a tool for providing timely, useful, and focused feedback.1,2,4 In a review paper by Cockett and Jackson on rubrics in higher education, students identified that they used the rubric as a guide to prepare for the learning activity, better understand what is expected of them, and what to do to be successful.2 Also, the review paper noted that students used rubrics to assess their progress and reflect on their competency in completing work.2 Overall, the review paper by Cockett and Jackson on rubrics in higher education concluded that student self-assessment, self-regulation, and understanding of assessment criteria were enhanced using rubrics.2

Rubrics are embedded in the pharmacy curriculum for various learning activities to communicate teaching and learning expectations and provide informative feedback, so students are "practice-ready" upon graduation. For example, a SOAP note rubric may be integrated with the various pharmacotherapy courses as it is required for students to document patient care activities accurately and concisely.3 The SOAP note serves as a learning tool to provide clear assessment criteria and a resource for students to self-assess progress toward competence.

Although evidence suggests that rubrics are most effective when co-created with students and other faculty members, this is not always feasible due to time constraints and the availability of resources.1,2,4 However, it is still important to seek feedback from students and evaluators to revise the rubric as needed to make it as effective a tool as possible. Other challenges of using rubrics as part of the assessment process include reduced creativity, can cause performance anxiety and inter-rater reliability issues. 1,2,4

In summary, effective rubrics can serve the purposes of teaching and learning as well as evaluation. For instructors, a rubric is a tool to establish clear rules for evaluation and to define criteria for performance to meet learning goals. In contrast, rubrics provide students with clear expectations of performance, an opportunity to self-assess progress and receive timely, detailed feedback.

References:

1. O'Donnell, Jean A et al. “Rubrics 101: a primer for rubric development in dental education.” Journal of dental education vol. 75,9 (2011): 1163-75.

2. Cockett, Andrea, and Carole Jackson. “The use of assessment rubrics to enhance feedback in higher education: An integrative literature review.” Nurse education today vol. 69 (2018): 8-13. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2018.06.022

3. Sherman, Justin J, and Christa D Johnson. “Assessment of pharmacy students' patient care skills using case scenarios with a SOAP note grading rubric and standardized patient feedback.” Currents in pharmacy teaching & learning vol. 11,5 (2019): 513-521. doi:10.1016/j.cptl.2019.02.012

4. Andrade HG. Teaching with rubrics: the good, the bad, and the ugly. College Teaching. 2005;53(1):27-31.