Hello!
We’ve been encouraging you to use the Rubric Converter Utility to format your rubrics for use in TA39 and to set them up in your rubric library.
Originally, the Rubric Converter Utility was built to take your rubrics—whether submitted as PDFs, PNGs, or as conventional tabular representations—and convert them into flat, formatted, AI-ready text for use in TA39. The first pass was intentionally designed to preserve the text verbatim, ensuring that the formatted text of the rubric is exactly what you provided.
Over time, as we've worked closely with you, we've observed that often—or at least sometimes—the rubrics you and your colleagues use carry a rich layer of teaching wisdom. While this language resonates well with experienced educators, it sometimes lacks the clarity and objectivity required for effective AI interpretation.
For example, terms like "many," "several," or "few" across rating levels could be clarified—for instance, "many" might be refined to "more than 10," "several" to "approximately 3–5," and "few" to "1 or 2." This provides the clarity needed for objective evaluation.
Recognizing this, we’ve developed new features to help refine your rubric content—enhancing clarity and balance without diminishing your expert insights.
What’s New
Critique & Suggestions
In addition to the established conversion process, the tool now takes a second look at your verbatim-formatted rubric. And, of course, you may still want to use the exact text of your rubric for good reason.
It reviews your rubric for potentially ambiguous or subjective language that might affect grading consistency by AI and offers recommendations—such as suggesting numeric ranges or providing examples—to support you in refining your criteria.
Please note that these suggestions are only hints; your professional judgment remains paramount, and you should adjust the verbiage or numerical counts as needed based on your experience.
Revised Rubric Generation
Building on the insights from the critique, the tool now generates a revised version of the rubric. This updated version attempts to factor in these called-out suggestions—of course, as generated by AI. Needless to say, the recommendations provided here serve as guidance only. Your wisdom as an educator should always guide the final edits to ensure the rubric truly reflects your intent.
Why These Enhancements Matter
Enhanced Objectivity: Clear, precise criteria contribute to more objective, consistent evaluations. That is our goal using AI.
A Path for New Rubrics
This utility is particularly valuable when you bring in new rubrics that haven’t yet been used with TA39. Through the Rubric Converter, you can refine a version that is nearly optimally designed for AI use—formatted and balanced with enhanced objectivity.
Once you’ve achieved this optimal version, you likely won’t need to run the rubric through the process again or recreate it in your rubric library in the main tool.
We encourage you to share your crafted rubric with your colleagues so they can benefit from your lead and avoid reinventing the wheel. Better yet, help the community by posting it here.
Access The Utility
From TA39 main menu
