This paper reports on a multiyear program of international collaborative research delivered with the aim of conceptualising, validating and prototyping rubrics for evaluating and reporting university activities and outcomes relevant to the UN SDGs. The paper sets foundations by building on earlier analysis of research on university engagement with…

The formative use of rubrics seems to have the potential of promoting student learning, supposedly by making expectations and criteria explicit. However, there is a variation in effects on how well students perform on academic tasks when supported by rubrics. The aim of this study was to identify factors in rubric interventions that may…

Building on previous research, the authors of this article propose the use of a series of interrelated rubrics for student assessment and self-assessment in the dance technique class. These rubrics are based on learning strategies the authors observed students demonstrate. The authors propose that bringing students' attention to these strategies…

Rubrics (e.g., Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) rubrics) that measure specific skills exist, and researchers have demonstrated their benefits; however, most of them were designed for use with undergraduate students. Although some rubrics have been created to assess dissertations and oral defenses, few have been…

Background: STEAM education emphasizes transdisciplinary application and practice; however, there is a lack of comprehensive assessment tools for evaluating K-12 students' transdisciplinary learning. Given the cross-domain instructional and learning approaches in STEAM education, this study aims to develop and validate the Learn, Use, Practice,…

A course syllabus provides an easily accessible source of information about the learning activities, teaching methods, assessments, and policies the instructor intends to apply in a course. This paper describes our process of developing and applying a rubric designed to identify and describe inclusive and equitable practices observed in course…

A diversity of approaches for critically appraising qualitative and quantitative evidence exist and emphasize different aspects. These approaches lack clear processes to facilitate rating the overall quality of the evidence for aggregated findings that combine qualitative and quantitative evidence. We draw on a meta-aggregation of implementation…

Current methods for evaluating faculty teaching fall short, and one way to address this is through campus-wide initiatives that focus on change at the level of academic units. The complex context of higher education makes meaningful teaching evaluation difficult; in particular, four sobering realities of this context must be taken into account in…

Rock and mineral labs are fundamental in traditional introductory geology courses. Successful implementation of these lab activities provides students opportunities to apply content knowledge. Inquiry-based instruction may be one way to increase student success. Prior examination of published STEM labs indicates that geology labs, particularly…

Self and peer assessment in group work offers numerous benefits but is also susceptible to bias. Yet, research examining bias in self and peer assessments often overlooks cultural perspectives and predominantly favors Western contexts. This study aims to address this gap by examining how culture influences rater bias in self and peer assessments…

Discussions of what it means to be an effective outdoor leader are common in outdoor education literature (Martin et al., 2025; Smith, 2021). Research has identified core competencies (Martin et al., 2025), conceptual frameworks (Pomfret et al., 2023), and course curricula/qualifications for effective leadership (Baker & O'Brien, 2019; Seaman…

Many colleges and universities now require faculty search committees to use rubrics when evaluating faculty job candidates, as proponents believe these "decision-support tools" can reduce the impact of bias in candidate evaluation. That is, rubrics are intended to ensure that candidates are evaluated more fairly, which is then thought to…

There is increasing interest in using factor scores in structural equation models and there have been numerous methodological papers on the topic. Nevertheless, sum scores, which are computed from adding up item responses, continue to be ubiquitous in practice. It is therefore important to compare simulation results involving factor scores to…

This article addresses the transformative potential of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) to optimize human potential by making education more efficient and effective. We describe a new teaching method called "Dynamic Personalized Learning." In this method, AI dynamically provides feedback and adjusts the level and pace of…

This paper describes the development of the "Flourishing Classroom System Observation Framework and Rubric," which provides a framework and practical approach to defining and describing multiple interconnected observable characteristics of a classroom system that individually and together can be targeted to cultivate collective…