The rubrics as an assessment tool of competency in higher education: use or abuse?

Abstract

The rubrics have emerged as a valuable tool for competency assessment. Despite their interest, they cannot solve all the difficulties associated with the assessment processes. In this paper, some arguments for and against the use of rubrics are reviewed. An analysis of the scientific evidence from the current available research on the use of rubrics is finally showed with the aim to know if these evidences confirm or contradict the supposed benefits usually associated with their use. The results show the usefulness of the rubric to promote self-regulated learning but also the need of training processes and of reliability and validity analysis.