21 — Rubric Grading and Feedback

🔒 Pro feature — requires Dantian Training Hub Pro.

The Rubric Grading Suite lets your college mark every assignment against a shared, versioned rubric so that assessment is consistent between trainers and every result can be traced back to the criteria, the assessor and the feedback that produced it. Trainers grade from a queue, students see a criterion-by-criterion breakdown with written and video feedback, and administrators keep control of who can unlock, re-grade or delete a result.

This guide covers setting the module up, building rubrics, mapping them to assignments, grading (online, in-person and on a student’s behalf), feedback, and every rubric setting. Authenticity declarations, video storage, results sheets and bulk exports are covered in 22 — Declarations, Videos and Results.

Who this is for

Role	What they do here
Site administrator	Activates the module, sets the rubric settings, decides who can unlock and delete results
Training coordinator / assessment lead	Builds outcome sets and rubrics, maps them to assignments, allocates trainers
Trainer / instructor	Works through the grading queue, grades submissions, records in-person assessments
Student	Reads their result, rubric breakdown and feedback on the assignment page

Requirements and enabling the Rubric Grading Suite

The module only works when all of the following are in place:

1. Dantian Training Hub Pro is active.
2. Tutor LMS Pro is active. Rubric grading works on Tutor LMS Pro assignments. Without Tutor LMS Pro, each rubric screen shows: “This feature requires Tutor LMS Pro, which provides the assignments and grading these tools work with.”
3. Tutor LMS’s Assignments addon is turned on (Tutor LMS → Addons). If it is off, the rubric screens show a warning, and the grading queue’s Grade action cannot open Tutor’s assignment review page.
4. A Rubric Grading Suite licence is active.

There is no separate on/off switch for the module. Activating the licence enables it:

1. Go to Training Hub → Settings → Modules.
2. Under Activate module licenses, paste your key into Rubric Grading Suite license key and click Activate.
3. The confirmation reads “Rubric Grading Suite license activated and the module is now enabled.”

Deactivating the licence on the same tab turns the module off again. The Modules table lists what the licence unlocks: Grade Criteria, Assignments → Grading Queue, Audits → Declaration Records and Audits → Video Management.

What you see without the module. The rubric admin screens show a locked notice naming the Rubric Grading Suite and linking to where licences are entered. The Grade Criteria menu item is hidden. On the front end, the rubric shortcodes show a neutral notice such as “The grading queue is not currently available.” The raw shortcode text is never printed. Free-only sites see the same notices.

Rubric grading currently requires Tutor LMS Pro. Sites using LifterLMS or Training Hub’s native classes do not get the Grade Criteria menu, because those systems have no rubric-capable assignments.

Where everything lives

Task	Location
Outcome sets, rubrics, assignment mapping	Training Hub → Grade Criteria (tabs: Outcome Sets, Rubrics, Assignment Mapping)
Grading queue, past evaluations, stuck attempts, bulk PDFs	Training Hub → Assignments (tabs include Grading Queue, View Evaluations, In-Progress Attempts, Bulk PDF Reports)
Rubric settings	Training Hub → Settings → Rubric Grading Suite
Grading a submission	Tutor LMS front-end Dashboard → Assignments review page, or View Evaluations in wp-admin
Front-end grading queue	Any page containing [dthub_grading_queue]
Student feedback	Shown automatically on the Tutor assignment page; also available through [dthub_assessment_feedback]

Grade Criteria opens on the Outcome Sets tab. The tabs are ordered the way you set things up: outcome set, then rubric, then mapping.

Building outcome sets

An outcome set is the list of result labels a trainer chooses from for each criterion, plus the one label that counts as success. Every rubric uses exactly one outcome set, so all of its criteria share the same success label. No outcome sets exist on a new site, so you create the first one yourself.

1. Go to Training Hub → Grade Criteria → Outcome Sets.
2. Under Add a new outcome set, fill in:
   • Name: a descriptive name, for example “Competency outcomes”.
   • Labels: comma-separated, in grading order, for example Not Yet Competent, Competent.
   • Success label: the label that represents success. If you leave it blank, or enter a label that is not in the list, the first label is used.
3. Click Save outcome set.

Use Edit to change a set and Delete to remove it. Deleting asks “Deleting an outcome set can break mapped rubrics. Proceed?” A rubric whose outcome set has been deleted cannot be graded until you attach another one.

You can also create an outcome set without leaving the rubric editor. Choose New outcome set… in the Outcome set dropdown, fill in Set name, Labels (comma-separated, in grading order) and Success label, then click Create set.

How outcomes become a score. For each criterion, selecting the success label scores 100% and selecting any other label scores 0%. With Not Yet Competent, Competent, a criterion is either met or not met.

Creating a rubric

1. Go to Grade Criteria → Rubrics (titled All Rubrics) and click Add Rubric.
2. Give the rubric a title.
3. In the Rubric builder box, choose the Outcome set. Until one is attached, the builder warns “This rubric is ungradeable until an outcome set is attached.”
4. Click Add criterion for each thing you assess, and fill in:
   • Criterion title, for example “Structure”.
   • Relative weight: relative units, where 1 is one share of the total. The plugin works out each criterion’s percentage for you. Two criteria weighted 2 and 1 count for 66.7% and 33.3%.
   • Description: what the criterion means.
   • Regulatory tag / mapping (optional): a short tag linking the criterion to a standard, for example a unit element or performance criterion code.
   • Guidance (grader help) (optional): notes for graders only. Students never see them.
5. Use Remove criterion to delete a row.
6. Click Publish.

When a rubric is first published with at least one criterion and an outcome set, the plugin automatically creates a published Version 1 (“Rubric title — Version 1″). That version is what you map to assignments.

Rubric versions

A version is a frozen snapshot of the rubric’s criteria, weights and outcomes, taken when the version is saved. Grading always uses the version mapped to the assignment, so later edits to the rubric do not change results that have already been recorded.

To change a rubric that is already in use:

1. Edit the rubric’s criteria and click Update.
2. On All Rubrics, click + New Version on that rubric’s row. Choose the Parent Rubric, optionally enter a version number, and publish.
3. Re-map the assignment to the new version under Assignment Mapping.

On All Rubrics, each rubric lists its Versions. Click a version to see its criteria snapshot (Title, Weight, Percent, Description). The pass threshold is not set on the rubric. It comes from each assignment’s pass mark (see below).

Mapping rubrics to assignments

Mapping tells the plugin which rubric version grades an assignment and which trainers are responsible for it.

1. Go to Grade Criteria → Assignment Mapping.
2. Use Year and Course to filter, then click Show assignments.
3. Choose the Assignment.
4. Choose the Rubric version. Tick Clear assignment mapping if you want to remove an existing mapping instead.
5. Under Allocated instructors, tick the trainers who grade this assignment. These trainers:
   • see its submissions in their grading queue, and
   • receive the late-submission and daily summary emails (see Rubric settings → Notifications).
6. Under In-person assessment, optionally tick:
   • Enable in-person assessment mode: students do not submit online, and the trainer records the outcome (see In-person and manual assessments).
   • Require student evidence upload before grading: students must upload photo or video evidence before the trainer can submit grades.
7. Click Save mapping. You will see “Mapping updated successfully.”

The Current mappings table lists every mapped assignment with its Mapped version, Allocated instructors (“None allocated” if empty) and In-person flags.

Pass mark. The pass/fail result compares the calculated mark with the assignment’s pass mark in Tutor LMS. If the assignment has no pass mark, 60% of its total mark is used.

The grading queue

The grading queue lists ungraded submissions so trainers know what to mark next.

In wp-admin: Training Hub → Assignments → Grading Queue. This is the hub’s default tab when rubric grading is available. You can filter by Student, Course, Instructor and Assignment.

On the front end: place [dthub_grading_queue] on a page, or turn on Show Grading Queue tab under Training Hub → Settings → Assignments → Assignment Hub Tabs to include it in the [dthub_assignment_hub] shortcode.

What each user sees

• Users who manage rubrics (administrators and the roles in Roles allowed backend access) see every submission on every assignment that has a rubric mapped.
• Other trainers only see submissions on mapped assignments where they are an Allocated instructor. A trainer who has not been allocated sees an empty queue.

Reading the queue

• The summary at the top counts Pending, Graded and Late submissions and shows the Marking window.
• Columns: Student, Assignment, Course, Instructor, Submitted, Status, Action.
• Status shows a day-count pill, coloured by the marking window:
  • green while the submission is within the amber trigger (default 14 days);
  • amber between the amber trigger and the marking window (default 21 days);
  • red once it is older than the marking window, with the overflow in brackets, for example 25d (+4).
  • A Late badge appears if the work arrived after the assignment’s due date. An In-Person badge marks in-person assessments.
• Late submissions are listed first, then the oldest submissions.
• Grade opens the right grading screen for you. Tutor LMS instructors go to Tutor’s front-end assignment review page. Other staff go to View Evaluations in wp-admin. If neither is available to you, the row shows Grading unavailable instead of a broken link.
• When the queue is empty you will see “No pending submissions. All caught up!”

Grading an online submission

1. From the queue, click Grade. Tutor LMS instructors land on the assignment review page in their Tutor dashboard.
2. Review the submission and its Attached assignment files.
3. In Rubric scoring, choose an outcome for every criterion. Select … for all criteria applies one outcome to every row. Depending on your settings you may also see criterion descriptions, regulatory tags and a Grader guidance tooltip.
4. If the criterion feedback column is turned on, add comments per criterion. Use the microphone button to dictate them.
5. The Overall Result (Pass or Fail, using your labels) updates as you go. It is calculated from the weighted outcomes of the criteria.
6. Under Assessment Feedback, write your overall feedback. You can also:
   • attach a feedback file (Attach feedback file (optional), maximum 10 MB; PDF, DOC/DOCX, XLS/XLSX, PPT/PPTX, CSV, TXT, JPG or PNG; a new file replaces the old one);
   • record video feedback with the camera button (see document 22);
   • insert or save feedback templates from the comment bank.
7. If Internal Notes are enabled, record anything the student should not see, such as verbal feedback you gave or reasonable adjustments.
8. Submit the evaluation.

Validation messages you may see

• “Please select an outcome for each criterion.” At least one criterion has no outcome selected.
• “Please add overall written or video feedback before submitting.” Require overall feedback is on and both the written and video feedback are empty.

What happens on save

• The weighted percentage is converted into a mark out of the assignment’s total and saved to Tutor LMS as the assignment mark.
• The attempt is added to Rubric Attempts. Each attempt records the version, mark, result, assessor and date.
• The submission locks automatically so it cannot be re-graded by accident.
• If Auto-extend on fail is on and the result is a fail, the student gets a personal deadline extension (see Rubric settings → Grading).
• If webhook delivery is on, a signed copy of the result is sent to your endpoint.

Worked example

A Diploma of Remedial Massage cohort submits “Case Study 2”. The assignment is out of 20 with a pass mark of 14. The mapped rubric uses the outcome set Not Yet Competent, Competent and has three criteria: Assessment findings (weight 2), Treatment plan (weight 2) and Referral and documentation (weight 1). The trainer marks the first two Competent and the third Not Yet Competent. The weighted score is 4 of 5 shares, which is 80%, or 16 of 20. That is at or above 14, so the result is Pass. The student sees the breakdown, the trainer’s comment on documentation and a two-minute video.

Locking, unlocking and re-grading

Every graded submission locks automatically. While it is locked, the review page shows “Unlock to re-grade. This view matches what the student sees.”

• Unlock for re-grade (review page) or Unlock (View Evaluations) asks “Unlocking a locked evaluation allows re-grading. Continue?” After you confirm, the submission can be graded again, and the new grade is added as a further attempt.
• Relock on View Evaluations re-finalises the current grade without changing the mark or affecting resubmission.
• By default, only administrators can unlock or relock. Add other roles under Roles allowed to unlock for re-grading.

Comment bank (feedback templates)

The comment bank stores reusable feedback snippets, so trainers do not have to retype common comments.

• Turn it on or off with Enable feedback templates (Comment Bank) (on by default).
• On the grading form, write your feedback and click Save as template. Then enter a template name.
• To reuse a template, pick it from Choose a saved template and click Insert. Click Delete to remove it.
• Templates are personal to each trainer and are not shared. Each trainer can save up to 100 templates. Beyond that, saving shows “Maximum of 100 templates reached.”

In-person and manual assessments

In-person assessments

Use in-person mode for practical observations, clinic assessments and other tasks the trainer judges in the room.

When an assignment is mapped with Enable in-person assessment mode:

• Students see “This is an in-person assessment. Your trainer will observe your work and provide feedback directly.” They cannot start or submit the assignment online. Trying to do so shows “This is an in-person assessment. Your trainer records the outcome directly — it cannot be submitted online.”
• The assignment shows an In-Person Assessment badge in the course content.
• In the Tutor dashboard, trainers see an In-person assessments awaiting grading panel above Tutor’s assignment list, with a Grade link for each assessment. The assignment page lists Students to Grade. Click Grade next to a student to create their submission and open the grading form.

In wp-admin, you can do the same from View Evaluations. Pick the student, course and assignment. If the student has no submission yet, click Create & Grade. This opens Grade In-Person Assessment, where you enter Mark, Feedback and optionally Attach File (optional) (maximum 10 MB; PDF, DOC/DOCX, JPG or PNG). Then click Save & Complete. The mark cannot be negative or more than the assignment’s total.

Recording a submission on a student’s behalf

If a student sent their work by email or another channel, you can record it for them.

1. Open View Evaluations and select the student, course and assignment. When the student has no submission on record, you will see No Submission Found.
2. Click Record Manual Submission.
3. Paste or type the student’s response and optionally attach their file (maximum 10 MB; PDF, DOC/DOCX, JPG or PNG).
4. Tick the confirmation “I confirm I am recording this submission on behalf of … and have received their work through an authorised channel.”
5. Click Record Submission & Grade, then grade as normal.

If authenticity declarations are enabled, the plugin also stores a trainer-on-behalf declaration recording which trainer entered the work.

View Evaluations

Training Hub → Assignments → View Evaluations is the administrator’s record of every rubric result.

1. Under Find a Submission, select a Student, Course and Assignment. Submissions load straight away.
2. The Submissions table lists each one, with Rubric Status shown as Evaluated or Not evaluated, and offers View Submission and Edit Feedback.
3. Opening a submission shows:
   • the rubric Version and Pass threshold;
   • the lock state, with Unlock or Relock if you are allowed;
   • the Attempt History table (Attempt, Score, Recorded, Instructor, Rubric), with Download PDF for each attempt and Download PDF Report for the submission;
   • Evaluate rubric, to grade or re-grade (when unlocked).
4. Download all evaluations downloads every evaluated submission for that student and assignment.

Editing feedback without changing the mark

Click Edit Feedback to correct a typo or replace a file after grading. The form says “Edit the feedback content below. Mark will remain unchanged.” You can change the Feedback Text, replace the file with Upload New File (replaces existing), or remove the attachment or video. Then click Update Feedback.

Deleting evaluations and attempts

• Delete evaluation (review page) warns “This will delete the recorded evaluation, feedback, and attempts. Continue?” It removes the rubric result, all attempts, the overall feedback, the Tutor LMS mark, the feedback file and any video feedback, and unlocks the submission. The student’s own submission stays. The deletion is recorded in the rubric audit log.
• Delete attempt (View Evaluations) removes a single attempt from the history.

Administrators can always delete. Instructors who teach the course can also delete evaluations on that course’s submissions. Roles allowed to delete evaluations adds further roles. A user can only delete results on assignments in courses they teach, unless they are a site administrator.

In-Progress Attempts (students who cannot resubmit)

Sometimes a student starts an assignment but never submits it. The half-finished attempt counts towards their attempt limit and can hide the resubmit button, so the student appears stuck. Assignments → In-Progress Attempts lists every such attempt, with Student, Assignment, Started, What was added (“Nothing added (empty start)” or the files the student added), Status (Blocking resubmit or Superseded) and Attempts used.

Click Remove attempt to free the attempt. If the student had added work, you will be warned that the work will be permanently deleted. Only unsubmitted, in-progress attempts can be removed. Real submissions are never touched. Trainers only see attempts on courses they teach.

Student feedback

What students see

After grading, the student’s Tutor LMS assignment page automatically shows their feedback:

• the result badge (your Pass label or Fail label), the Overall score percentage and the Awarded mark;
• Instructor Feedback, with a Listen button that reads it aloud, and a link to any attached file;
• Video Feedback, if the trainer recorded any;
• the Rubric Breakdown: each Criterion with its Outcome, Score, Weight and any criterion Feedback.

Students never see internal notes or grader guidance.

[dthub_assessment_feedback]

Use this shortcode to show one submission’s feedback on another page:

[dthub_assessment_feedback submission_id="123"]

• submission_id is required. Without it, or for a submission the viewer cannot see, the shortcode shows “No assessment feedback to display yet.”
• The student who made the submission, site administrators and instructors of the course can view it. Everyone else sees the same neutral message, which does not reveal whether the submission exists.
• If the submission belongs to the viewer but has not been graded, they see a message asking them to check back later.
• Logged-out visitors see “Please log in to view assessment feedback.”

The Student Feedback page (action plan feedback)

Training Hub → Student Feedback is a different feature with a similar name. It lists the compliments and suggestions students raise through their action plans, not rubric feedback. It is available to users who can view reports.

• Filter by Type (Compliment or Suggestion), Topic and a From and To date, then click Filter.
• Columns: Date, Student, Plan, Feedback, Action Required, Recorded By.
• Export CSV downloads the filtered list as student-feedback-YYYY-MM-DD.csv.
• The topic and action-required options are set under Training Hub → Settings → Assignments → Student Feedback. Default topics are Learning Management System, College Operations, Course, Logbook and Trainer.

See 14 — Action Plans for how the feedback is captured.

Rubric settings

All rubric settings are under Training Hub → Settings → Rubric Grading Suite. That tab only appears while the module is enabled, and only administrators can save changes. The tab is split into the sections below.

Grading

Setting	What it does	Default
Pass label	Text shown for a passing result	Pass
Fail label	Text shown for a failing result	Fail
Require overall feedback	Trainer must give written or video overall feedback before submitting	On
Enable criterion feedback column	Adds a feedback box per criterion. Students see the comments	Off
Enable internal notes on marking	Adds an Internal Notes field that is never shown to the student	On
Enable feedback templates (Comment Bank)	Shows saved feedback templates on the grading form	On
Show descriptions on marking	Shows criterion descriptions on the marking grid	On
Show regulatory tags on marking	Shows regulatory tags on the marking grid	On
Show guidance on marking (tooltip)	Shows grader guidance as a tooltip (never shown to students)	On
Roles allowed to delete evaluations	Extra roles that may delete evaluations. Administrators are always allowed	Administrator

Marking Window. These settings drive the queue’s colour coding.

Setting	What it does	Default	Allowed
Expected marking window (days)	Submissions older than this are flagged red (overdue)	21	1–365
Amber trigger (days)	Submissions older than this turn amber	14	1 to one less than the window

An invalid value is replaced with the default. An amber trigger that is not lower than the window is reduced to one day below it.

Resubmission Deadline Extension. This section needs Dantian Training Hub’s extension system.

Setting	What it does	Default	Allowed
Auto-extend on fail	When a rubric result is a fail and the assignment allows resubmission (with attempts remaining), the student gets a personal extension straight away. An existing instructor-granted exemption is never overwritten	On	—
Extension length (days)	Days added to the assignment’s base due date, not to today	14	1–365

PDF & Export

Setting	What it does	Default
Show scores on results sheet	Shows each task’s mark and percentage on the rubric module’s own results-sheet generator. That generator is no longer linked from the Student Report, and the Subject Results buttons described in 22 — Declarations, Videos and Results do not use this setting	Off
Show score on Assessment Result PDF	Adds the mark and percentage to the student-facing Assessment Result PDF. When off, the PDF shows only the outcome and feedback	Off

The college name, logo and qualification title on rubric PDFs come from Settings → Pages & Reports → PDF Reports. The words “Satisfactory” and “Not Yet Satisfactory” on the Assessment Result PDF come from Settings → Pages & Reports → Assessment Outcome Terminology (Competency Label (Pass) and Competency Label (Not Yet)).

Notifications

Late Submission Notifications. These go to the assignment’s allocated instructors when a student submits after the due date has passed.

Setting	Default
Enable late-submission notifications	On
Subject	Course: {course} — {assignment} — New Submission
Email body (optional)	Blank (uses the built-in message). Placeholders: {trainer}, {course}, {assignment}, {student}. Basic HTML allowed
Button label	View submission

An Email preview with sample data appears underneath. Submissions made before the due date do not trigger this email. They are reported in the daily summary instead.

Due Date Summary Notifications. This is a daily email at 7 AM (site time) to allocated instructors, listing assignments whose due date passed the previous day, with how many students submitted out of the total enrolled.

Setting	Default
Enable daily summary	Off
Subject	Assignment Due Date Summary — {date}
Intro text (optional)	Blank. Placeholders: {trainer}, {date}
Button label	View submissions

Student Grading Notifications

Setting	Default
Enable student grading email	Off
Subject	{assignment} — Your submission has been graded
Email body (optional)	Blank (default message). Placeholders: {student}, {assignment}, {course}, {result}
Button label	View your feedback

This email is sent when an evaluation is saved from View Evaluations (Evaluate rubric). Grading on the Tutor LMS dashboard review page does not send it, so for that route rely on Tutor LMS’s own email settings.

Integrations

Webhook Delivery sends a signed JSON copy of each saved evaluation to an external system, such as a student management system or an automation tool. The copy includes the student’s name and email, course, assignment, result, score, criteria, feedback and grader.

Setting	Default
Enable webhook export	Off
Webhook URL	Blank. Must start with https://
Signing secret	Blank. Used to sign each delivery (an HMAC SHA-256 signature header) so your receiver can verify it

A failed delivery never blocks grading.

Authenticity Checklist

These settings are explained in 22 — Declarations, Videos and Results.

Access

Setting	What it does	Default
Roles allowed backend access	Roles that can open the rubric admin screens (rubrics, mapping, outcome sets, View Evaluations, Bulk PDF Reports, results, declarations, videos)	Administrator (always included)
Roles allowed to unlock for re-grading	Roles that can unlock or relock graded submissions	Administrator (always included)

Permissions summary

Action	Who can do it by default
Activate the licence, change rubric settings	Administrators
Build outcome sets and rubrics, map assignments, use View Evaluations and other rubric admin screens	Administrators and roles in Roles allowed backend access
See the grading queue and grade	Tutor LMS instructors and staff with the Training Hub tutorial-management permission, limited to courses they teach and assignments they are allocated
Unlock or relock	Administrators and roles in Roles allowed to unlock for re-grading
Delete evaluations or attempts	Administrators, course instructors (on their own courses) and roles in Roles allowed to delete evaluations
View feedback	The student, course instructors and administrators

Tutor LMS instructors can open the Assignments and Grade Criteria menus. Unless their role is added to Roles allowed backend access, the rubric admin tabs show “You do not have permission to view this page.” The Grading Queue tab and the front-end grading pages work for them without that setting.

Data, privacy and uninstall

• Rubric results, attempts, feedback, internal notes and lock state are stored with the Tutor LMS assignment submission.
• Rubrics and versions are stored as WordPress posts, outcome sets as a site option and comment-bank templates against each trainer’s user account.
• Graded submissions keep their mapped version, so you can always see which criteria a result was based on.
• Deleting the Pro plugin keeps all data by default. If you turn on Pro Data Removal on Uninstall before deleting, the Pro tables are removed. Rubric results stored on Tutor LMS submissions belong to Tutor LMS and stay.

Troubleshooting

The rubric screens say Tutor LMS Pro is required. Activate Tutor LMS Pro. Rubric grading only works with Tutor LMS Pro assignments.

Clicking Grade in the queue goes to a page that does not exist. Tutor LMS’s Assignments addon is off. Turn it on under Tutor LMS → Addons.

A trainer’s grading queue is empty but there is work to mark. The assignment either has no rubric version mapped or the trainer is not an Allocated instructor on it. Fix the mapping under Grade Criteria → Assignment Mapping.

Assignment Mapping does not offer my new rubric. Only published versions can be mapped. Make sure the rubric is published and has at least one criterion and an outcome set. Version 1 is created automatically. Otherwise, use + New Version.

“Submission is locked.” when trying to re-grade. Unlock the submission first. If you do not see Unlock, ask an administrator to add your role to Roles allowed to unlock for re-grading.

A student says they cannot resubmit. Check Assignments → In-Progress Attempts for an attempt marked Blocking resubmit and remove it.