Using a Delphi Approach to Develop Rubric Criteria

Recent developments in post-secondary institutions have motivated a shift towards outcomesbased education. A major impetus for this agenda has been the growing need to provide concrete evidence of student learning and institutional effectiveness to various stakeholders. Given this trend, it is important that research be undertaken to explore valid approaches to learning outcomes assessment. The research described here involves the development of valid, non-discipline specific, analytic rubrics that assess learning outcomes in five key areas: communication, design, teamwork, problem analysis and investigation. This paper reports on the methodology used to complete the first stage of rubric development; identifying the standards through which student work is evaluated. In particular, a two-stage Delphi study was designed to identify rubric criteria for assessing problem analysis and investigation. The Delphi technique is an iterative research tool used to elicit input from a panel of experts. It typically involves a series of virtual survey rounds in which experts offer their views anonymously and have the opportunity to refine them based on controlled feedback from earlier rounds. Panel members include 11 experts for investigation and 15 experts for problem analysis from faculty and staff. In the first round, participants were asked to propose learning outcome statements or “indicators” that are important for assessing problem analysis or investigation. In the second and final round, these responses were arranged by major outcome areas and sent to participants for their feedback. They were asked to rate how likely they were to use the indicators, and their importance in the curriculum. The focus of this paper is not the results of this study, but the methodological processes involved in designing and administering a Delphi survey to develop tools for learning outcomes assessment. This includes expert selection, survey design, and analysis of expert responses. Special attention is paid to the challenges of conducting a Delphi study.