I HIGHLY recommend you use Google Sheets for your Google Classroom rubrics. I have updated this post to include the approved Add-on to make the process even easier.
Official vs Unofficial Rubric Add-on
Originally I had created a template for Google Sheets that made it faster and easier to create rubrics for Google Classroom. This proved to be popular template so I submitted it to the Google Workspace Marketplace to be an official Add-on. However, if your district won’t approve the official Add-on, you can still use the unofficial template linked below.
Rubrics in Google Classroom
The challenge with building rubrics in Google Classroom is they are slow. They don’t copy the column headers easily. If you copy a row, it copies the description, which is strange. Building your rubric in a spreadsheet is much faster AND you can share spreadsheets easily with other teachers to allow them to use the rubric.
However, your spreadsheet rubric must be formatted VERY SPECIFICALLY for Google Classroom. This is where my template comes in.
Template
Either install the Add-on for Google Sheets OR make a copy of the rubric template to help you successfully upload your rubric. The template is coded to ensure your rubric is in the exact format required for Google Classroom.
Rename the Spreadsheet
Google Sheets automatically saves to Google Drive. No need to do anything once you enter your rubric information. However, to make it easy to find when adding rubrics to Google Classroom I suggest you rename the spreadsheet to something meaningful and use the word rubric in the title so when you search Google Drive you can find it.
Add Criteria Title and Description
The format that Google Classroom requires has some information in rows 1 and 2, I have hidden those. You don’t need to look at them, but they need to be there.
The criteria goes in the yellow cell in column A and you can describe generically what that means in the blue cell in column A.
When you enter a criteria title and description this will automatically create a new criteria row and description.
sheetPusher Add-on
Created by Alice Keeler. Collects NO user data.
Push values to multiple student spreadsheets.
Lock students from editing parts of their assignment.
Rubric Level Descriptions
Read up on researcher Dr. Thomas Guskey who says to not use “Exceeds” on your rubric. What you expect is your top category. As per Dr. Guskey’s recommendation I have defaulted the levels in the rubric to be “Meets standard.” You can modify these in the green cells. These descriptions will be copied to each criteria row.
In the pink cells you can give a detailed explanation of what you expect in order to reach each level.
Delete Title and Description
A new row for criteria title and description will continue to appear as you add criteria. Simply delete the yellow “title” and blue “description” and this will stop the automatic row generation.
No Save Button
Google Sheets has no save button. Simply close the spreadsheet.
Adding the Rubric into Google Classroom
In Google Classroom, when creating an assignment, click on the Rubric. button and choose “Import from Sheets.” Your rubric will be right there. Easy peasy.
Scoring Guide
If you are creating a scoring guide I have a template for this as well:
Alternatively, the official Add-on allows you the option in the setup as to if you want a rubric or a scoring guide.
Quick Crop Add-on
Crop Google Sheets™ quickly. Plus other quick spreadsheet needs such as hide other sheets.
Created by AliceKeeler – Collects NO user data. Completely free
8 thoughts on “Add a Rubric to Google Classroom with Google Sheets”
Hi, Alice! Thanks for your work! When I tried to upload the file after adding information it said there was an error. So, I entered all the info straight into the rubric form in docs. When I looked at the SS generated by my rubric, the difference between your template and the SS is it looks like the actual numerical score is missing (5,4,3,2,1) from each of the topics. Any suggestions?
Thank you! I’ve been trying to find out how to do this and Google was no help. Thank you sooooo much!
Hi – I’ve made a rubric using sheets – thank you – but when I click ‘import from sheets’, nothing happens, no new window opens so I can’t choose my sheet and upload it!
That is strange. Maybe it’s popping up behind…. Shouldnt
Thanks for this helpful tutorial! However, I encountered a similar problem (using the gcscoring template). When I tried importing the Sheet, I got a little pop up error saying ‘There was an error importing the rubric’. Annoyingly GC doesn’t give any more information, only the option to ‘dismiss’ the pop up. I added two columns in the Sheet, but that shouldn’t be a problem, should it? (I copied all of col E and pasted it into F and G.) I also tried deleting all the unused rows, in case the formulae hiding in them was causing a problem, but no luck. Any ideas?
You probably have a hard carriage return. I just used it yesterday. Worked great.
Can this be used without Google Classroom?
Sure, it is just a spreadsheet. You can use the spreadsheet however you like.