Calibration Activities

Learn how Calibration works, how to set up a Calibration activity, how to interpret calibration scores, and how Micro-Calibration works.

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Written by Support Team
Updated over a week ago

A calibration activity helps align student grading with how you would grade, improving your students’ grading accuracy.‍

How Calibration Works

  • The instructor selects 3 creations, either from a previous Kritik activity OR uploaded from the instructor directly. We recommend using a well-done creation, average creation, and lower-scoring creation. However, try not to choose anything too obviously good or bad - students should be challenged when evaluating the creations.

  • The instructor grades those 3 creations using the rubric.

  • The students then also grade the 3 creations using the same rubric.

    • In a calibration activity, students ONLY submit grades for the creations. They do NOT submit any creations themselves, nor do they submit written evaluations or feedback. The purpose of a calibration activity is to ensure accurate grading power is assigned to each student. NOTE: Calibration activity is 0 weight only.

  • The students' grading powers are calibrated through Kritik’s algorithms on the backend.

  • The new grading power allocated to each student will apply to any future Kritik activities.

NOTE: There is only the evaluation stage when the calibration activity is scheduled. Students are only required to grade the three creations.‍

How to set up a Calibration activity by pulling from a previous activity:

See a video on how to set up a calibration activity here:

TIP: It's best to conduct a calibration activity at the start of the term, either as your first activity OR immediately after your first completed activity.

  1. Select the Activities icon on the left navigation menu

  2. Select Create Activity at the top right-hand corner of the Activities Page in Kritik

  3. Select ‘Calibration’ under Activity Type

  4. Select ‘Apply Calibration to Past Activity’

  5. Select if you would like to select creations from your current course or a previous course (if applicable)

  6. Select the past activity you would like to pull the creations from

  7. Fill out the Activity Details by adding a line or two about what the calibration activity’s goals are and how to complete it.

  8. Select 'Edit Rubric' and update the activity rubric accordingly

    1. Calibration works best using a rubric that has 3-6 criteria and at least 3 levels for each criterion.

      ***NOTE: Rubrics for active activities CANNOT be edited if they have entered/surpassed the Evaluate stage.***

  9. Select 3 creations

    1. Either click ‘Select Creation’ to choose a creation from your previous activity or click ‘Create a Creation’ to make your own.

    2. When using creations from a previous activity, you can edit these creations as you see fit. This will have no impact on the student's original submission.

  10. Score the 3 creations and select ‘Save’

  11. Select ‘Save Activity’

    1. Note: Calibration activities only have an Evaluate stage. Once a calibration activity ends, it is automatically closed and can not be reopened.

NOTE: You can go back and edit your scores after you select save. Make sure you make any edits needed before the Calibration activity commences.

NOTE: Editing grades will not impact the students’ scores on any previous activity.

How to set up a Calibration activity with new creations:

  1. Select the Activities icon on the left navigation menu.

  2. Select Create Activity at the top right-hand corner of the Activities Page in Kritik

  3. Select ‘Calibration’ under Activity Type

  4. Select ‘Apply calibration to New Activity’

  5. Fill out the Activity Details

  6. Select 'Edit Rubric' and update the activity rubric accordingly

    1. Calibration works best using a rubric that has 3-6 criteria and at least 3 levels for each criterion.

  7. Create the creations

    1. Use the textbox provided or attach a file.You will need to do this 3 times.

  8. Score the 3 creations and select ‘Done’

  9. Select ‘Save Activity’

    1. Note: Calibration activities only have an Evaluate stage. Once a calibration activity ends, it is automatically closed and can not be reopened.

NOTE: You can go back and edit your scores after you select save. Make sure you make edits before the Calibration activity commences.

Interpreting Calibration Scores

  • Once a Calibration activity ends, students' grading powers are then calibrated through Kritik’s algorithm on the backend. The closer a student grades to how the instructor grades, the higher that student's grading power will be.

  • The new grading power allocated to each student will apply to any future Kritik activities.

Micro-Calibration

  • Manually editing students’ creation scores will adjust the grading power and evaluation scores of the students who evaluated that creation.

    • The peer evaluators of the adjusted-score creation will have the grades they assigned the creation compared with yours instead of with one another.

  • In order for micro-calibration to have the intended effect, it MUST take place before an activity has been marked as complete.

Editing Rubrics for Imported Calibration Activities

Instructors can now edit the rubrics of imported Calibration activities from different courses. See here the steps on how you can import activities in your Kritik course. To edit the rubric of a Calibration activity that has been imported, follow the below steps:

  1. Once you have imported your copied Calibration, click into this activity from your course Activities page and select "Edit Activity".

  2. Looking through your activity's settings, scroll down until you locate the Rubric section. Here, you can either select the dropdown above to change the rubric assigned to this activity (see here how you can create and manage existing rubric templates), or you can select "Edit Rubric" to make changes to the rubric template currently attached.

    NOTE: Make sure you make any edits needed before the Calibration activity commences. Rubrics for active activities CANNOT be edited if they have entered/surpassed the Evaluate stage.

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