Stupid Rubrics Part 2: The HOA Mindset

Rules for the sake of rules vs. real-world learning outcomes.

This is a follow-up to my first article on rubrics called Stupid Rubrics: The Sad State of Higher Education. Apologies, but much of this needs to go behind the paywall so I don’t get myself into (more) trouble!

So have you ever heard someone say about so-and-so famous person or politician, wondering why they act so dumb, when they got some advanced degree at some decent sounding college back in the day?

Well, you too can graduate college online these days if you have the patience to withstand minutia that have zip all to do with your major.

I suppose for in person classes, I’m guessing students are getting a lot of extra credit for weird stuff like showing up for the latest protest du jour, say against non-locally sourced designer cheese. But online? Prepare to tear your hair out.

As I mentioned in my last post on the subject:

When a rubric gives you 10 extra points simply for having a properly formatted title page, the rubric has gotten to be pointless and silly.

Learning to follow strict, nitpicky rubrics is not learning. It’s about learning to check boxes, to conform to very strict requirements. So no wonder colleges don’t graduate independent thinkers anymore. They graduate people who can follow the rules.