Scaffolding rubric literacy in international business education: the role of spacing and social sensemaking

Purpose This study aims to investigate how instructional design can scaffold rubric literacy in international business education. It examines whether pedagogical scaffolds that provide structured time and social space for interpretation can help bridge performance gaps associated with differences in students’ prior academic socialization. Design/methodology/approach A quasi-experimental retrospective design was used to analyze 243 graduate students across eight course sections (2022–2025) at an Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)-accredited university. The design included an explicit no-scaffold comparison condition comprising Sections 3 and 4 (N = 70). The analysis evaluated three instructional configurations: temporal assignment spacing (early rubric release), video explainers and interactive peer-based social sensemaking discussions. Prior rubric exposure was measured at the student level and examined as a moderator of the scaffold–performance relationships. The authors modeled performance alignment using OLS regression with section-clustered robust standard errors. Findings The baseline analysis identifies an initial difference in rubric-aligned performance, with students without prior rubric exposure scoring lower than students with prior exposure. Regression models reveal that instructor-narrated video explainers were not significantly associated with higher rubric-aligned performance. By contrast, both assignment spacing and structured social sensemaking showed positive relationships with rubric-aligned performance. Crucially, the interaction between social sensemaking and prior rubric familiarity was negative and significant, indicating that the positive relationship between sensemaking and rubric-aligned performance was stronger among students without prior rubric exposure, a pattern consistent with an equity-closing role for collaborative interpretation. Originality/value This study moves beyond a technical view of assessment to reframe rubric literacy as a relational, pedagogical capacity co-constructed through active learning design. It contributes to international business education by suggesting that institutional fairness-through-standardization may be contingent on fairness-through-sensemaking, offering clear strategic implications for quality assurance and AACSB assurance of learning processes.