The design, development and deployment of online instruction has become standard practice. The focus of the study was on student perceptions of course rubrics and not on the rubrics, themselves, or the instructors. In order to improve student engagement online we conducted an exploratory study of the awareness and perceptions of course rubrics. Fifty graduate students completed an online survey at the end of the semester about their awareness and perceptions of course rubrics. All students reported that they were aware that course rubrics existed. They indicated that they had learned about this information through the course syllabus, professor announcements via email and posts to LMS. Most students reported reviewing rubrics prior to submitting an assignment. One of the key findings from this study was that "students see rubrics" as a mechanism for scaffolding their performance, and thus, instructors need to focus more effort on designing rubrics to accomplish more than student assessment.