Assessment

Assessment practices add significant value to student learning.  Instructors assess for the following reasons:

• To determine that the intended learning outcomes of the course are being achieved.
• To provide feedback to students on their learning, enabling them to improve their performance.
• To motivate students.
• To support and guide learning.
• To demonstrate that appropriate standards are being met and maintained.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of teaching.

Understanding the fundamentals of assessment

Assessment is integral to the teaching and learning process, facilitating student learning and improving instruction, and can take a variety of forms.

Summative assessments (e.g., exams or term papers) are formal, usually graded, and focused on letting students show a range of skills and knowledge. They require a considerable investment of time, both from students and from instructors, and are consequently often completed outside of class. To design a good summative assessment, it is important to begin with the course learning outcomes. What skills and knowledge should students have gained in the course?  Common examples of summative assessments are exams, essays, research projects, tests, and oral presentations.

Formative assessments are assessment of student learning that is designed to improve (rather than to evaluate) students’ skills or their understanding of specific course concepts. Formative assessment techniques are simple, in–class activities that give both you and your students useful feedback on the teaching–learning process.   These types of assessments are typically low-stakes in that they are often ungraded.

Indiana University provides a useful list of Classroom Assessment Techniques.

BCIT has also developed a useful document that outlines numerous Classroom Assessment Techniques and includes a planning worksheet to integrate these forms of assessment into your class.

Aligning your assessment to learning outcomes

In the backward design process you structure student learning based upon assessments that are intentionally designed to provide evidence that students have achieved the course goals. When designing a new assessment or revising an old one, the most important component is to be sure there is a match between the objectives of the course, the learning activities used, and the assessment tool.

UCLA – Office of Instructional Development has a useful Blank Assessment Matrix that can help you link the course learning outcomes to learning activities and assessment.

Developing marking rubrics

A rubric is a type of scoring guide that assesses and articulates specific components and expectations for an assignment.  Rubrics list the criteria, or what counts, and describes levels of quality.  Rubrics can be used for a variety of assignments: research papers, group projects, portfolios and presentations.

The University of Waterloo – Centre for Teaching Excellence has an excellent web page outlining what rubrics are and steps to developing one.

Attached is a blank rubric template (University of West Florida) to download and use to start developing your own rubric.

The University of Calgary has developed a useful list of websites where you can find many rubric examples.