Step 3. Design Assessments FOR learning and OF learning

When it comes to course assessment, a general tendency is to create exams and quizzes. But it is important to remember that:

  1. grading and assessment are not the same thing. 
  2. course assessment is much more than just exams.

Generally, the goal of grading is to evaluate individual student’s learning and performance. Grades are not always a reliable measure. Sometimes course grades include points for attendance, participation, and effort, etc., that are not direct measures of learning.

The goal of assessment is to improve student learning. Although grading is an important part of assessment, it also involves many ungraded measures of student learning.

https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/grading-assessment.html Links to an external site.

Course assessment is generally divided into three types: assessment FOR learning, assessment OF learning and assessment AS learning.

They all serve distinct purposes and should work together in order to make up a comprehensive or balanced assessment program.

http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/mewa/html/assessment/types.html Links to an external site.

Using a combination of formative and summative strategies to assess student learning outcomes will yield an accurate measure of what students learn.

Here are a few suggestions:

  • Provide multiple assessment opportunities in multiple formats. 
  • Allow more time and flexibility to access and complete assessments.
  • Scaffold with simple to complex, i.e., break big high-value assessments into several smaller ones and build up in difficulty.
  • Design assessments that are more applied, i.e., focus on how to use new knowledge and skills.
  • Ask students to show work, e.g., students can use video, images, or hand-written notes to describe the process they used to get to an answer. 
  • Provide clear and concise guidelines of what students need to do to complete assessments.
  • Communicate clearly to students what technology will be used and what the logistics of the assessment process will be. 
  • Support students who require accommodations.
  • Provide information about troubleshooting support.