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Assessment is one of the most influential factors in promoting learning. Assessment motivates students to do the work, steers their approach to the material, and informs teachers about the impact of their teaching strategies on student learning. |
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Purposes of Assessment
An assessment will typically fulfill one of two general purposes.
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Assessment is a form of teaching. Sometimes, formative assessment is integrated within a learning activity; the activity builds student and faculty insight into learning and teaching. For example, student participation in group discussion provides them an opportunity to process concepts more deeply (a learning activity), while generating observations that allow instructors to assess the degree to which students know or are able to do a given learning task, and identify the part students do not know or able to do for future teaching and learning (an assessment activity).
Types of Assessments
After you determine the purpose of the assessment (formative or summative), you will want to decide which type of assessment will provide you with the information you want about student achievement. Richard Stiggins (2013) offers a simple framework for thinking about four main assessment options, as outlined in the table below.
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Incorporating a variety of assessment methods when designing a course is a “best practice” for several reasons. First, coming at assessment from multiple perspectives helps to ensure a more accurate, fair sampling of student performance. Second, multiple assessment methods can provide a good mix of immediate and delayed feedback to students. Finally, students have the opportunity to repeatedly recall and apply what they have learned in different ways, which promotes long-term retention of knowledge and skills.
Tools to Deliver Assessments
A wide variety of tools may be used to assess student learning in an online course. The following tools are available as part of the Canvas learning management system. Other learning management systems such as Blackboard and Moodle will have a similar set of tools. Your experience in this workshop covers a variety of tools that can provide a window into student learning. It may be of interest to note that you're able to sample learning for all your students, not just the ones who are most vocal.
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There are other tools that you may employ in your course, but this sampling gives you a good idea of the many options available to you.
5 Keys to Effective Assessment
Eleanor Dougherty (2012) stated it simply, "A well-crafted assignment is functional and worthwhile in time, effort and achievement." To help you achieve this goal, Richard Stiggins (2013) proposed these five elements of effective assessments:
1. Clear Purpose
When students know the purpose of an assignment it allows them to direct their effort appropriately. The following questions can clarify the purpose of an assessment:
Why is the assessment being given?
Who will use the results?
How will the results be used?
How will students use the results?
What knowledge will students gain from completing the assignment?
How does that knowledge relate to other topics in your course or other courses?
How will the knowledge be relevant for students in their lives beyond your course or beyond college?
What skills will students practice while doing the assignment?
How do those skills relate to other contexts or examples where these skills were important, within your course or beyond?
How will these skills be valuable to students in their lives beyond your course or beyond college?
2. Clear Learning Targets
Clearly stated learning objectives are essential to the design of appropriate testing procedures and assessment items. The following questions help to ensure that assessments have clear learning targets:
What are the learning objectives and are they clearly stated?
Are the learning objectives in alignment with this type of assessment?
Do the learning objectives reflect what is being assessed in the assessment and vice versa?
Are performance criteria clearly articulated?
Communicate specific characteristics that make the performance excellent such as clarity of thought, originality, organization, focus, and assignment-specific parameters
Are models or samples of previous work provided?
3. Quality Assessment Methods
Once you know why the assessment is being given (#1) and what will be measured (#2), you can turn to questions about your methods of assessment--the general types of assessments you will use, the tools used to administer the assessment, and the solutions you have chosen to address possible assessment problems.
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Build student confidence in test-taking and the knowledge being tested through sufficient practice and feedback
Provide clearly worded directions and questions
Allow adequate time for reading
Evaluate appropriate (reasonable) criteria, providing one correct or best response
Avoid grammatical and cultural cues in question stems or answers.
4. Effective Communication of the Results
The last two keys of assessment quality promote effective use of the assessment results. In order to fulfill the assessment's purpose, it is imperative that the results are communicated to students in a timely manner. Your answers to the following questions will help you form a solid communication plan:
How will grading take place?
How will feedback be provided to students?
How will you use grading information to plan the next steps for the students, or to plan revisions to your instructional strategies and materials? How might this work, logistically?
How will students let you know the results have been successfully communicated?
5. Student-Involved Assessment During Learning
If you want the assessments to impact student learning, you must involve them in assessing their own progress. The key in all of this is to make sure you know how both you and your students will use the feedback from the assessments. The feedback should be designed to help the students to know (a) where they are now, (b) where they need to be, and (b) how to close the gap (Hattie and Yates, 2014). After receiving feedback from their assessments, students should have a better idea of the next steps they need to take and how to take them.
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