Introduction to Assessment
In this module, you will look at how assessments and rubrics can support your work as a professor, and how they support student learning. You will define formative and summative assessments, and identify a few assessment strategies for use this year. You will also recall how assessment fits into your course alignment and learning plan.
Why are assessments useful?
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Students can gauge their understanding relative to the learning goals;
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Teachers can gauge the effectiveness of their teaching, and adjust as needed.
Assessments
Use Formative Assessment Techniques to gather evidence for the purpose of improving learning. For example, you can use summarizing activities, small group discussions, or create fill-in-the-blank outlines for students to complete.
Use Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) to quickly evaluate student learning. These assessments can be done in class to provide information about student learning before students are evaluated on higher-stakes graded exams or assignments. You can try techniques such as asking for quick mid-class questions or paraphrasing, small group discussions, or short reflections at the end of class.
Formative assessments have multiple benefits:
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First, you can easily and quickly assess if students have really mastered the material (and plan to dedicate more time to it, if necessary).
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Secondly, when students engage in measuring their learning they are also practicing. Often students do not actually learn the material until asked to make use of it in assessments.
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Thirdly, students become attentive and engaged, two prerequisites for effective learning. Formative assessment techniques are often perceived as “fun”, yet research shows they are more effective than passive teaching techniques at enabling student learning.
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Fourthly, another benefit of formative assessment is metacognition – thinking about the thing you are learning – which often happens through student feedback methods.
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Finally, the reflection and discussion that happens during formative assessment create an opportunity for you to open a dialogue with students about teaching and learning.
Use Summative Assessment Techniques to provide evidence of student achievement for the purpose of making a judgment about student competence or program effectiveness.
Use Rubrics to clarify assessment expectations. When you look at the assessments in your course you may find that you have a marking aid called a rubric to guide you. A rubric is a scoring guide and feedback tool that outlines expectations for an assessment, and it should align with the learning goals of the course. It is intended to give feedback that clearly identifies areas that need to be improved. When you look at a rubric, consider if it has the elements, ratings, and clarity necessary to ensure that the students have a clear understanding of how they earn their grades.
Do you remember how assessment fits into course alignment?
We started to look at course alignment with learning outcomes, then again when we discussed teaching methods, and now we are completing the alignment triangle with assessment.
“The biggest constraint in providing sufficient practice and feedback to students is the time it takes — both on the part of students and faculty. Although we cannot control the length of a semester or class period, we can be more efficient in designing practice opportunities and giving feedback.”
Ambrose, S. (2010). How learning works: 7 research-based principles for smart teaching
You will find that good assessment practices will allow you to move from teaching content and activities to student practice and reflection, and back again effectively. Each time you will learn more about their progress toward the goals in your course learning plan.
Try this activity
In this module, you have a choice. You can take some time to analyze your course outline for the types of assessment and rubrics used or you can look at the LDS team website for some assessment ideas. The Classroom Assessment Technique (CAT) cards, on the website, will provide you with a list of formative assessment ideas that you can try in your class this semester. Think about the pros and cons of using this formative assessment and its possible applications in your context. If you try a new CAT please let us know how it goes.
LDSTeam@flemingcollege.ca or extension 1216
Resources
- List of CATS on LDS Team website
- 5 Keys to Quality Classroom Assessment
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Rubrics in D2L: Once you’ve designed a solid rubric, you can create it right in D2L! D2L has embedded rubrics that allow faculty members to grade and provide feedback to students online, and have the marks imported into the Grade book.
Wrap Up
Now you know more about how different types of assessments and rubrics can support your work as a professor and how they also support students’ learning. In the next module, you will learn more about how to choose effective course materials.
Module 6 Reflection
Please rate your current confidence level on the following items using the following 5-point scale in which 5 = Very confident and 1 = Not at all confident.
