Assessment: Assessment Design (ECP 3.5-3.7)
Frequent, varied, active learning focused assessment
3.5 Formative and summative assessments occur regularly throughout the course to gauge student success and inform learner progress toward course objectives
5 points (Compulsory)
Formative assessments happen as students learn and are generally low- or no-stakes opportunities to gauge their learning. Summative assessments check mastery at then end of them learning content or skills. Good courses have a blend of both!
This standard is meant to steer instructors away from building courses that have the majority, or all, of their course points consisting of a midterm and final exam, but it could relate to any course that relies heavily on large assignments.
To avoid this, your course should have multiple opportunities for low- or no-stakes practice, with varying levels of difficulty that lead up to large assignments/assessments.
This is meant to provide multiple opportunities for a student to know if they are veering off track before they get to summative, higher-difficulty, high point/percentage value assessments. It also provides you the opportunity to positively impact their development through feedback, support, and guidance.
Steps to take
Provide formative assessment opportunities, such as practice assignments, self-tests, quizzes, informal discussions so students can demonstrate their skills in a low-stakes manner.
Build in opportunities for students to revise and resubmit their work. This creates feedback loops that have a powerful effect on not only the quality of their work, but also their overall mastery.
Ensure your course has multiple opportunities to practice skills and for students to experience knowledge checks before they are evaluated in higher-difficulty assessments.
A good practice is to try to have assessments occurring in each module/week that build skills and knowledge in stages (also called scaffolding learning).
Consider ways you can make formative assessments provide automated feedback, or use peer grading, in order to make your grading load more manageable so you have more time to dedicate to providing individual feedback for targeted assessments and activities.
3.6 Multiple types of assessments are used
(e.g., research project, objective test, discussions)
5 points (Compulsory)
This standard is all about variety to go along with frequency of occurrence from standard 3.5.
A good practice is to not just have a range of assessment types, but to also ensure that some of them involve low- or no-stakes practice.
One way to do this is through backwards design. For instance, you could start with a research project and design backwards from there, such as with drafts, proposals, annotated bibliographies, etc. In other words, you build in the assessments that allow students to start building the pieces of larger assignments or build the knowledge base they need to pass exams, but in small chunks. This will have the happy side effect of also building student confidence, which lowers anxiety.
Steps to take
Ensure you have a wide variety of assessment types throughout your course.
Use low- and no-stakes assessments to build student mastery in stages.
Consider providing students a range of choices to assess their mastery of the same learning objective.
When possible, include authentic assessments, such as case studies, simulations, service learning, etc.
3.7 Assessments are designed to mimic authentic environments to facilitate knowledge transfer
(e.g., role-playing, scenario-based questions, clinical experience, practicum)
4 points
This centers around providing opportunities for students to either directly apply what they are learning to a real-life environment, or role-play that they are doing so.
This will involve active application or imagining how something could be applied. You can do this by placing learning within the type of context that benefits from the knowledge and skills taught in the course, which can be through role-play or simulations if direct practice isn’t feasible.
Steps to take
Look for opportunities and topics in your course that lend themselves to application, then prompt students to either directly apply learning in that context or imagine how they would.
There are a lot of excellent resources online and you should consider searching a combination of the assignment topic with search terms like “problem-based learning,” “scenario-based learning,” or “simulation.”
Click here to continue on to Assessment: Learner Self-Assessment (ECP 3.8-3.9).