Assess Student Learning
Assessing Student Learning
“Assessment” can seem like a loaded term at times; however, assessing–or measuring–student learning is a natural process, though often an implicit one.
We frequently make ongoing but unsystematic assessments of our own courses, whether we tweak the syllabus when something didn’t seem right or we rethink a question when student responses to an assignment or exam didn’t turn out the way we’d anticipated.
The challenge comes in making what we’re already doing routinely and intuitively more explicit and more systematic. When we take a surface approach to assessment, it can seem like one more task imposed from the outside. When we assess deliberately, based on our own teaching and learning goals; it can prompt deeper questions:
- What do I want my students to learn?
- How do I (and they?) know they are learning it?
- How does the evidence of their learning align with my goals?
- How do we measure the “squishy” side of learning?
- How do we know what specific contributions our teaching has made to their learning and why?
Objective Type |
Examples of Aligned Assessments |
Aligned Assessment Goals |
| Remember Recognize Identify |
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ask students to recall or recognize terms, facts, and concepts |
| Understand Summarize Explain |
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ask students to summarize, compare and contrast, classify or categorize examples, or identify examples that illustrate a concept |
| Apply Execute Implement |
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ask students to use procedures to complete a task, or identify which procedures should be used for that task |
| Analyze Differentiate Organize |
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ask students to select relevant and irrelevant ideas, determine how elements work together, or identify bias, values, or intent in presented material |
| Evaluate Critique Assess |
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ask students to monitor, judge, or critique readings, performances, or products against established criteria |
| Create Plan Design |
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ask students to make, build, design or generate something new |
See Grading and Feedback for other resources on assessing and evaluating student learning, or schedule a consultation to talk about your specific question or courses.