What is assessment?

Assessment is the systematic collection and analysis ofinformation to improve student learning.

Why are grades not enough?

Grades focus on a student's performance in a class. Assessmentfocuses on a program's performance.

Grades are often not a reliable measure of learning. Many factors oftencontribute to a student's grade - attendance, class participation, examscores, papers, extra credit, etc. Often grades across sections of acourse are inconsistent as course content and grading standards betweeninstructors vary.

With a disappointing grade, the focus is on improving the student'sperformance. The change that needs to occur to improve a student's grademay vary across students who receive the same grade. For three studentsreceiving a "C" in a course, one may have missed too many classes,another may have performed poorly on the midterm, and another may havestruggled with a research paper. The grade alone is not a good indicatorof what a student learned in the course and what changes might need tobe made to the course to improve student learning. Assessment focuses onidentifying necessary changes to a program to improve student learningfor all students.

Here are some links to additional discussions of this topic:

• On the possibility of using grades as learning outcomes assessment measures
• Why can't course grades be used to indicate student learning? Second FAQ
• Using Course or Test Grades for Program Assessment Page 3
• Can grades, by themselves, serve as direct evidence that students have achieved course, departmental, or program goals? Scroll to end of FAQs

Assessment Strategies

There are a variety of assessment strategies from which tochoose. Keep in mind that each method has advantages and disadvantages.Because no measurement is perfect, we recommend the use of multiplemeasures in assessing any outcome.

Indirect Measures
Indirect measures are typically reports or other non-performance basedindicators of learning. These include student or alumni self-reports oflearning, faculty reports of student learning, and employer reports ofhow graduates of Appalachian perform. Although indirect measures offerimportant information, indirect measures are not looked upon asfavorably as direct measures. Indirect measures are most valuable whenused in conjunction with direct measures.

Examples of indirect measures:

• Surveys of students, alums, or employers
• Focus groups of students, alums, or employers
• Exit interviews
• An external review of the program
• Retention and graduation rates
• Involvement records
• Success of students after graduation (graduate school, job placement, etc.)

Direct Measures
Direct measures require that students demonstrate achievement oflearning outcomes. Direct measures imply that there is a product thatcan be evaluated.

Examples of direct measures:

• Exams/tests
  
  • national standardized tests (MFAT, ACT-CAAP, CLA, etc.)
  • locally developed tests
• Course-embedded assessment - methods of assessment that occur in the context of a course
  • tests
  • reports/essays
  • projects
  • portfolios - collections of students' work over time that provide longitudinal evidence of student achievement
• Overall work product
  
  • career portfolio
  • capstone project - a culminating project that provides evidence of how well a student integrates and applies principles, concepts, and abilities
• Performances (public or taped)
• Presentations (public or taped)
• Exhibitions
• Internship evaluations
• Behavioral observations
• Clinical evaluations

What are the advantages to course-embedded assessment?

The major advantage to course-embedded assessment is studentmotivation. When assessment takes place within the context of a course,students usually perform at a higher level than if they are simply askedto take a test or demonstrate some ability for assessment purposesalone. Course-embedded assessment is often referred to as "authentic"assessment. Other advantages to course-embedded assessment includehigher response rates and the ability to use the same product for both acourse grade and assessment purposes.

What is a rubric?

Rubrics are scoring tools developed to help evaluate qualitativedata by providing a specific set of criteria to be rated and what isneeded to achieve each level of performance for each criterion (usuallyrated 1-4; unacceptable to excellent/undeveloped to exemplary).

Examples of holistic scoring rubrics:
Rubrics: Establishing Criteria for Student Work

Examples of primary trait analysis rubrics:
Assessment Tools for General Education
Speaking Rubric - Eastern Illinois University
Critical Thinking Rubric - California State University
General Education Rubrics - Sinclair Community College

How to create a rubric from scratch
Rubistar

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's classification system identifies six levels ofintellectual behavior. When writing learning outcomes, you may find thefollowing resources helpful in identifiying the appropriate verb foryour learning outcome:

Bloom's Taxonomy - OfficePort
Major Categories in the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Bloom's Taxonomy - University of Victoria

For information on the updated taxonomy, you may try the following sites:

Bloom's Taxonomy - Old Dominion University
Bloom's Taxonomy - The University of Georgia