Assessments

By now you have gained some insight or identified what you expect your students to learn through the development of learning objectives and determined how you will organize those objectives into management units of instruction or modules. The next step in the backward design process is determining what acceptable evidence you can use to ensure that students have achieved these objectives. in other words, how will you know that the learners learned what you wanted them to learn?

Info Types of Assessments

Research identifies three (3) types of assessments: pre-assessments, formative assessments, and summative assessments, each of which serves a different purpose in helping you shape how you assess your students online. Review the different types of assessments below.

1. Pre-Assessments or Diagnostic Assessments

Pre-assessments or diagnostic assessments occur before new instruction is delivered (i.e., before the course) and are designed to inform you about what areas you need to focus on in your lessons. They are typically not graded. Consider integrating diagnostic assessments before key modules to influence future course activities.

  • Examples: Pre-test, Polls, Surveys etc.

2. Formative (Informal) Assessments

Formative assessments occur during instruction (i.e., during a course) and are designed to establish students’ understanding of information prior to a larger assessment and allow the instructor to gauge their students' comprehension of the course material. These assessments are typically most effective and have been shown to improve student learning outcomes when designed as low-stakes (low to no points associated) and accompanied by meaningful feedback (Bjorklund, Parente, & Sathianathan, 2004).  

  • Examples: Observations, Work samples, etc.

3. Summative (Formal) Assessments

Summative assessments occur after instruction (i.e., the end of the course or module) and are used to determine what students have learned over a period of time. Summative assessments are usually high-stakes, graded assessments.

  • Examples: Cumulative final exams, and Large writing assignments

InfoLit Digital Learning Assessments Should...

...support alignment with course objectives. Your learning objectives should guide the choice and design of your assessments. If your assessments are not aligned with the learning objectives, it can undermine both student motivation and learning.  It is recommended that each course objective have at least one assessment.

...prioritize mastery rather than testing. Digital learning courses should aim to focus on true assessment rather than testing. According to Gunder et.al., 2021 Links to an external site., "research shows positive results when students can repeat assessments to achieve optimal results, instead of high-stakes testing. More consistent assessments over short periods of time can help students and faculty see the specific steps at which students may be struggling. "

...promote authentic activities within the discipline. Students should be given the opportunity to apply what they learn to real-world contexts and situations. Doing so allows the learner to apply key critical thinking skills such as synthesis and evaluation that encourage the long-term retention of new material. Examples of authentic assessments include journals, original creative work (e.g., poems, videos, art), experiments, etc.

...be varied and promote a variety of evaluative opportunities. Integrating multiple types of assessments in your course promotes holistic and diverse opportunities to evaluate learning and performance (Gunder et al., 2021) Links to an external site.. "At a minimum, consider ways of assessing students that do not invoke anxiety. In any given semester or term you likely have a few students for whom high-stakes exams invoke anxiety,"  (Adams et al., 2021) Links to an external site. so consider integrating alternative ways to assess your students.

...encourage scaffolding when possible. Scaffolding refers to the separation of complicated concepts (in this case assessments) into smaller, more manageable components that build upon each other. This strategy when implemented effectively helps to encourage student mastery of difficult concepts and also provides an opportunity for instructors to provide intervention as needed along the way.  

...incorporate caring and substantive feedback.  Effective and timely feedback can improve learning outcomes and student satisfaction (Adams et al., 2021) Links to an external site.. When selecting assessments for your course think of how you will provide feedback to your students. Quality feedback should be frequent, immediate, make clear what is considered poor, acceptable, and exceptional work, and be present in an empathetic manner (Fink, 2003) Links to an external site..