Academic Assessment

To better understand academic assessment, you should be able to identify the terminology of different assessment types.

• Formative assessment occurs while student learning is taking place. The goal is to make immediate modifications/improvements to the teaching and learning experience when warranted. Typically these tasks are not graded or points are granted for participation.
• Summative assessment occurs at the end of a unit, course, or program. The goal is to document student learning and use results for future modifications/improvements for the next cohort of students taking the course.
• Direct assessment methods and techniques (e.g., exams, papers, projects) expect students to demonstrate the knowledge and/or skills they have learned. Direct assessment provides the most clear and visible evidence of student learning.
• Indirect assessment methods and techniques measure student perceptions of their learning and the educational environment. Examples of indirect assessment techniques include surveys, focus groups, and interviews.
• Authentic assessment methods require students to demonstrate their skills through the use of real life tasks.
• Objective assessment refers to methods with a clear right or wrong answer, such as a multiple choice or true/false question. No expertise or judgment is needed to score/assess learning.
• Subjective assessment refers to methods that yield many possible responses (e.g., an essay prompt). Requires judgment and expertise to score and assess learning. Will typically involve the use of rubrics.

What do we really want to know about our students? The questions you ask will vary across courses and programs, whether they deal with students learning specific content, skills, or attitudes, or perhaps issues of student motivation and ability to monitor their own learning. Our assumption is that the key assessment questions are best known by the program faculty themselves, for they are the ones who encounter students on a daily basis, whether in their classes or outside. Finding ways to answer these questions is key to our success.

Academic assessment seeks to answer the broad question, "What and how well do our students learn what we are attempting to teach them?"  As such, it is primarily designed to evaluate courses, majors, or programs, and to determine where they might be strengthened in order to improve student learning. The primary audience for academic assessments is not administrators or accrediting agencies, but the faculty instructing the courses and directing the teaching and learning experience.

An assessment program is essentially a way of making implicit and informal discussions, concerns, and questions that faculty have about their classes and their students explicit in ways that are meaningful to the faculty, programs, and the institution.  

Academic assessments work best when they are designed and carried out by the academic faculty and supported by appropriate support units in the University. Therefore, it is essential that all faculty in our programs ask themselves such key questions as, "What should a graduate of our program know, be able to do, and/or value?" and "How do our courses provide students with opportunities to develop their knowledge, skills, and values?" The answers to such questions provide the basis for the assessment process, and for improving the teaching and learning experience for both faculty and students.

There are many levels at which assessment in higher education can take place. Assessment can have a scope as broad as assessing a group of institutions (such as in a consortium of one's peers), and as narrow as the individual student. The resources on this website are focused on the course/group level. For higher level assessment resources (e.g., department or program level), please visit the Office of Educational Effectiveness (OEE) website.

Grading, assessment, and evaluation, while sometimes used interchangeably, actually differ in their purpose, who is involved, data/results, dissemination, and value. The following list provides a summary.

• Purpose:
  • Grading: To provide summative feedback to your individual students.
  • Assessment: To collect and utilize data to improve the student learning experience.
  • Evaluation: To collect and utilize data to make a decision or a judgment.
• Who is involved:
  • Grading: The course instructor.
  • Assessment: The instructor, course and program administrators, and other stakeholders.
  • Evaluation: Program administrators and stakeholders involved in decision-making.
• Data/Results:
  • Grading: Number or letter grade reflecting individual student performance and/or behavior (e.g., attendance, participation, timeliness).
  • Assessment: Quantitative and qualitative measures used to identify and describe what was learned by students in the class.
  • Evaluation: Measures used to answer questions originated by the evaluators. May or may not focus on student learning.
• Dissemination:
  • Grading: Grade provided to the student.
  • Assessment: Report to be reviewed with stakeholders.
  • Evaluation: Report delivered to administrators and decision-makers.
• Value:
  • Grading: Provides individual students a measure representing their performance in a course.
  • Assessment: Results can be used to improve student learning in a course, activity, or program.
  • Evaluation: Results can be used to evaluate the merit or worth of a course, activity, or program.