<\/p>\n
Assessment is the evidence we need from our students to judge if mastery of learning outcomes has taken place. There are two types of assessments<\/a>:<\/p>\n Formative assessments <\/em><\/strong>evaluate for<\/strong> learning and is used to monitor student learning throughout the learning process. It provides feedback to students about what needs further development while providing us with feedback on our teaching and what needs more focus. Formative assessments are low-stakes assessments.<\/p>\n Summative assessments<\/em><\/strong> evaluate the integration of<\/strong> learning – or how well learning outcomes have been achieved and is usually given at the end of a learning period (e.g. course or unit). Summative assessments are high-stakes assessments.<\/p>\n Both types of assessment are essential to the learning process because they:<\/p>\n Developing learning outcomes is half the battle when designing assessments because they describe: what your students will know, do or value; the context in which the task should be performed; the level of thinking (Bloom’s taxonomy) students should be working at (expressed with an action verb) and the criteria by which performance should be measured.<\/p>\n Well-aligned assessments can be identified by a match between the outcomes and the demonstration of skill or knowledge being assessed. It is recommended to use different ways of assessing students so that they have multiple ways of demonstrating their learning. This table<\/a> (Source: Eberly center, Carnegie Mellon University) presents examples of the kinds of assessment activities that can be used to assess different types of learning outcomes. The table also helps you ensure that you are testing the appropriate levels of thinking (Bloom\u2019s Taxonomy).<\/p>\n\n
Aligning assessments with learning outcomes<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What do well-aligned assessments look like?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n\n\t\t