Evaluating Assessment Alignment

Diagnostic assessment

Assessment that identifies students' knowledge, skills, and misconceptions before instruction begins.

Formative assessment

Assessment conducted during instruction to monitor student learning and provide ongoing feedback.

Summative assessment

Assessment conducted at the end of an instructional period to evaluate student learning and measure overall performance.

Assessment strategies

Types, designs, and approaches used to evaluate student learning.

Competency based strategy

An approach that focuses on students demonstrating mastery of specific skills or knowledge (presentation, lab, or project)

Criterion referenced strategy

An approach used to see if learner met predetermined requirements (rubric based paper, industry certification exam, AP exam)

Ipsative strategy

An approach that measures an individual’s current performance against their own past results (progress report or portfolio review)

Norm referenced strategy

An approach that compares a learner’s work to average work of similar group of learners (curved test or employee training in a workplace evaluation)

Standards based strategy

approach to evaluate whether a learner can meet requirements and master knowledge based on predetermined standard (standardized test, licensing exam, or academic benchmarking tests)

traditional strategy

approach evaluating whether a learner meets requirements based on memorization of data and facts (mc, t/f, fill in the blanks)

authentic strategy

approach evaluating learners’ ability to apply knowledge and skills in a real-world context

assessment methods

determine whether a leaner has met a specific learning objective, and can be used for diagnostic, formative, or summative assessments

examples of assessment methods

direct, indirect, project based, comprehensive type, discussion board, and reflection focused

direct assessment method

evaluate something learner creates

indirect assessment method

rely on feedback from learner or observer—info not gathered from actual work (survey or confidence based assessment)

project based assessment method

concrete way to evaluate understanding through creative and practical tasks

comprehensive type assessment method

offer variety of ways for instructors to monitor progress and achievement (benchmark, diagnostic, formative, or summative)

discussion board method

create posts on topics related to course’s learning objectives

reflection focused method

learners look back and reflect on learning experience to deepen understanding of their progress and areas for improvement

Bloom’s taxonomy

hierarchy classifying learning objectives by complexity and specificity

Bloom’s taxonomy domains

cognitive, affective, and psychomotor

cognitive hierarchy

remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create

cognitive domain

knowledge or thinking

affective domain

growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude or self)

psychomotor domain

manual or physical skills measured in terms of speed, precision, distance, procedures, or technical execution

affective hierarchy

receiving, responding, valuing, organizing, and characterizing

psychomotor hierarchy

perception, set, guided response, mechanism, complex overt response, adaptation, and origination

learning objectives

what you want students to know how to do

assessments

task to reveal whether students have achieved the identified learning objectives

instructional strategies

activities in and out of class to reinforce learning objectives and prepare students for assessments

UbD

Understanding by design/backward design: instructional planning approach that starts with the end in mind ensuring learning objectives, assessments, and activities are aligned