Assessing your students is important for both measuring increasing student learning. The following tips can help you develop effective assessments for your course.
Align assessments with your course learning objectives
- Every assessment—formative or summative—should be directly related to one or more learning objectives for your course. If an assessment does not tie into a course objective, consider how you can alter the assessment to better align with your course.
- Communicate to students how the assessment aligns with course objectives. (i.e. “This quiz will test your ability to analyze the strength of the author’s argument and help you practice the critical thinking skills this course seeks to develop.”)
Use authentic assessments
- Try to recreate the environment in which your students will be using this information
- For example, in a language classroom, have students practice giving directions and having authentic conversations in the target language. In a business classroom, have students made models and create product prototypes. Engineering students can practice solving real-world problems.
Lower the stakes on all assessments
- High-stakes assignments and exams can decrease student motivation and shift the focus away from learning. Lower the stakes to encourage learning and discourage cheating.
- Ideally, one assessment should never be worth more than 20% of the final grade. Shorter, more frequent assessments can reduce student stress and help improve retention.
Provide detailed descriptions of your expectations for assessments
- Clearly communicate assessment parameters and requirements. For example, if your students are creating a group podcast, provide a project description with details such as how long the podcast is, how many sources they need, what software requirements you have, etc.
- Provide rubrics ahead of time so students know how they will be graded.
Provide timely and relevant feedback
- Be prompt in returning feedback to your students. Make sure your feedback is detailed enough so that they know how to improve to meet course objectives, but not too extensive to be overwhelming.
0 Comments
Add your comment