Assessment Resources
Below, find resources, ideas, and advice for creating and using a variety of assessments to evaluate and develop student learning.
| NCC Consultant: Jon Mueller - Jon is able and willing to consult with you on all topics related to developing or revising outcomes, assessments, or rubrics. |
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INTRODUCTION: "Course-based review and assessment" - This detailed handbook will provide you with a good overview of the purposes and practices of assessment at the course level.
"Top ten tips for assessing student performance" - from The Center for Teaching and Faculty Development at San Francisco State University
Summative assessments: Called assessments OF learning, these are measures of student performance administered or assigned as a summary assessment of whether or not students have met the outcomes for that chapter, or unit, or section of a course. Most of the papers and tests and projects instructors assign are summative assessments, designed to give teachers a good picture of how well students have learned the concepts and skills outlined in the course outcomes.
Types of summative assessments - This page lists a large number of possible types of assessments (with links to examples of each) under the categories of selected response, constructed response, product, and performance assessments.
Examples - From the same site, here are many examples of summative assessments and accompanying rubrics for many topics across the K-16 spectrum.
Authentic versus traditional assessments - This site about authentic assessment describes the differences between authentic assessments, which are designed to capture meaningful application of knowledge and skills, and traditional assessments, particularly objective or forced-choice tests, which are primarily designed to capture students knowledge and comprehension of course material.
Why use authentic assessments? - From the same site, here is a description of the rationale for choosing authentic forms of assessment over traditional assessment for certain purposes.
How do you create authentic assessments? - Again, from the same site, here is a four-step process for creating good authentic assessments.
Capstone assessments - This document describes good capstone assessment used at 12 different colleges/universities
Cooperative quizzes: Learning through group assessment - a good, detailed tutorial - What is cooperative quizzing? "Cooperative or group quizzes are typically the second part of a two-part assessment. The process begins with a traditional multiple-choice quiz taken by every student individually. Students are told in advance that a quiz will happen on a particular class session and know they are responsible for the material that will be covered. They each turn in their own answer sheet after a specified period of time. In the second part of the assessment, students convene in their groups to re-take the quiz. Sometimes only a portion of the exam—the most challenging section—will be repeated. The group is given a single answer sheet and every member of the group will get the same score for this portion of the quiz. The student's final quiz grade can be a combination of their individual score and the group score, each weighted according to the degree of emphasis the instructor wants to place on individual and group knowledge. For instance, the individual score might count for 75% of the grade and the group score might make up the remaining 25%."
Concept Maps
Concept maps as assessment tools - good article
Examples of use of concept mapping for instruction and assessment
Concept Map Assignment 1
Concept Map Assignment 2
Concept Map Assignment 3
Concept Map Assignment 4
Concept Map Assignment 5
Assessing Writing
Developing writing assignments
"Checklist for designing writing assignments"
"Suggestions for designing effective formal writing assignments"
Evaluating writing assignments
Responding to student writing - an English instructor provides ideas and advice
Evaluating clinical performance
Variety of links - many good links to resources on the evaluation of clinical performance in medical, dental, nursing, and other health fields - from the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
Rubrics
INTRODUCTION: Rubrics - An overview of what rubrics typically look like and how they are used
Creating a rubric - Takes you through all the questions to consider when constructing a rubric
Analytic versus holistic rubrics - describes the two types of rubrics and when to use each
EXAMPLES: A large collection of assessments and accompanying rubrics for K-12 and college subjects
EXAMPLES: An even larger collection - Over 15,000 rubrics for undergraduate courses are listed here. The quality is uneven, but you are able to search by subject and type of assessment.
CLICK HERE for many more examples of specific rubrics
Constructing Good Tests
Good advice for creating multiple-choice and essay tests - from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan
Multiple-choice tests/items
Constructing good multiple-choice items/tests
Detailed guide to writing multiple-choice exams
Rules for writing multiple-choice items
Assessing higher order thinking with multiple-choice items
More examples of higher-order items
Compare two forms of a test, one that assesses lower-level thinking and one that assesses higher-level thinking. See how they differ.
Item analysis - from the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Texas-Austin
True/False items
Guidelines - from the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Texas-Austin
Matching items
Guidelines - from the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Texas-Austin
Short answer/completion items
Guidelines - from the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Texas-Austin
Essay tests/items
Guidelines - from the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Texas-Austin
Formative assessments: Called assessments FOR learning, these are checks for understanding that instructors administer during the process of instruction and learning to inform instructors and students how well they are grasping the material as it is being taught. Formative assessments can be as informal as surveying the faces of the students to see if they are confused or not. Additionally, a brief quiz, a few questions for the class to respond to or consider, a one-minute paper (see below), or practice problems completed in pairs are just a few of the many forms of formative assessment. As a result of the information gathered in these checks, instructors can adjust their instruction and students can adjust their learning or studying strategies.
U.S. History formative assessments and rubrics - "Beyond the Bubble unlocks the vast digital archive of the Library of Congress to create a new generation of history assessments. Developed by the Stanford History Education Group (http://sheg.stanford.edu), Beyond the Bubble is the cornerstone of SHEG’s membership in the Library of Congress’s Teaching with Primary Sources Educational Consortium. We 'go beyond the bubble' by offering easy-to-use assessments that capture students’ knowledge in action – rather than their recall of discrete facts."
Focused listing activity - To see if students were able to identify the main ideas from that day's class
Generating student participation - presenter illustrates two specific low-tech, low-risk strategies that encourage student participation while serving as formative assessments of their current understanding
The "muddiest point" technique - Find out what your students are most confused about at the end of a class, and use their responses in a variety of ways
Concept maps as formative assessments - "At the beginning of an Introductory Meteorology unit on Moisture in the Atmosphere the instructor passes out copies of a concept map to her students. The major concepts are identified, but detail is missing. As the unit progresses the instructor asks students to add to the original concept map. For example the students could add:
* the types of reservoirs that occur on land
* different types of precipitation
* additional mechanisms such as transpiration
As the unit progresses the students continue to see the major concepts repeatedly, and the instructor can track student understandings of the relationships of parts to the whole (or misconceptions) as they arise by collecting and reviewing the concept maps."
Student self-assessment for improvement - Students can take the accompanying assessment of their approaches to and attitudes about learning, and then reflect on the results to gain insight into their strengths and weaknesses.
ConcepTests - multiple-choice questions designed to be used as formative assessments in physics to check for student understanding during class and to encourage meaningful learning of concepts
ConcepTest items for chemistry
Student self-assessment for improvement - Students can take the accompanying assessment of their approaches to and attitudes about learning, and then reflect on the results to gain insight into their strengths and weaknesses.
What, why, and how - This page describes the common characteristics and purposes of portfolios and how to create and use them.
Learning portfolios at the college level - more of what, why, and how to use portfolios to capture student learning and to promote meaningful reflection - IDEA Paper 44 - from The IDEA Center
Portfolio assessment - another good overview from the Prince George's County Public Schools
Electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) - a description of how a number of colleges are using e-portfolios to assess student learning
Have a link to good resources on assessment? Please e-mail the Center.