Assessment

What is an assessment?

An assessment refers to the wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, skill asquisition or educational needs of students.

Student assessment provides useful feedback to both instructors and students about the extent to which students are successfully meeting course learning objectives. Think of it as a way to document and validate the meaningful learning that has occured in the classroom.

Student Assessment in Teaching and Learning by Michael R. Fisher, Jr.

Forms of Student Assessment

There are generally two forms of student assessment: summative and formative. Summative assessment is assessment that is implemented at the end of the course of study. It is comprehensive in nature and is fundamentally concerned with learning outcomes. This method shows a pattern of student achievement, but it does not provide the opportunity for students to reflect on and demonstrate growth or an avenue for instructors to modify teaching strategy during the teaching and learning process. Examples of summative assessment include comprehensive final exams or papers.

Formative assessment involves the evaluation of student learning over the course of time. Its fundamental purpose is to estimate students' level of achievement in order to enhance student learning during the learning process. By interpreting students' performance through formative assessment and sharing the result with them, instructors help students to understand their strengths and weaknesses and to reflect on how they need to improve over the course of the remaining studies. Examples of formative assessment includes course work - where students receive feedback that identifies strengths, weaknesses, and other things to keep in mind for future assignments - discussions between instructors and students, and end-of-unit examinations that provide an opportunity for students to identify important areas for necessary growth and development for themselves.

It is important to point out that both summative and formative assessment indicate the purpose of assessment, not the method. Different methods of assessment can either be summative or formative; depending on how the instructor implements them.