The Higher Learning Commission (UW’s accrediting body) defines assessment this way: “Effective assessment is best understood as a strategy for understanding, confirming, and improving student learning.”
The ultimate goal of assessment is to improve the relationship of teaching to learning. Good assessment helps programs and teachers develop better learning activities, assessment activities, and other experiences that can help students progress towards course and program outcomes.
Assessment often focuses on several key components:
Assessment can overlap with course-level grading, especially when student grades provide clear feedback to help instructors understand progress towards course learning outcomes. However, grades are often incomplete and approximate indicators of student progress. More importantly, student course grades are often too broad to be used to indicate progress towards larger, program-level student learning outcomes.
Developing Rubrics, Instruments, and Maps
General Resources
Note: Not everyone accepts performance-based assessment as the best model. See, for example, Asou Inoue’s argument for Labor-Based Assessment.
Want to take your assessment game up a notch? Consider getting involved in ECTL Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Want more help? Reach out to ECTL staff at wyocourses-inst@uwyo.edu