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Assessment Measures & Resources

American Association of Higher Education: Principles 2, 5, & 6

Principle 2: Assessment is most effective when it reflects an understanding of learning as multidimensional, integrated, and revealed in performance over time. Learning is a complex process. It entails not only what students know but what they can do with what they know; it involves not only knowledge and abilities but values, attitudes, and habits of mind that affect both academic success and performance beyond the classroom. Assessment should reflect these understandings by employing a diverse array of methods, including those that call for actual performance, using them over time so as to reveal change, growth, and increasing degrees of integration. Such an approach aims for a more complete and accurate picture of learning, and therefore firmer bases for improving our students’ educational experience.

Principle 5: Assessment works best when it is ongoing not episodic. Assessment is a process whose power is cumulative. Though isolated, “one-shot” assessment can be better than none, improvement is best fostered when assessment entails a linked series of activities undertaken over time. This may mean tracking the process of individual students, or of cohorts of students; it may mean collecting the same examples of student performance or using the same instrument semester after semester. The point is to monitor progress toward intended goals in a spirit of continuous improvement. Along the way, the assessment process itself should be evaluated and refined in light of emerging insights.

Principle 6: Assessment fosters wider improvement when representatives from across the educational community are involved. Student learning is a campus-wide responsibility, and assessment is a way of enacting that responsibility. Thus, while assessment efforts may start small, the aim over time is to involve people from across the educational community. Faculty play an especially important role, but assessment’s questions can’t be fully addressed without participation by student-affairs educators, librarians, administrators, and students. Assessment may also involve individuals from beyond the campus (alumni/ae, trustees, employers) whose experience can enrich the sense of appropriate aims and standards for learning. Thus understood, assessment is not a task for small groups of experts but a collaborative activity; its aim is wider, better-informed attention to student learning by all parties with a stake in its improvement.

Assessment Types

There are two distinct types of assessment measurements: direct and indirect.

  • Direct assessments are what are typically integrated into the classroom to measure students’ direct learning of course content and evidence of student learning. Some examples of direct assessments are quizzes, test, papers, projects, portfolios, and licensure exams.

    Additionally, direct assessments can be broken into two subcategories: formative and summative.
    • Formative assessments are low stakes assessments that can be utilized to track student learning/progress/understanding throughout a lesson or unit and can be contribute crucial information about the effectiveness of current teaching methods. Some examples of formative assessments are quizzes, draft submissions, and discussions.
    • Summative assessments are more high stakes assessments that are utilized to ensure student learning at the end of a unit or course. Some examples of summative assessments include tests, papers, projects, portfolios, and licensure exams.

    While formative assessments focus on smaller portions or segments of student learning throughout a unit or course, summative assessments focus on evaluating if Student Learning Outcomes have been reached.

  • Indirect assessments are those that measure student views, perceptions, and reflections of their learning. Some examples of indirect assessments are self-evaluations, surveys, and post-graduation reports. Indirect assessments can provide vital feedback into student learning processes and reception of teaching practices. When performing program, course, or instructor evaluations, indirect assessments can be a key element in assessing how effective current processes and/or methods truly are.

Institutional Assessment Instruments & Resources

  • Faculty Survey of Student Engagement

    The Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE) is designed to complement NSSE by measuring faculty members’ expectations of student engagement in educational practices that are empirically linked with high levels of learning and development. In addition to measuring faculty members’ expectations of student engagement in educational practices complementary to information gathered by NSSE, FSSE also collects information about how faculty members spend their time on professorial activities, such as teaching and scholarship, and the kinds of learning experiences their institutions emphasize. UAB participates in FSSE concurrently with NSSE on a two-year cycle. More information about FSSE is available at fsse.iub.edu.

    UAB Faculty consistently place great value on learning and high impact practices, especially internships and capstones. Service learning and research with faculty are also highly favored. Two areas where UAB faculty and student responses are in agreement are Higher-Order Learning and Additional Academic Challenge. There are some contrasts in NSSE and FSSE results. For example, students report a lower frequency in student‐faculty interactions than do faculty. The differences in the FSSE and NSSE results indicate that a large amount of high-quality interaction and learning occurs outside of the classroom.

    At 44.6%, the 2020 FSSE response rate was the highest UAB has seen in recent years. The rate of response in 2016 was 40%, 24% in 2018, and 25% in 2022.

  • First Destination Survey

    The UAB First Destination Survey (FDS) is a very brief electronic survey administered each term to graduating students. The results tell us what UAB students are doing or what they plan to do when they graduate. The information collected relates to graduate school, career plans, salary and qualitative information pertaining to preparation for life after graduation.

  • National Survey of Student Engagement

    The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) collects information from first-year and senior students about the nature and quality of their undergraduate experience. It measures the extent to which students engage in effective educational practices that are empirically linked with learning, personal development, and other desired outcomes such as student satisfaction, persistence, and graduation. UAB participates in NSSE every two years. More information about NSSE is available at nsse.iub.edu.

  • Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory

    The Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) provides information for use in improving student learning and life by identifying how satisfied students are as well as what issues are important to them. It covers a wide range of institutional activities and services, from academics to student services to extracurricular activities. The SSI will be administered on a three-year cycle. More information about SSI is available at ruffalonl.com.

  • Student Learning Outcomes

    UAB academic programs measure student learning through expected outcomes both inside and outside of the classroom throughout the academic program. These assessment practices help UAB to focus on the design and improvement of educational experiences to enhance student learning and support appropriate outcomes for each educational program.

  • IDEA Course Evaluations
  • UAB Center for Teaching and Learning

    The UAB Center for Teaching and Learning offers a variety of events, workshops, teaching resources, and classroom technology information for faculty looking to better their teaching and assessment practices.

External Assessment Resources