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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

External Assessment Resources