Defining Assessment 8745

For me there are 3 steps in an ongoing Assessment process.

The first step is a Formative assessment in form of a multiple choice quiz that students can take it online in their home and it simply acts as a motivational tool for study the textbook material or the posted lecture notes. Grading should be very generous for those who just studied the material. I advocate one formative assessment per chapter.

The second part of the Assessment process is a Summative assessment which comes in a form of problem solving technique applications or concept questions. It is a more difficult one and it is given either at the end of the Chapter or at the end of chapters with interconnected concepts. I think about it as a series of "midterms".

The third part of the Assessment is the "Authentic" one where students have to apply the material they learnt in class in everyday situation. In this type of assessment grading is not based on the choice of "right" or "wrong" answer but on how the "connection" between the class concepts was done by the students. This type of assessment comes in a form of mini-project with free response. This type of assessment is given at the end of the class.

Assessment is a way to evaluate not only the student but also to reflect on my teaching practices, learning objectives, and modes of delivery. In my classroom I use two different types of assessments: formative and summative.

Formative assessments are my everyday "check-ins". Whether it be and opening activity to see what they remember from the previous lesson, interpersonal questions in the target language, a quick kahoot or even a student survey; these allow me to see where my students stand in the material covered and if I need to modify my future lessons.

The other form of assessment used in my classroom are summative assessments. These are my major assessment. They can be end of unit exams or my favorite way to assess a student when learning a language, project-based assessments. The goal for me with a summative assessment is to see if the student has met the learning objectives of the unit and their personal goals of growths and becoming proficient in the language.

Assessments are an opportunity to do two things in my mind. One, to gauge the level of understanding of your students. Two, to evaluate how well you have done as an educator in teaching the required material.

By using the different types of assessments, both the student and instructor can accomplish these goals. I use formative assessments as an opportunity for students to make mistakes and then ask questions to clarify any misunderstandings. This provides the student a chance to take ownership of their learning. I use them them to see if I did a poor job instructing on any one topic. Summative are for students to see what they learned and hopefully improved on from the formative. I use them to adjust material in the future if there are common mistakes.

Both types also provide opportunities to provide feedback as well.

My definition of an assessment is the act of evaluating the quality of students' work or academic performance to determine the presence of a skill or content knowledge and also giving students an according value in the form of a grade.

I use assessments to see if students have fulfilled the learning objectives and standards of the course.

From an assessment, I hope to see in what areas students did well on the assessment, what instructional strategies I used that helped my students do well, what skill or knowledge deficiencies do I see from the students, determine if I need to tweak or improve my assessment, etc.

Assessment is simply about double-checking.

When I share some thoughts on a plan with say, my distractible sister, I might even ask, "So what time are we meeting exactly?" to double-check.

Assessment is simple double-checking from quick questions at the basic Knowledge Bloom's level all the way up to Application or Synthesis-style questions.

This is best done incrementally with FORMATIVE assessments before the bigger SUMMATIVE assessment so that everyone knows how well students are doing at learning/practicing what they are supposed to as governed by those SLOs.

Assessment is any method I use to determine what a student understands about a concept that is being taught. I will assess background knowledge prior to the concept’s introduction, knowledge gained during the active learning process and knowledge retained after active learning for the concept is done.

Assessment methodology is largely dependent on the ability, skill, functional and maturity level of the students I am teaching.

Assessment that occurs before active learning of a concept is done to determine what information or skills the students need to make concept acquisition more efficient and easier. Assessment during the active learning process is done to highlight learning gaps and to show where reinforcement and reteaching of the concept (or components of the concept) are needed. Assessment that occurs after the active learning process is done to show those students who have mastered the concept and are ready to progress to the next concept and those who may need more time working with the concept.

I think classroom assessments are to monitor students’ learning process, provide ongoing constructive feedback, and help them achieve the learning outcomes of the course.

I use the backward design to design my course, and the most important criteria to choose appropriate assessments are to check if the assessments can help students achieve the learning outcomes of the lesson/course and provide opportunities to get feedback from the instructor and/or peers. Moreover, I think implementing metacognitive strategies in assessments helps develop learner autonomy. Assessments should provide students opportunities to reflect on their own learning process to identify what their strengths and weaknesses are. Lastly, providing authentic assessments that are related to students’ real life is one of the important criteria. Students’ learning will improve if the assessments are connected to their lives.

I hope to get some feedback from students after assessments so that I can reflect on my own teaching and find ways to improve my teaching as well as the assessments. I would like to include students’ voice in my teaching.

Hannah Miller

Assessments are an opportunity to conduct a knowledge check with our students to determine what aspects of the material are being grasped and what parts require more reinforcement. Each student possesses their own level of understanding of the material, they absorb and process information differently. Formative assessments allow us as instructors to tweak and adjust our lesson plans to maximize overall understanding in the class and address learning gaps. Students then rely on their individual learning styles to test what they've learned through the summative and performance based assessments developed by the instructor.

My working definition of assessment is the process of utilizing tools to evaluate how well students are comprehending the content and information presented.

The most important criterion is to determine how students are progressing in their understanding/mastery of the course (or workshop) objectives. With formative assessments, I want to identify gaps in knowledge that still exist so that I can address those before I have a summative assessment.

My definition of assessment is the use of different methods of evaluation to get an understanding of how well the students are grasping the material.

I decide to use assessment to when I need to ensure that the students are meeting the course objectives. I like to use a variety of different methods such as quizzes, homework, discussion posts, as well as traditional chapter tests. By using a variety of methods this will help me ensure that my students have a true understanding of the material and not just memorizing facts. If they are able to effectively explain the material, then I know that they truly understand and can apply what they've learn. This is also helpful in making sure my teaching techniques are effective.

Nateshia Williams

Hello,

to assess is to tap into a students current understanding of content and information provided. The instructor should always align assessments with the programs goals (objectives) and daily targets (experiential based tasks). It is essential to build assessments with the end in mind. In other words, begin with the end after you have taken into account the course goals, targets, and standards. Assessments are also a great way to measure a teachers effectiveness as well.

Juan Alamo

Hello, my working definition of assessments are tools that help me gauge student understanding and the effectiveness of my teaching practices as well as tools to measure student growth.

If I am understanding correctly, only having finished my masters 3 years ago, I try not to use assessments like those that bored me to tears in my school years. I am currently learning more about summative and formative assessments and working to incorporate more “gamified” assessments in my courses. I am also about to begin allowing students to choose their own assessment style (whether it be a paper written in class, a traditional exam, or potentially a presentation).

I hope that in assessing my students, they will learn and understand course objectives, grow as writers, become better consumers of research, and they will be able to detect their own growth and progress from the beginning to the end of the semester.

What a delightful tool Lino is. I look forward to using it in my classes. Thank you for sharing it with us, Katie. An assessment is a way of following our learners progression in the course. The summative assessments that I use in my classes is a Humanities Digital Venue Research Paper and a formative is 3 exams (not cumulative). The most important criteria I use is following the data to ensure that the students are understanding the material and the learning objectives are being met.

Assessment is the process of gathering information and evaluating the performance of learners to determine their level of understanding. It is a critical component of education as it helps educators and learners to identify strengths and weaknesses and make necessary adjustments to improve learning outcomes.

The most important criterion for using assessment is that it should be aligned with the learning objectives and goals of the course. Assessment should not only measure what learners know but also how well they can apply their knowledge and skills to real-world situations.

In using assessment, I hope to get a comprehensive understanding of learners' knowledge, skills, and abilities. Through assessment, I can determine whether learners have met the learning objectives, identify areas where learners need additional support, and provide constructive feedback to help learners improve. Assessment also helps me to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching methods and make necessary adjustments to improve the learning experience for their students.

My working definition of assessment would be: evaluating to determine if the student is picking up the material I am teaching them in the way I want them to.

I decide to use assessment when teaching a new technique in lab or watching a comp demonstration on a patient. I hope to see things through their eyes using assessment to gauge where they are in the learning process.

Assessment is a process of gathering and evaluating information about a student's knowledge, skills, abilities, and or attitudes. It can involve using various methods and or tools to understand the extent that students have achieved the desired learning outcomes. Thus, the most important criterion for deciding to use assessment is alignment with the learning outcomes. Through "free-writes" and Kahoot quizzes as formative assessments, I'm able to gather student's knowledge and or attitudes about a given subject. Regarding summative assessments, I believe the rubric is an additional important criteria to establish guidelines for students to measure their work against.

My hope regarding assessment is that it will foster continuous improvement in student learning. By collecting information about what students have learned, I can provide individualized feedback to students. This feedback also guides instructional decision-making as I can adapt my teaching strategies to better support student learning.

Working Definition of Assessment Activity

There are multiple forms and official definitions of the word assessment, We can break them down in terms of formative (ongoing), summative (final), and performance based - but what is most important is to gain a sense of the role of assessment in your teaching and courses.

For this space, please explain your own working definition of assessment, explain what the most important criteria is for when you decide to use assessment and what you hope to get from your students from using assessment?Just click on the post-it notes at the top right to create a post. Be sure to include your name in the tag field so we know whose excellent thoughts we are reading.