Assessments

Assessments inform the students and the instructor about the student progress towards the learning objectives. Assessments may be Formative or Summative

Formative assessments provide ongoing feedback so that students can improve their learning and inform faculty where students “are” in terms of their learning. They are generally low stakes (for only a few points) or may not be graded at all. Formative assessments straddle both assessments and activities in our course design process. Examples of formative assessments could include drafts of a paper or problems to solve in class.

Summative assessments are used for grades, and generally signal the end of learning about a topic. A final exam, presentation or paper are examples of summative assessments.

Some useful resources

• Align assessments with objectives
• Assessment Basics (please follow all of the links from this page)
• Understanding by design (see especially window two)