LESSON 1: ASSESSMENT

AND EVALUATION
ASSESS 1

 ASSESSMENTis the systematic collection

of data to monitor the success of a
program or course in achieving intended
learning outcomes (ILOs)* for students.
Assessment is used to determine:
What students have learned (outcome)
The way they learned the material (process)
Their approach to learning before, during, or
after the program or course

 You can assess students before instruction to

get a baseline of what students know (for
example, by administering a pretest).
During instruction, assessment can be used
to determine what students are learning so
you can adjust your teaching, if needed.
Quizzes or mud cards, which ask students to
identify the muddiest point that remains
for them after the class, are two methods of
this kind of formative assessment.

 After instruction, you can use

assessment for two purposes: (1) to
determine if there has been a change
in knowledge (final exams can be
used for summative assessment);
and (2) to provide you with
information to revise the class or
program.

 EVALUATIONis a judgment by the

instructor or educational researcher
about whether the program or
instruction has met its Intended
Learning Outcomes (ILO).
*The termintended learning outcomesis
from (Biggs, J and Tang, C. (2011):
Teaching for Quality Learning at
University, (McGraw-Hill and Open
University Press, Maidenhead)

TYPES OF ASSESSMENT AND

EVALUATION
Assessment and evaluation studies
may take place at the subject,
department, or Institutional level,
and range in size and scope from a
pilot study to a complex project that
addresses a number of different
topics, involves hundreds of
students, and includes a variety of
methodologies.

 Typically, assessment efforts are

divided into two types, formative or
summative. Below, each is described
briefly along with a third less
frequently seen type called process
assessment. Included, as well, is a
grid that classifies different
assessment methodologies.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Formative assessment implies that the results will
be used in the formation and revision process of
an educational effort.
Formative assessments are used in the
improvement of educational programs. This type of
assessment is the most common form of
assessment in higher education, and it constitutes
a large proportion of TLLs assessment work.
Since educators are continuously looking for ways
to strengthen their educational efforts, this type of
constructive feedback is valuable.

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Summative assessment is used for the purpose
of documenting outcomes and judging value.It
is used for providing feedback to instructors
about the quality of a subject or program,
reporting to stakeholders and granting
agencies, producing reports for accreditation,
and marketing the attributes of a subject or
program.
Most studies of this type are rarely exclusively
summative in practice, and they usually
contain some aspects of formative assessment.

PROCESS ASSESSMENT
Process assessment begins with the
identification of project milestones to be
reached,activities to be undertaken, products
to be delivered, and/or projected costs likely to
be incurred in the course of attaining a
projects final goals.
The process assessment determines whether
the project has been on schedule, deliverables
produced, and cost estimates met. The degree
of difference from the expected process is
used to evaluate success.

METHODS OF MEASURING
LEARNING OUTCOMES GRID
How colleges and universities can
measure and report on the
knowledge and abilities their
students have acquired during their
college years is an issue of growing
interest.
The Methods of Measuring Learning
Outcomes Grid
provides a way to categorize the
range of methodologies that can be
used to assess the value added by a

Source: http://tll.mit.edu/help/typesassessment-and-evaluation