Assessment is vital as it provides valuable insights into student progress, informs instructional decisions, and ensures academic standards are met. In 2022-23, USask adopted an updated set of principles about how we try to assess students based on recommendations from the Teaching and Learning Academic Resources Committee (TLARC), and began the process of reviewing Academic Courses Policy accordingly.
The USask Assessment Principles describe assessment practices that are supportive of students’ learning and likely to generate trustworthy representations of how well students have learned.
Overview
The Assessment Principles
Effective assessment of students: | |
1. Is aligned with learning outcomes and instructional strategies (assessment of learning). | |
2. Is inclusive and transparent, so students have equitable opportunities to demonstrate their learning. | |
3. Gives students multiple opportunities to learn through practice and feedback, so they have sufficient time and support to reflect and improve (assessment for learning). | |
4. Develops student's ability to learn effectively and prepares students to be self-directed, reflective, and engaged learners (assessment as learning). | |
5. Is designed so students apply disciplinary learning under authentic, or as close to authentic as possible, circumstances. | |
6. Is designed and sequenced to optimize students' success. | |
Effective assessment is embedded in departments, colleges/schools, and system-wide when it: | |
7. Provides a valid and trustworthy representation of student achievement that students, educators, disciplines, accrediting bodies, and employers can have confidence in. | |
8. Is manageable and sustainable for educators, and appropriately facilitated by policy and resourcing. | |
9. Provides useful information for ongoing course and program enhancement. | |
10. Forms an integral part of program design, aligning with what programs of study are aiming to achieve within disciplinary communities. |
Using the principles in a course
With TLARC's adoption of the USask Assessment Principles, there are some key changes to pay attention to in each course, as outlined by the Academic Courses Policy.
Educators should:
- Calculate grades so they represent student achievement of course outcomes.
- Explain how the assignments create a course grade by describing either the value or weight of each assignment, or the value or weight of each outcome or competency.
- Provide timely feedback to students early in the course, enabling them to implement it and improve throughout the duration of the course.
- Offer clear information about what each assessment is looking for, not just a description of the required parts or structure.
- Choose the type of final assessment. If there is a final exam, a form is needed to schedule it. See this webpage for more information.
How to implement the principles in your course
- Watch this video what “aligned” means
- Understand the spectrum of grading practices related to outcomes
- Learn the difference between weighting by outcomes and assignments
- Read about problems with assessing based on attendance and participation
- Watch this video on how to make assessment transparent using a rubric
- Read an open educational resource about inclusivity through universal design
- Make your Canvas course and exams more accessible
- Read more about how to design intercultural curricula through internationalization
- Learn how to design inclusive assessments in order to provide multiple opportunities to learn
- Get the basics of using Poll Everywhere for practice and feedback, even in large courses
- Learn about how to give efficient feedback
- Read how to make room in your course for practice
- Explore how to use H5P activities to embed practice within Canvas pages
- Learn about grading reflection
- Consider how offering choice in assessment impacts student ownership of learning
- Understand authentic assessment
- Learn planning process for sequencing learning and assessment on a specific outcomes
- Learn about using scaffolding to design assessments, including sequencing, chunking, and the importance of students receiving feedback along the way.
Get Support
- Attend workshops to learn about a specific assessment principle and how to use it for your course.
- Get a one-to-one consultation to design a full assessment consistent with the assessment principles for your course.
- Departmental support and funding available to support common approaches on assessment. You can have workshops tailored for your department and get funding to work on assessment together through the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning (GMCTL).