The 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.
Discussing college, school, and departmental assessment practices and policies
In addition to choices made by educators, assessment practices come from disciplinary traditions and expectations in colleges, schools and departments.
It is important to have conversations about Principles 7-10 to ensure your department or school policies and procedures are consistent with the new principles. Facilitation support and workshops tailored for your department are available through the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning (GMCTL).
How to implement the Principles in your course
- Watch this video on 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 in learning 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.
Resources
- Attend GMCTL 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 principles for your course.
Get Help
The Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning (GMCTL) offers one-to-one consultations, workshops, and a variety of services to enhance teaching and learning at USask. We can support colleges, departments, faculty, sessionals, graduate students, and teaching assistants.
If you are unsure who to connect with for support, email our team.
Assessment articles
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