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:

  1. Calculate grades so they represent student achievement of course outcomes.
  2. 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.
  3. Provide timely feedback to students early in the course, enabling them to implement it and improve throughout the duration of the course.
  4. Offer clear information about what each assessment is looking for, not just a description of the required parts or structure.
  5. 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

1. Learn how to implement the principles in your course
Alignment refers to the process of planning your learning outcomes to describe what your students will be able to do, know or value, and then planning how you will assess and teach based on those outcomes. When align to outcomes, you only gather evidence of academic achievement that is critical to those outcomes.
2. Is inclusive and transparent, so students have equitable opportunities to demonstrate their learning. 
When assessment is inclusive and transparent, students understand what they are trying to demonstrate through an assessment and what specific characteristics a good assessment product has. When we make assessments more inclusive, they are designed to work well for a variety of access needs and cultures, often through choice or universal design.
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).
When assessment is designed to improve students learning, students get early, often ungraded, feedback on their practice. They learn how to do well, and then do an assessment designed to demonstrate their completed learning. Timely feedback and reflection are designed into the course.
4. Develops student’s ability to learn effectively and prepares students to be self-directed, reflective, and engaged learners (assessment as learning).
The assessments that make the biggest long-term impact on student learning require them to engage with complex issues and problems, make choices about how to proceed and reflect on how they did. 
5. Is designed so students apply disciplinary learning under authentic, or as close to authentic as possible, circumstances.
Our disciplines play important roles in the fabric of our society. Well-designed assessments help students to think like members of our disciplines and professions and use the types of skills they will use when they graduate.
6. Is designed and sequenced to optimize students' success.
A key goal of the assessment process is to help as many students as possible learn course outcomes. To that end, it is important to only assess skills and content you have spent substantial time teaching, and to assess chunks or steps of hard concepts to help students break hard learning into parts.

Resources

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.

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