Assessment in Higher Education: Planning Assessment

Introduction

This fourth installment in our Assessment in Higher Education series focuses on planning assessment strategies, such as grading exams, participation, and papers. Before we begin, let’s review Shulman’s ‘Seven Pillars of Assessment for Accountability’ (Shulman 2007 as quoted in Nuhfer 2007):

1. Become explicit about the story you need to tell and the rationale for choosing it.
2. Locate the instrument in a larger conceptual framework that explicitly stipulates what it does measure and what it does not.
3. Design multiple measures.
4. Work on combining multiple measures.
5. Remember that high stakes corrupt…assessment of course learning gains need not entail an exercise in high-stakes evaluation of individuals.
6. Embed assessment into ongoing instruction.
7. Become an active and collaborative site for research on new forms of assessment.

Early planning is essential when designing assessment strategies. When you create your syllabus, you should ask yourself, “How will I know if they’ve learned the stated learning goals for the course?” The answer to this question is the foundation of assessment! As such, it is critically important to determine grading criteria in a methodical and deliberative fashion. Do you give an exam? If so, is it multiple-choice or essay? Do you assign papers? Weekly reading responses? Lab assignments? Projects? Do you give credit for attendance and/or participation? This article will explore some of the ways to incorporate and combine multiple measures of assessment (pillars 3 and 4) and explicitly tie the assessment to the goals of the class while communicating that connection to students (1, 2, and 6).

Planning Early

Deciding early on what assessment methods you will incorporate into your class is especially important. Many instructors fail to realize that assessment affects more than just the way you assign grades, but also the way you teach. For example, if you teach a class on American history, you will need to decide what kind of history you want them to learn. If dates are important, it may be possible to have a multiple-choice exam. However, if you are trying to get students to critically assess the connection between the Cold War and immigration, an essay exam would probably be in order. What you want to teach them directly connects to how you assess their progress.

Participation

Is participation important to you? If so, what kind of participation? Is simple attendance enough or do students need to do something in order for you to consider it participation?

There are a number of ways you can think about participation. Some instructors actually leave the question up to their students: “Instead of establishing an attendance policy, class participation rules, or penalties for late work, I indicated that all of these would be negotiated by the class.” (Cullen 2007: 5).

There is, however, a limit between letting students be involved in the process of classroom management and allowing students to run the class. One benefit of this process is that it allows students to feel engaged in their own learning. The TA handbook, in the section on ‘Creating the Right Atmosphere,’ reminds us that:

One of the hallmarks of a good teacher is the ability to create a classroom environment where all students feel comfortable, free to respond, to offer opinions, and to ask questions. This atmosphere will probably develop over the course of the semester, as you and the students begin to trust each other. Before this can happen, you, the teacher, must be comfortable. Although as a novice teacher you may be anxious, make an attempt to relax. Do not look upon your students as the enemy, waiting for you to make a mistake so they can jump on you, but consider them partners in learning. Both you and your students have things to teach each other, and both you and your students can make mistakes. (http://taproject.rutgers.edu/publications/TAPhandbook.php3#atmosphere).

Although it is beneficial to have students feel involved, you should limit their choices so that they do not use the classtime unproductively. One way to limit discussion, yet still offer the students a voice is to give them a few options and then allow the students to vote. For example, if you want them to write approximately twenty pages over the course of the semester, you could let them vote on the following options:

Option 1—Four 5-page papers

Option 2—Two 10-page papers

Option 3—One 20 page paper

You can give your students the opportunity to discuss the options, let them know the benefits (from your perspective) of each option, and then let them vote.

This same philosophy can be used in terms of participation (are students required to present one question a class or does each person need to give a longer presentation once or twice a semester), penalties for late work, or any area that you would like students to be actively involved with in your class.

The important point to remember is this: you are the final authority in the class. If you are uncomfortable with giving them so many options, give them only two or give them none, but explain the reasoning behind your choice.

Communicating Assessment

Finally, be mindful that a syllabus can be more than a simple contract between you and your student. It can also become a powerful tool to communicate the importance of certain topics or goals. Roxanne Cullen, of Ferris State University, described the process of changing her approach to the syllabus and assessment thusly:

I added a rationale statement for assignments in the syllabus. I also provided rationales for all policies and procedures so that they would look less like arbitrary laws set down by the teacher and more as though they served enhanced learning. I also incorporated more teamwork and collaborative projects, again, with a rationale tied to learning outcomes.

Whatever assessment strategies you decide to use, always communicate them with your students. This way, they can focus their energy on learning the material, not figuring out how they are being evaluated.

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Bibliography and Additional Resources

Cullen, Roxanne. 2007. "Making a Syllabus More Than a Contract." The Teaching Professor 21(9): 5-6.

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