Best Practices for Assessing Student Learning

Varying Assessment Types

Best practices in assessing student learning include using several types of assessment that enable students to show evidence of their learning in various ways as they learn the content and achieve the learning outcomes.

• Effective assessment types include:
• Essay
• Short-answers
• Research paper
• Multiple-choice questions
• Multiple-response questions (more than one correct or partially correct answer)
• True/False questions
• Matching terms and definitions/concepts
• Performance
• Presentation

Short and Frequent Assessments

Assessment of student learning should be frequent throughout the course. These frequent experiences should require students to perform a task, answer questions, or other action that gives evidence of their learning. The most important thing is to give immediate and ongoing feedback so students will know what they are doing well and what improvements they need to make. You should quickly evaluate the assessments so that the students can have immediate feedback that will guide their continued learning. Although some of these assessments will provide data and scores to be included in student grades, it is not necessary to record scores for all assessments.

Culminating Assessments

Culminating assessments are not necessarily comprehensive exams. The BYU policy for final exams includes this statement (see https://policy.byu.edu/view/index.php?p=64):

Final examinations:

• A final examination or comparable culminating evaluation of student learning is expected for every course. Exceptions must be approved by the dean and chair.
• Scheduled final examinations are to be administered in accord with the published Final Examination Schedule as to date, time, and place. They are not to be given or taken early.
• Finals taken in the Testing Center must be completed during the Final Examination Period. Finals should be designed so that they can be completed within a period of time equivalent to a regularly scheduled final.
• Any other culminating evaluation of student learning (e.g., oral examination, take-home examination, portfolio review, juried performance, etc.), must be completed during the Final Examination Period, should not require more time to complete than a regular final examination, and must not conflict with another scheduled final examination.

A culminating assessment occurs at the end of the course and focuses on the student’s achievement of the learning outcomes. The student’s experience with this concluding assessment should be both representative of their learning and inspiring for continued growth. You can provide a culminating assessment in a variety of ways, including presentations, research papers, group/panel discussions, poster presentations, oral exams, traditional final exams, etc.

Using Assessments to Improve Student Learning

By aligning your assessments with the learning outcomes, you can evaluate student performance and organize feedback and plans for your students’ further learning. There are several ways you can analyze and use student-performance data to help improve your students’ learning. Two main ways of doing this are using item-analysis data in Learning Suite Exams (for exams scored online or at the Testing Center), or using scoring rubrics.

Using student-performance data will enable you to generate focused feedback for students to use as they improve their learning and move forward in your class. This data will also help you identify gaps in what you are intending for students to be able to know and do versus their actual achievement of those outcomes. You will then be able to make decisions and identify areas where you can improve your course organization and teaching.