For instructors, assessment is essential to gauging student understanding and mastery of content. It can also be used as a component for us to evaluate our own instructional decision-making, methods, and practices.
Summative Assessment or assessment of learning, evaluates students’ comprehension or mastery of material presented in any unit, activity, or course. Simply put, it “sums up” what a student has learned in a given period on a given topic or series of topics. These are the tests, quizzes, presentations, or performance tasks we tend to think about first when we think of assessments.
Summative assessments are familiar to students and instructors. They provide a standardized way to determine to what extent students are meeting learning outcomes, and where they might need additional support. These assessments also provide important data for instructors, students, departments, and other stakeholders when looking at student success and/or evaluating our instructional effectiveness.
While summative assessment is a valuable tool, relying solely on a few high-stakes tests (e.g., mid-terms and finals) has potential to overshadow the learning process, and provide flawed or limited insights into students’ actual understanding of the content. To make the most of summative assessments in your courses, there are some important strategies to keep in mind.
A brief introduction for faculty curious about moving beyond traditional letter grades Most of us were educated under a familiar system: assignments turned in, points tallied, a letter grade reported. That system has a long history — grade recording at
Programs typically collect both direct and indirect evidence/data of student learning. Using both kinds of assessments can support a more complete picture of what students are learning, how well they are learning, and how students perceive their learning. Direct measures
What is a Rubric? A rubric is a guide that articulates the expectations for an assignment and communicates the level of quality of performance or learning. As an assessment tool, a rubric sets the criteria for evaluating performance or work
Remote, hybrid, and online teaching and learning have prompted most instructors to rethink course instruction and question previously held assumptions about how people learn. How to administer exams can be a particularly thorny issue, especially for courses with large enrollments
Teaching Effectiveness Framework — Summative Assessment (Link directs to TILT Website)
Banta, T. W., & Palomba, C. A. (2015). Assessment essentials: Planning, implementing, and improving assessment in higher education (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
