Assessments and Rubrics

Assessments can be used for three purposes: for learning, as learning, and of learning.

The first, assessment for learning, includes pre-tests where you determine what students already know before beginning to teach. Assessment as learning implies that the assessment activity is used to improve their skill. The assessments are designed in such a way that the feedback can be immediately applied to increase success. Finally, assessment of learning occurs at the end of a task or course and is used to provide a demonstration of whether the outcome has been met. In teaching, you might consider including a variety of each type.

Types of Assessment Rubrics Sample Rubrics

Assessment Alignment

When designing a new assessment or revising an old one, it is important to ask if the assessment aligns with the learning outcomes and activities. When learning activities relate directly to learning outcomes and assessments accurately measure what students are learning, it is easier to reach one’s goal.

At Algonquin College, the course outline lays out the requirements of the basic weighting for various types of assessments. Starting with the course’s Course Learning Requirements (CLRs) and Essential Employability Skills (EESs) can help a developer or instructor to determine the assessments that demonstrate those outcomes.

Here are some questions to consider when creating assessments:

• What are the outcomes that are being assessed?
• What level from Bloom’s taxonomy is being assessed: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and/or evaluation?
• Is the level appropriate given the objectives for the course/unit/lesson?
• Is the assessment at a level appropriate to the level of the course (first year, graduate certificate.)?
• How well does the content of the assessment match the learning outcomes being assessed?
• Is the assessment organized in such a way as to aid clarity and understanding of its requirements?

Excerpted from Evaluating Your Assessment Instruments, http://www.ipfw.edu/celt/insite/teaching_assessment.shtml

Evaluation tools are used to gather information from assessments. Examples include checklists, scales, and rubrics. They are used to document student success in completing the goals of the task or assessment and to communicate it to the students.

Types of Assessment

Formative Assessments

Formative assessment is an important part of teaching and learning. The primary focus of formative assessment is providing feedback throughout the learning process. Formative assessment encompasses a range of formal and informal assessment procedures, where the instructor can modify teaching and learning activities to improve student attainment.

Formative assessment strategies:

• Reflective exercises (Journals)
• Self-assessment
• Peer-assessment
• Questioning
• Quizzes
• Visual Representations

Summative Assessments

The goal of a summative assessment is to measure the level of success in which the student meets the assessment criteria used to measure the intended learning outcomes of a module or unit, and which contributes to the final mark given for the module. Typically, summative assessments are at the end of the unit of teaching.

Summative assessment strategies:

• Examinations
• Papers
• Portfolios
• Projects

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Rubrics

What are Rubrics?

A rubric is a measurement/scoring tool that provides clear and direct expectations for an assignment in a face-to-face, hybrid or online class.

Rubrics provide clear descriptions of the characteristics of the work associated with each element at the levels of mastery. They can be used for a variety of assignments such as online discussion groups, research papers, group projects, oral presentations, case studies, etc.

Why use Rubrics?

For the student:

Monitor progress: Students will have the ability to assess their progress as they complete assignments. Rubrics give students the opportunity to do self-assessment to reflect on the learning process.

Recognizing strengths and weaknesses: Students have an opportunity to review what they need to work on.

Integrating Rubrics into Brightspace Learn

Our Learning Management System (LMS), Brightspace, allows you to create rubrics directly in the system and link them to assignments. Faculty members can pull up the correct rubric and grade the related assignment submissions or attempts directly in the rubric grid. Final grades are inserted in the corresponding item in the Grade Center and the graded rubric can be made available to students so that they can see how their submission was graded.

Watch the following video to create a Holistic Rubric in Brightspace:

Watch the following video to create an Analytic Rubric in Brightspace:

Sample Rubrics

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