Toolkit: The Course Assessment Cycle

Overview - This page provides a framework for establishing assessment in your courses. Use the menu bar above or the navigation buttons at the top of the page to link to information and worksheets for each phase of assessment.

Assessment Cycle: Incorporating assessment into courses
The Assessment Cycle is iterative, as faculty
  1. set goals and objectives for programs and courses;
  2. determine how to assess what, how much, and how well students learn;
  3. implement the assessment plan;
  4. review the data to make changes during the semester or to determine what, how much, or how well students are learning. The data informs a review of goals and objectives, and the cycle begins again.

Course assessment plans for learning translate institutional educational goals into practical, measurable objectives. Course goals and objectives may be useful in guiding a department's allocation of resources, strategic planning, or in providing individual faculty ideas for modifying course content to maximize student engagement and learning.

In the University's Strategic Plan for Academic Excellence (2003), among its goals for undergraduate education is to:

move solidly into the ranks of the first-tier educational institutions through quality undergraduate education by enhancing the challenge, discovery, and quality in undergraduate education. That experience will

  • enable GW graduates to communicate clearly and persuasively;
  • enable GW graduates to reason quantitatively, to solve complex problems, to think globally, to work independently and in teams;
  • familiarize GW graduates with state-of-the-art technologies;
  • assist GW graduates to develop critical thinking and lifelong learning skills;
  • provide experiences through which GW graduates may appreciate diversity.

Source: George Washington University Strategic Plan for Academic Excellence (emphasis added)


Setting Goals and Objectives
Learning Goals
Learning Objectives

Learning Goals include:

  • Discipline-specific knowledge
  • Higher-order thinking (see Bloom's Taxonomy)
  • Liberal learning/academic values
  • Basic academic skills
  • Work/career preparation
  • Personal development

To describe learning goals for your course, consider the following:

What do you want students to learn?
What do you intend students to be able to do at the end of the program or this course?
What is the purpose of this course?

Objectives are statements of specific learning behaviors, skills, attitudes, or abilities connected to the learning goals. They describe the type of evidence you look for to determine that students have achieved the learning goals.

Examples: at the end of the course, students will be able to--

  • identify, name, select, classify (evincing knowledge of facts/concepts)
  • show, demonstrate, compute (evincing acquisition of procedural skills)
  • distinguish, analyze, criticize, synthesize (evincing thinking, understanding, and application of core concepts)
  • create, construct, compose (evincing production of an academic product appropriate to the discipline and the student's progression of study in discipline)

Developing Strategies for Course Assessment
Formative Assessment
Summative Assessment
Formative assessment is a method of direct assessment that occurs throughout the semester and is used to "inform" teaching with a goal to improve student learning.
Examples:
  • Non-graded quizzes, one-minute written summaries, or short free-writes
  • Learning logs
  • Concept maps
Summative assessments are forms of direct assessment used to assign grades and to meet accountability demands (such as demonstration of sufficient knowledge in your field to permit progression to the next course in the curriculum).

Examples:
  • Paper and pencil test
  • Performance assessment of products and process
  • Oral exam
  • Portfolios

Implementing Your Course Assessment Plan
Formative Assessment
Summative Assessment
For formative assessment (to improve learning):1
  • Plan ahead. Focus on a course with which you are very familiar and that you are confident is going well. Identify the class session you will assess and reserve time for the assessment.
  • Let students know what you are going to do, whether at the beginning of the class or at a prior class meeting. Explain why you are asking for the information and make sure they understand the procedures. Assure them that you are assess their learning in order to help them improve.
  • Let students know what you learned from the assessment exercise and what adjustments or changes you will make in your teaching and the adjustments they can make in their behavior to help with their learning.
For summative assessment (to assign grades):2
  • Begin by considering what you want students to learn.
  • Select tests and assignments that both teach and test the learning you value most.
  • Construct a course outline that shows the nature and sequence of major tests and assignments.
  • Check that tests and assignments fit your learning goals and are feasible in terms of workload.
  • Collaborate with your students to set and achieve goals.
  • Give students explicit instructions for the assignments.

Using Your Course Assessment Data3
  • What does the evaluation or assessment information tell you about what and how well students are learning?
  • How will you use the information to improve student learning?
  • What additional information is needed?
  • In what areas do students often have difficulty in your course? (Can you address prior knowledge or content differently or develop a different assessment tool?)

Relationship among levels of assessment

Program and course assessment plans for learning translate institutional educational goals into practical, measurable objectives. Program and course goals and objectives may be useful in guiding a department's allocation of resources, strategic planning, or in providing individual faculty ideas for modifying course content to maximize student engagement and learning. GW's objectives, as stated in its Strategic Plan for Academic Excellence (2003), should guide the development of program and course goals and objectives. The following sets forth examples of the crosswalk from institutional goals to program goals and from program goals to course objectives.

Example 1: Relationship among institutional, program, and course goals:

Institutional Goal School Goal Program Goals Course Goals
Students will be able to communicate clearly and persuasively. CCAS Literacy GCR: For the academic world and beyond, students will develop their ability to write effectively and read analytically. University Writing Program:
Promote scholarship and critical thinking.

Produce students who are able to write well in any number of areas and forms.		 University Writing 20 (UW 20):
* Practice the processes and techniques of academic writing
* Frame important questions and construct arguments
* Emphasize the value of revision for clear expression
WID Program:
AH 117W
ANTH 162W
AMST 139W
BISC 137W
ECON 52W
ENG 52W
FREN 30W		 HIST 14OW
HONR 190W
IAFF 190W
MATH 91W
PHIL 51W
PHYS 7W
PSYC 110W		 PSC 190W
SOC 101W
SPAN 54W
SPHR 71W
TRDA 195W
WSTU 120W

* Write for a variety of audiences and communicate through several forms of writing relevant to a particular discipline (e.g., reports, outlines, proposals, research papers, course journals, essays, lab reports, letters, and reviews, among others)
* Use writing as a means for engaging in research and developing analytical skills
* Structure and organize writing, use documentation and styles of argumentation within specific disciplines

Example 2: Relationship between program and course goals and objectives in the University Writing Program:

Program/Departmental Goal Program Objectives Course Goal Course Objectives
Promote scholarship and critical thinking

Produce students who are able to write well in any number of areas and forms		 Students will demonstrate the conventions of writing and thinking in a discipline. HIST 141W: France 1610-1814

Students will think historically, to acquire. . .the ability to transport oneself into the environments and mentalities of a past.		 Students will describe a day of a noblewoman at the court of Versailles in the 1680s.
Students will narrate the denunciation, arrest, incarceration, and execution of a victim of the Revolutionary Terror.
SOC 103W: Classical Sociological Theory

Students will develop the ability to explain theories in everyday language.		 Students will analyze a contemporary song within the context of Marx's theory of alienation.
Students will critique Durkheim's theory of organic solidarity in terms of its relevance to a poem.
BISC 137W: Introduction to Microbiology

Students will demonstrate the rudiments of scientific writing and effectively communicate their scientific investigation.		 Students will produce a review article on a selected topic of contemporary microbiology.
Students will write a proposal for a projected research project.
Students will write a manuscript on a research project that conforms to the "Instructions for Authors" format for a major research journal.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is assessment?
What does classroom assessment do?
What are some benefits of assessment for faculty?
What are some benefits of assessment for students?
What is assessment?

Assessment is the collection and interpretation of information about what, how much, and how well students are learning. It is part of the instruction model of planning/teaching/assessing and refers to the assignments and tasks that provide information to improve the learning experience of current and future students.

Assessment is not:

  • It is not solely an administrative activity, though University administration may assist you.
  • It is not necessarily testing nor a series of tests, though testing can be a part of assessment.
  • It is not a part of the University's faculty evaluation system.
  • It intrudes neither on the faculty member's classroom nor academic freedom.

(Adapted from Patrick T. Terenzini)

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What does classroom assessment do?

  • Helps faculty obtain feedback on:
    • What students are learning
    • How much students are learning
    • How well students are learning
  • It focuses on improving learning, rather than improving teaching.
  • It helps faculty become better educators.
  • It provides systematic feedback to students about their progress.

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What are some benefits of formative assessment for faculty?

  • Provides for a more learner-centered, student-responsive classroom environment
  • Helps faculty stay abreast of student learning as it is happening
  • Helps faculty adjust their teaching strategies to accommodate gaps in learning that can be tied to instruction
  • Helps faculty identify what to teach, including the sequencing of discipline-specific knowledge and skills.
  • Helps provide for section-to-section consistency
  • Provides structure for co-curricular programs

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What are some benefits of assessment for students?

  • Clarifies faculty's expectations of them
  • Focuses more on learning as students see the connection between learning and course content
  • Helps students become more self-reflective learners
  • Helps students understand their strengths and weaknesses as students
  • Helps opens lines of communication and feedback between you and your students

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Sources: 1Angelo, T.A. and Cross, K.P. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

2Walvoord, B.E. and Anderson, V.J. (1998). Effective Grading. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

3Wergin, Jon F. (2003). Departments that Work. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Co.

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Page Last Updated 2/05