Overview
Research indicates that one of the barriers to adopting alternative assignments is concerns about how to grade them (Murray et al., 2009). Most faculty implicitly understand what quality looks like in the assignments traditional to their fields, but are unsure about other genres of work. This page provides suggestions and guidelines for how to assess non-traditional assignments.
Start with Clear Outcomes
In order to assess student work, we need to know what students are supposed to be achieving through their work. One of the ways we can do this is by first clearly articulating to ourselves what we want students to be able to demonstrate. We have to know what outcomes we’re trying to achieve. Once we have a clear sense of the desired outcomes, it becomes easier to see if they are present in student work. Most assignments have more than one outcome. Theoretically, these outcomes are related to course-level outcomes and program-level outcomes.
Product vs. Process
Another thing we need to consider is whether we want to evaluate student work as a product or as a process. When I assess for process, I am looking to see if students are attempting to use specific skills. When I assess for product, I am looking at how well students use specific skills. Discipline conventions and individual teaching philosophy play a role in whether faculty assess for product, for process, or both.
Value of Transparency
Research suggests that students are more successful when they understand the purpose of an assignment, have clear instructions, and know how they will be evaluated (Winkelmes et al., 2016). This is one of the reasons it is important for faculty to clearly articulate their assignment-level outcomes and connect them meaningfully with course goals. The “TILT” initiative has details about how to structure assignments to positively impact student learning. The beauty of an assignment that follows their recommended template is that it includes “Criteria for Success:” the assignment outcomes which can be used to assess the assignment.
Assessment Resources
Barkley, E. F., & Major, C. H. (2016). Learning assessment techniques: A handbook for college faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
This book is an excellent resource if you would like to learn more about how to use assessment to improve student learning. They cover the following topics:
- Developing learning goals and learning outcomes
- Determining your reason for assessing (reasons include tracking student learning, helping students further their learning, and figuring out if your teaching methods are working)
- Selecting and implementing assessment techniques
- Sample assessments to assess for:
- foundational knowledge
- application of learning
- integration of learning
- the human dimension of learning
University of Leicester Learning Institute
While there are many websites about assessment, most of them are focused on institutional assessment and using it to improve teaching. This site is focused on using assessment in the classroom to enhance student learning. They have detailed descriptions of each step in the assessment and feedback cycle, including how to develop good learning outcomes, a catalog of different types of assessments (including descriptions of the assessment and the skills they demonstrate).
One key step they include in the assessment loop is requiring both students and faculty to reflect on the feedback that was given as part of the learning process.
The AAC&U has worked with teams of college and university faculty to develop 16 rubrics to assess things like critical thinking, oral communication, quantitative literacy, and foundations and skills for lifelong learning. These are great resources for seeing how other educators are articulating measurable standards and outcomes. The rubrics are free to download and can be used as is or modified and combined to fit your curriculum.
The current home of the “TILT” initiative. Their two goals are to promote transparency in assignments to improve student learning and enable faculty to gather and share data about student learning across disciplines and institutions. Their resources include some short videos, a few research articles, and several short informal publications about transparent assignment design.
Sample Assessments
Feel free to adopt or adapt any of the assignments for your own use.
Primary Source Observations
This is an example of a TILTed assignment that is assessed partially as process and partially as product. Although this assignment was originally created for students to interact with text, I was able to easily adapt it to visual sources. The criteria and instructions are fundamentally the same, but instead of highlighting text, they are pointing at or circling things they see in images.
Final Project (English Composition)
This is an example of an assignment asking students to demonstrate their learning using different modes. They are working from the same data set, but expressing their ideas using formal academic language, using the non-academic genre of their choice, and using multiple modalities. Each version was assessed for process and product, and the same product criteria were used across all versions.
Final Project (History Survey)
This is an example of an assignment that has very specific criteria, but allows students to use the media of their choice to communicate their learning. The specificity of the criteria makes it easy to assess different modalities: either students communicate their understanding of content and skills, or they do not.
This is a really fun assignment to grade, especially when students approach it creatively. My favorite so far is a student who developed a “trivia” game to play with her father. Not only did she hit key themes of the course, she also demonstrated historical thinking in how she phrased the questions.