Aligning Assessment with Outcomes

1. The things we assess

Not all learning is the same. Throughout our lives we learn a lot of things in a lot of different ways: we commit facts to memory, improve physical skills, develop more nuanced understanding of things, grow in wisdom, get more proficient at procedures, and change our attitudes, just to name a few. If we were to assess our growth or performance in these things, we'd need different tools depending on the type of learning. Luckily there are so many tools available and I've included a resource that lists a whole bunch of them: Common Assessment Tools and Instruments

Unfortunately, some things are very hard to measure within the context of a course, and so we often find ourselves measuring the things that easily can - recall of content and procedures, skills that can be isolated, observed and measured, attendance, and assignment completion...etc. If we are honest with ourselves, we also tend to assess skills that already existed before the student enrolled in our courses (e.g. ability to read and write, give presentations, study, and memorize). 

Think about the types of things that might be captured in a set of outcomes that you need to assess:

• Recall of acquired content, under defined conditions (i.e. evaluating the skills of acquisition, retention, and recall)
• Indicators and evidences of understanding.
• Discipline-related products and performances that students have created (writing papers, presentations, projects)
• Psychomotor and technical skills (either the speed, accuracy, consistency, complexity)
• Decision-making and problem solving
• Case study analysis 
• Reflection on experience (synthesis and transformation)
• Relational or "soft" skills, such as teamwork and communication
• Learner behaviour (work completion, attendance, "effort", participation, contribution, professionalism).
• Transformation (growth and improvement)

Not all of these are easy to assess! 

STOP & THINK: Consider a course that you teach. Assessment adds credibility to that course because it guarantees something. It sends a message that says, "Passing this course provides some assurance and evidence that you can..." How would you finish this sentence? What are the 2-3 key things you want your students to walk away with at the end? Use the list above as a guide. Does your assessment provide valid and reliable evidence of those things? 

2. Collecting data

As we've discussed, one of the main goals of assessment and evaluation is to measure learning and/or abilities.

Unfortunately, the actual learning is unseen. That's because it happens in the minds of your students. We can only measure and judge what is observed as a result of the learning. In order to do this, we have to put tasks in front of students so they have a chance to show or prove their learning or ability. Sometimes the task itself closely aligns with the outcome you are trying to measure. For example, if you want to see if students can reposition a patient in bed you can assess their technique while in the lab, or on practicum. If you are teaching business communication and you require your students to edit and format a document for distribution, then you can set this task as an assignment or exam, and easily judge the result. But what if you want your students to better understand something complex, like the impact of the Indian Act on today's governance of unceded territory in BC? How would you assess that? What would be the best tool? A multiple choice quiz? An essay? A presentation? A reflective journal? These would all be imperfect representations of the understanding. In fact, they are just hints of potential understanding.

The problem with much assessment is that you often end up measuring the task itself (e.g. writing an essay, giving an oral presentation), rather than the learning or ability it is supposed to reveal. As shown above, this is okay if the task itself is closely aligned to the outcome, but often it isn't. Some students struggle to write well which might mask their deep and nuanced understanding of a concept. Conversely, some students are super test takers and can score highly on a MC exam without deep understanding, relying instead on their memory, perceptual fluency, and deductive logic. 

Choosing the best way to assess learning is more art than science. 

The instrument or task you choose to assess learning should be:

1. Valid - the degree to which it measures what it is supposed to measure. A well-designed rubric can improve validity of any task. 
2. Reliable - the degree to which the marking criteria elicits consistent results regardless of the assessor or context.
3. Practical - the amount of resources (time, effort, money) to deliver, complete, and evaluate.
4. Fair - the degree to which the students are equipped and enabled to be successful if they choose to be.