Assessing Student Learning Outcomes

So have your students learned?

How will you assess this?

There are two categories of assessment. We often think about summative assessments — those that will provide a score or grade that will be figured into the final record of a student’s achievement. Yet there also are formative assessments. These assessments are used while teaching to foster student engagement and provide feedback to you, such as checking if your teaching is on target or are there any areas about which your students are confused.  Generally, formative assessments are not translated into a grade, although they may comprise a portion of your participation assessment.

In this section, you will find information on both formative and summative assessments. Additionally, many programs use multiple-choice questions and so there is a PowerPoint that has been used in a workshop that reviews tips on how to develop efficacious multiple choice questions. Finally, rubrics have become popular as a way to communicate expectations for an assignment, provide focused feedback on works in progress and grade final products. 

• Assessment— Summative and Formative
  • Developing Multiple Choice Questions
• Developing Rubrics