Glossary – Assessment

Term	Definition
Assessment	“Assessment is an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning. It involves making our expectations explicit and public; setting appropriate criteria and standards for learning quality; systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence to determine how well performance matches those expectations and standards, and using the resulting information to document, explain and improve performance’ (Tom Angelo, 1995)
Assessment Plan	An Assessment Plan is a guiding document that provides a program's guiding principles, outcomes/objectives, assessment methods and processes, assessment cycle, and closing the loop procedures.
Authentic Assessment	Assessment that occurs through the natural progression of a course or activity. Authentic assessment implies that tests are central experiences in the learning process, and that assessment takes place repeatedly
Benchmark	The expected student performance standards; the level(s) of student competence in a content area. Benchmarks can also refer to comparing standardized assessment measures from one institution to another.
Bloom's Taxonomy	Bloom's taxonomy is an educational goal categorization method containing six major categories. As students move from one category to the next, students move from simple to complex, and concrete to abstract in both knowledge and skills.
Calibration/Norming Process	Norming, or calibration, is a process that brings a group of faculty raters together to decide how to assess student work in a consistent way, so that regardless of which rater assesses the work, the rating falls within a close range. The process is generally overseen by a facilitator, either from within the department or from outside, someone familiar with norming processes, using a rubric or similar scoring tool.
Curriculum Mapping	An indexing method where Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) are connected to programmatic course offerings in an effort to identify academic gaps, redundancies, misalignments.
Direct Measures	evidence of student learning which is tangible, visible, self-explanatory; prompt students to represent or demonstrate their learning or produce work so that observers can assess how well students’ texts or responses fit institution- or program-level expectations Example: performances, creations, results of research or exploration, interactions within problem solving, or responses to questions or prompts
Formative Assessment	From the programmatic level, formative assessment refers to assessment of knowledge, skills, or abilities occurring early in the program's curriculum.
Indirect Measures	evidence which provides signs that students are probably learning, but the evidence of exactly what they are learning is less clear and less convincing; capture students’ perceptions of their learning and the educational environment that supports that learning, such as access to and the quality of services, programs, or educational offerings that support their learning Example: student satisfaction, alumni, and employer surveys
Institutional Effectiveness	"The dynamism and fluidity of current trends and those yet unimagined will continue to influence and shape higher education’s future. The degree to which institutions can harness their resources to achieve their objectives will depend upon the clarity of these objectives and the institution’s willingness to set priorities and solve its problems. This requires assessing current status, designing a change process, developing and educating senior leaders, and the obligation and nimbleness to make significant widespread change at all levels." (ACE, 2016)
Mission Statement	A formal statement about the institution, college, department, or program's goal, core values, and belief structure.
Norming Process/Calibration	Norming, or calibration, is a process that brings a group of faculty raters together to decide how to assess student work in a consistent way, so that regardless of which rater assesses the work, the rating falls within a close range. The process is generally overseen by a facilitator, either from within the department or from outside, someone familiar with norming processes, using a rubric or similar scoring tool.
Objectives	At UCA, the term 'objectives' refers to Course Objectives, which support program level Student Learning Outcomes. These are specific actions occurring in a course that demonstrate student proficiency in a course's standards. Be aware that some institutions use Outcomes and Objectives interchangeably.
Outcomes	Outcomes, or Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), are statements that specify a student's knowledge, skills, abilities, or behaviors upon completion of a degree program. At UCA, Outcomes are general statement supported by one or more objectives. Be aware that some institutions use Outcomes and Objectives interchangeably.
Rubric	A scoring rubric is a document that specifies the learning criteria, respective performance indicators, and proficiency measures one must meet when completing an assignment.
Sampling	Sampling is the process through which a subset of total student artifacts are chosen to be evaluated for assessment purposes.
Scoring Guide	Like a rubric, a Scoring Guide provides the learning criteria for a given assignment. However, the performance indicators and proficiency measures are not provided. Typically a Scoring Guide will provide the learning criteria and a rating scale of 1 to 5, allowing the evaluator flexibility in scoring.
Standards	Agreed upon values used to measure the quality of student performance, instructional methods, curriculum, etc. Standards are typically used when discussing accreditation.
Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)	Outcomes, or Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), are statements that specify a student's knowledge, skills, abilities, or behaviors upon completion of a degree program. At UCA, Outcomes are general statement supported by one or more objectives. Be aware that some institutions use Outcomes and Objectives interchangeably.
Summative Assessment	From the programmatic level, summative assessment refers to assessment of knowledge, skills, or abilities occurring near the end of the program's curriculum.