Effective assessment and quality feedback are cornerstones of impactful teaching in higher education. Thoughtfully designed assessments guide student learning by clarifying expectations, while meaningful feedback fosters growth, deepens understanding, and encourages academic improvement. By aligning assessment methods with course objectives, faculty can not only measure student achievement but also enhance their learning experiences.
Assessment and feedback contribute to:
- Student engagement: Motivating students to actively participate in their learning process.
- Skill development: Cultivating critical thinking, problem-solving, and other core competencies.
- Continuous improvement: Providing data for refining teaching practices and course design.
This page offers insights and practical tools to help faculty design and implement effective assessments and feedback strategies.
Assessment Types
Formative
Designed for learning, formative assessments are low-stakes opportunities for students to gauge their progress. Examples include quizzes, reflections, outlines, or draft submissions. Faculty can use these assessments to provide timely feedback that helps students improve before final evaluations.
Guiding principles for formative assessment: (Expand upon this)
Summative
Designed to evaluate learning, summative assessments are high-stakes measures of students’ mastery at the end of a learning period. Examples include final exams, research papers, presentations, or portfolios. These assessments provide faculty with a comprehensive overview of student performance and contribute significantly to final grades, emphasizing the culmination of learning objectives.
Guiding principles for formative assessment: (Expand upon this)
Authentic
Designed to evaluate real-world application of skills.
Rubric Development
Rubrics streamline grading and provide a framework for constructive feedback. They clarify expectations by breaking down tasks into measurable components, such as content, organization, and presentation, often with performance levels (e.g., excellent, proficient, needs improvement). For students, they serve as guides to understand expectations, focus efforts, and track progress. Effective rubrics promote fairness, enhance communication between students and instructors, and align assessments with learning outcomes, ultimately supporting improved teaching practices and student learning.
Creating Effective Rubrics
Align with course learning objectives
Creating effective rubrics begins with a strategic alignment to course learning objectives, ensuring that the assessment tool directly measures the specific skills and knowledge students are expected to develop. This alignment guarantees that the rubric is not just a grading mechanism, but a meaningful reflection of the course’s educational goals.
Use clear, descriptive language
Clear, descriptive language is crucial in rubric design, as it eliminates ambiguity and provides students with a transparent understanding of performance expectations. By using precise, unambiguous terms, faculty can help students comprehend exactly what quality work looks like and how their performance will be evaluated.
Provide multiple performance levels
Providing multiple performance levels allows for nuanced assessment, moving beyond simple pass/fail evaluations. These levels—such as excellent, proficient, developing, and beginning—enable instructors to capture the complexity of student learning and provide more granular feedback about student progress and areas for improvement.
Include specific, observable criteria
Specific, observable criteria transform abstract concepts into concrete, measurable indicators of performance. Instead of vague statements, effective rubrics include tangible descriptors that can be directly observed and assessed, such as “uses three credible sources” or “demonstrates clear logical progression in argument.”
Rubric examples
VALUE Rubrics: American Association of Colleges and Universities
Creating and Using Rubrics: Carnegie Mellon University
Quality Feedback
Effective feedback enhances teaching practices by being timely, constructive, and actionable. It fosters a reflective teaching process, encourages growth, and directly supports improved student outcomes.
Characteristics
Specific
Feedback such as “Great job!” doesn’t tell the learner what was done right, and likewise, a comment such as “Did not meet the requirements” doesn’t provide any insight into what can be done to improve. Rather, focus on clear, observable behaviors, such as, “Your thesis statement is clear and well-supported by evidence.” This clarity helps learners understand their strengths and areas for improvement.
Concise
Focus feedback on key areas that will have the most significant impact. Avoid overwhelming students by addressing every minor issue; instead, prioritize the main areas where targeted changes can lead to meaningful progress.
Timely
Numerous studies indicate that feedback is most effective when it is given immediately, rather than a few days, weeks, or months down the line. Prompt feedback helps students connect it to their performance while the learning experience is still fresh. Immediate or near-immediate responses ensure that students can reflect and act upon the feedback effectively within the context of their ongoing work.
Actionable
Offer suggestions for revision with clear, practical steps such as, “Clarify your argument by adding examples to support this point.” This empowers students to make concrete revisions and encourages engagement by inviting them to discuss the feedback further.
Claude, A. (2024). Assessment and Feedback for Higher Education. Anthropic.