Toolbox Assessment


Introduction - The assessment cycle and quality criteria

Students can escape bad teaching; they can't avoid bad assessment

Boud, 1994

Designing an assessment of good quality related to your teaching activities and learning objectives (constructive alignment) is a challenging but very important job, as the statement of Boud indicates. The asessment steers the learning process but also has substantial consequences in the end. Thats why we want to make sure our assessments is of good quality; that it will be valid, reliable and transparent. Beside these criteria, efficiency and practicability, may also be an important factors to consider. 

Designing, administering, assessing, grading and evaluating assessments, can be seen as a proces or cycle with several steps along the way. In our toolbox we give you information on each of the steps of this assessment cycle. The steps to some extent are different for assessing with written tests or with assignments. We therefore address them separately.  

For more details and further information, you can enroll yourself to the Assessment Know How Canvas site: Assessment know-how source - 2021 (utwente.nl); URL: https://canvas.utwente.nl/enroll/4C68YP

Steps for Written tests 

Design (learning objectives, method choice, assessment scheme,
   specification table) 

> Construct questions

> Assemble test

> Organize test taking / fraud issues

> Grading (from score to grade)

> Analyze test results

> Assign grades, archive

> Evaluate and improve

Steps for assignments 
 

> Design (learning objectives, method choice, assessment scheme,
   specification table) 

> Construct criteria/rubric

> Formulate assignment 

> Organize process, intermediate feedback

> Grading, fraud issues 

> Analyze results

> Assign grades, archive

> Evaluate and improve