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 Learning targets guide teachers on what they are to teach and students on what they are to learn. Most important, teachers use learning targets to determine what behavior they should be looking for as students demonstrate their level of knowledge and skill. Therefore, teachers need to write learning targets in clear and measurable ways. We find using the verbs of taxonomies of learning helpful to teachers. The verb indicates the skill level of the performance the student will demonstrate and describes the skill that will be directly observed. Sometimes the capability verbs ‘know, learn, and understand’ look similar. Conversely, when a student ‘states, identifies, and sorts’ things, we clearly appreciate how this looks in action. The verb helps us visually see the type of performance we are looking for so it is important to select the verb that aligns to the expected skill. Asti Kelley, TeacherReady® Excerpt from: Who’s Engaged? | Feature image: Noodle Recent Posts Why Do I Need to Build Alignment between Assessment and Learning Outcomes?Understanding PurposeTo students, assessment is the main component of a course because it sends a message about what is important and where their time should be focused. Clearly defining your assessment and its relationship to your student learning outcomes is therefore very helpful in ensuring students understand not just how the assessment fits into their learning but how all the practices and content you engage with assists them in achieving success in the course. Building clear alignment between your outcomes, assessment, and practice (as well as clearly communicating this alignment to students) can build mutual clarity on the learning journey and lessen students’ anxiety and questions. The role of assessment is to measure student attainment of the necessary skills and learning, so being able to demonstrate this connection in class and through the syllabus is very helpful in situating why you have made the assessment choices you have. Understanding Student Learning ProgressionBuilding alignment between assessment and learning outcomes also allows you to develop and communicate the pathway for students’ learning progression. It enables you to explain what knowledge and skills were expected on entry to the course and the knowledge and skills that will be developed throughout the course. As students move through a program, the sophistication and difficulty of the assessment choices you make should be increased as you deepen your expectation of student learning and engagement with the material. Beginning your outcome planning at the program level when considering assessment is helpful in making this progression clearer and more seamless as students progress through the program. Courses do not exist in isolation and considering your course’s outcomes and assessment from a programmatic perspective is very beneficial in ensuring that students progress appropriately through the program and achieve the skills and knowledge that are necessary in the appropriate sequence. Being Able to Validate AttainmentBuilding alignment between assessment and outcomes is driven by strategically connecting the two components of course design and allows you to communicate and validate your assessment and its role in student learning attainment. Having this clarity of what you are trying to achieve with your students, and connecting this clearly with your mechanisms for measurement through assessment, allows you to be definitive in what constitutes attainment and how it is displayed and measured through assessment. Having this clarity allows you to be able to communicate this to your students and demonstrate to them what level of performance or knowledge acquisition is essential to be successful in the course and program. Building Effective Assessment of Learning ProcessesLessons, course activities, assessment, and instruction should be planned in a way that allows students to successfully complete assessments and to make connections, gather, organize, interact with, and practice learning outcomes. In your course development process, take each of your assessments one at a time and consider the content knowledge as well as the skill development that each would require for successful completion. For example, if you want students to analyze a case study, you will need to prepare them to successfully complete this assessment. Here’s what your aligned instructional strategies and content may look like: Learning Outcome: Analyze organizational decision making. Assessment: Case Study Analysis. Instructional Strategies:
Back to Top How Do I Build Alignment between Assessment and Learning Outcomes?Considering Stage of LearningAs has been suggested earlier, the first thing that needs to be considered is where students are in their learning stage in the program and the context of the course.
This will enable you to start with a sense of where you can work in relation to your outcomes and the aligned assessment you choose. Outline Your GoalsWhat are the goals that you have for your students and their learning? As when considering developing outcomes, this is your starting place. How do students need to progress in this course to meet course level skill and knowledge acquisition and continue on in the program? Determine How Attainment can be DemonstratedOnce you have determined how students need to develop, you can begin considering what they need to do to demonstrate this development, which is where we should consider our assessment tools. What do students need to do to show me that they have achieved this outcome? When you are considering this, you should consider it from both formative and summative perspectives. What does attainment of the overall course outcomes look like and how can you develop meaningful formative assessment moments for students to understand their progression? Define What Performance Looks LikeThe next step is to consider what the necessary performance looks like and how to observe and measure it. This is where assessment choice becomes clearer, and you will begin having a sense of the nature of the assessment tools that fit with your outcomes and students’ learning progression. At this stage, you could look at performance through different lenses. What would it look like to exceed expectations? Meet expectations? Or not meet expectations? Defining each of these is helpful to build clarity for your students. The Role of RubricsBuilding rubrics that clearly show what attainment looks like and can be used to grade assignments are useful tools for building clarity and allowing students to measure their own progress. Making these available for students while they are engaging with assessment is important in offering this clarity and allowing students the ability to consider measurement when performing the assessment. Scaffolding Assessments for DepthTo assist with student development through formative feedback, consider scaffolding a large piece of assessment across the course. In breaking a large piece of assessment down into a number of deliverables across the term, students build towards a final project with a clear learning pathway. Scaffolded assessment allows multiple points of connection for students to receive and reflect on feedback throughout their progression and learning in the course as they develop and refine the larger project. Scaffolded assessments have the added benefit of developing students’ time management skills and promote academic integrity through refining and developing a multi-stage project. Back to Top | Next Section Why it is important that learning targets and assessment task are match?Building alignment between assessment and learning outcomes also allows you to develop and communicate the pathway for students' learning progression. It enables you to explain what knowledge and skills were expected on entry to the course and the knowledge and skills that will be developed throughout the course.
Why is it important to provide the learners with varied learning assessments and activities?Assessment should integrate grading, learning, and motivation for your students. Well-designed assessment methods provide valuable information about student learning. They tell us what students learned, how well they learned it, and where they struggled.
What is the importance of aligning our learning outcomes with our assessment task and teaching/learning outcomes?The teaching methods and the assessment are aligned to the learning activities designed to achieve the learning outcomes. Aligning the assessment with the learning outcomes means that students know how their achievements will be measured.
What is the importance of assessment in doing a task?Assessment will highlight an individual's strengths, which can then be incorporated into the activities to be taught. Using an individual's strengths can assist in making tasks more achievable and realistic, which then motivates them to persist with tasks. Assessment often reveals an individual's interests.
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