Welcome to the iWay pages dedicated to assessment! These pages will guide you to the resources and information you need to conduct academic assessment. Please use the menu on the left to access instructions, templates, and presentations for assessing the new Core Curriculum and academic programs. If you have questions or suggestions for improving this site, please contact Prof. Adam Lusk.
What is Assessment?
Academic Assessment is a systematic way of making sure students are learning what we want them to learn. For Suskie (2018), there are three primary components to effective academic assessment:
- We have evidence of how well our students are achieving our key learning goals;
- The quality of this evidence is good enough to inform important decisions, especially about helping students learn;
- We use this evidence to not only evaluate the achievement of the students but also reflect on what we are doing and, if necessary, change what we are doing.
How is Assessment related to Teaching and Learning?
Four-Step Teaching-Learning-Assessment Process Cycle (Suskie 2018)
- Establish clear, observable student learning goals
- Provide learning opportunities to achieve those goals
- Assess student learning – systemically gather, analyze, and interpret evidence of how well student learning meets the goals
- Use the results to understand and improve student learning (closing the loop)